The latest collaboration between Framestore and director Kim Gehrig of production house Somesuch is for Brittany Howard’s debut solo music video for “Stay High.”
A tribute to the singer’s late father, the beautifully stylized music video stars actor Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Expendables) as a man finishing a day’s work and returning home to his family.
The aim of “Stay High” is to move away from the glossy music videos that many pop singers create and present a natural and much more emotionally driven story which honored K.J. Howard, the father of Brittany Howard. Shot in her hometown of Nashville, the music video features lots of the singer’s family and friends, and Brittany pops up in several scenes throughout the video as different characters.
The clip features a color grade and subtle VFX by Framestore. “Kim wanted to really highlight the innocence of the video’s story, something I kept in mind while grading the film,’ said Simon Bourne, Framestore’s head of creative color who’s graded several films for the director. “The focus needed to always be on Terry with nothing in his surroundings distracting from that and the grade needed to reflect that idea.”
Ben Cronin, Framestore’s creative director and one of the compositors on the film, alongside Nuke compositor Christian Baker, added, “from a VFX point of view, our job was all about invisible effects that highlighted the beautiful job that Ryley Brown, the film’s DP did and to complement Kim’s unique vision.”
