The Making Of: "Paranoid" Video
Plus a reddit AMA with us + our bf Jeremy (and Clem) tomorrow (Saturday) @ 2pm ET
First things first, if you don’t know Jeremy it’s time to meet him. Jeremy has made 90% of our videos (full list at the bottom of the post). The first thing he ever directed was also the first music video we ever made, for a song called “Reservoir”, which he co-directed with our friend Chandler. Ever since, he’s been the 5th member of PUP, and I really, truly mean that. So much of this band’s identity is owed to Jeremy, you’d be shocked.
So, if you have questions about any of our videos (or anything else PUP related), please come to this AMA on reddit.com/r/puptheband THIS SATURDAY AT 2pm ET. We’ll be there. Jer will be there. Clem (Jer’s collaborator) will be there. You can ask them about casting Finn Wolfhard in his first real role (as young Stefan in the “Guilt Trip” video) before Stranger Things was a thing, creating the single most underrated music video of all time (“Old Wounds”), or Jer directing “Kids” while barfing and shidding his guts out because of food poisoning.
Jer + Clem’s latest accomplishment was the video for “Paranoid”, which, if you’ve seen it, you know is kinda nuts. A completely practical, extremely chaotic lyric video that we shot at Sneaky Dee’s in Toronto. Here are some photos from the shoot.
CHOREOGRAPHING THIS TRASH
This video was a massive undertaking. Every moment, down to the second, was choreographed ahead of time by Jeremy. The audience movement, the camera movement, everything. To prove how insane he is, here is a little animation he created before the shoot that he and Clem and Nikolay (our friend and insanely sick camera op) memorized. The camera / Nikolay is green, the lyrics you see moving around the screen are all actors wearing those specific pieces of merch. I cut this down to show only the first few seconds. He did this for THE ENTIRE SONG. What a freak.
CREATING THE MERCH
Hello Zack here speaking thriving describing.
Another massive undertaking was designing and physically making 100+ props (including multiple versions of shirts, dumb trinkets, and other assorted paraphernalia) all tailored to specific lyrics throughout the video. Props that were designed to, let's say, ‘effortlessly flow’ into each other visually to form the ‘illusion’ of a well-oiled machine working exactly to plan.
The thing about Jeremy is that his ideas are so good that, however harebrained or insurmountably daunting they are, you can’t help but agree to take part. To that end, I cobbled together 60+ insufferably stupid merch designs in about 5 days (with Jeremy helping some), and then Nestor & I physically pressed (we borrowed Mike from PKEW’s heat press - thanks Mike!), glued and otherwise wrenched together the merch props in Nestor’s kitchen at the end of that week, finishing only A DAY before the actual shoot. Good planning. Well-oiled machine.
As always we’re unbelievably lucky to have talented people around us - like our friends Olivia & Joey (our incredibly talented art / production design team) who are able to skate right past how stupid our ideas are and help us get it done.
Being in a band can’t be a real job. I mean look at this.
This was such a fun video to shoot, and we gotta shout out the 100-ish people who came out to be in it. There was so much kindness and positivity in the room. The freak to norm ratio was high. Lots of people made new friends. It really reinforced this idea that the community around PUP is a special one and we are so lucky to be a part of it. When I’m writing songs, I’m hoping they’re gonna connect with the right type of person, and meeting everyone who was in this vid was one of the more affirming moments of my life. Thank you. Here’s a list of everyone in the video.
AND HERE ARE THE PUP VIDEOS JEREMY HAS DIRECTED AND EDITED
SELF TITLED
Guilt Trip (co-directed w/ Chandler Levack)
Reservoir (co-directed w/ Chandler Levack)
Mabu (edited, not directed)
Dark Days (co-directed w/ Chandler Levack)
Lionheart
THE DREAM IS OVER
If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You
DVP
Sleep in the Heat
Old Wounds
MORBID STUFF
Kids
Free At Last
THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND
Totally Fine
OTHER
Paranoid
“This Stream Sucks Ass” the greatest livestream ever made, I promise.
DON’T FORGET TO JOIN US + JEREMY + CLEM ON REDDIT.COM/R/PUPTHEBAND THIS SATURDAY AT 2PM. COME WITH QUESTIONS.
Yass. Love this. You guys have some of the most innovative and fun videos!!! Big up Jeremy!! <3