Tracer Astronaut Juggernaut Video Shoot, May ’15

I wonder if anyone knew the video for Astronaut Juggernaut was a concept the band came up with, produced and executed without anyones assistance or input? In addition to that it was done mostly without computers: full, old-school manual mode! So, the “moving” timeline is literally Dre pulling a long ream of paper across Jett’s living room floor with a camera locked off above. We didn’t even have lighting. My camera gear uses strobes not modelling lamps so we couldn’t use those. I think we ended up using a table lamp Jett had spare.

Some of the ideas, such as the bottle of Jack and other various items added to the timeline don’t present as clear as they could, mainly because of the pace of the song! It was difficult to have something appear stationary on the timeline when the physical timeline is being dragged from right to left. Matching the pace of the song and knowing how long to add the item for was hit and miss, trial and error.

Cut & paste most often refers to keyboard shortcuts on a computer to perform a simple task. In this case the cutting was literally Mike cutting out his artwork (such as the astronaut) and pasting them onto the physical timeline! Old school graphics for the win!

I recall Mike having to adapt to writing in one spot. Think about it. Normally when you write anything, you are physically moving your hand from left to right as you print the letters on something that is not moving… with this concept Mike had to keep his hand in the same spot as Dre dragged the paper from right to left while still forming the letters! Very difficult to do. But Mike is a genius and picked it up quickly.

The whole shoot took a couple days from memory. Fun times!!