Underground Planet is an award winning production company based in Austin Texas. From concept to completion we develop, plan, shoot and edit amazing videos for some of the most incredible bands and artist that a company like ours could ever hope to work with.

Endeverafter – Next Best Thing

Artist : Endeverafter
Song : Next Best Thing
Album: Kiss Or Kill
Director: Raymond J. Schlogel
Production Company : Underground Planet

For this one I was invited out to Nevada to direct, shoot, and edit a music video with the guys from Focal Bliss. They’d already done some amazing video work and wanted to see how it is that I do whatever it is that I do when making a music video first hand. A few bands and artist names were bandied about as were several locations. Three days before the shoot I was combing through MySpace and happened to stumble on this incredible band from Vegas called Endeverafter. Phone calls were made and somehow the pieces fell into place.

As it happened the band and their management picked the song “Next Best Thing” which not only was the one that I had hoped for but lent itself perfectly to one of the options we had available as a an option for a location, a little ghost town just outside the city limits.The desert, town and subsequent surroundings (replete with a crashed aeroplane) fit the mood and texture of the song flawlessly.

So basically this whole thing came together in about three days. Jim and Shawn from Focal bliss were great. Jim set the whole thing up and delivered on every level, not to mention doing an incredible job manning the jib, Shawn with the Stedicam and great eye for getting the shot.

As for the band, Michael, Tommi, Kristan, Eric it would be hard to ask for cooler guys to work with, especially considering that they had had no idea that they were even going to be shooting this just days prior. Consummate performers ready to entertain at the drop of a hat … even in the middle of the friggin desert. Definitely had a great time hanging out with em.

Huge thanks to Rob Hitt from Crush Management for miraculously being at the office well after hours when I first called and being willing to get the band on board to do this!

As for the technical this was shot with two Sony EX3’s and my trusty EX1 outfitted with a Letus35 Extreme. We had a jib, a Stedicam, a light truck (though we really only used bounce cards). Edited in Sony Vegas, CC with Magic Bullet.

Bandita Couture – The Video

Direct/Shoot/Edit] Raymond J. Schlogel
Model] Alexis Eden Feldman
Swimsuit Design] Stacy Zeiler Kenyon
Music: Honey by El Presidente
Stylist : Rebecca Powe
Hair & Makeup] Kat Johnson
Production Assistance] Matthew Iha
Production Assistance] Tony Hubbard

Subtract my name from the list above and you have the people who really made this little whole project as bad ass as I personally think it is. This was kind of a unique project for me in that Stacy had contacted me to do a photo shoot for her Bandita Couture bikini line when I don’t by any stretch consider myself a photographer, it was all about the pictures and the video was secondary. I don’t want to repeat myself too much but you can read more about that and see more pics here:

Bandita Couture – The Photos

Bearing that in mind she did want a video but on the day of the shoot that totally took a back seat. At the end of the day I think I had shot maybe ten minutes if I was lucky of vid and was beyond convinced that we didn’t have enough footage to make anything decent. It was pretty obvious that I was going to have to integrate the photography if I was going to make anything even close to substantial. From the start I knew that I wanted all the vid to be slow mo so the video snippets I did get were all shot on the same Canon 7D that I was using for the photography in 720/60p.

First thing was to get the photo’s in order, Stacy and I picked our fav’s and I went about doing the little various Photoshop techniques it took to get the continuity in order and ready for print. That accomplished I started playing with the pics and footage in the edit. Even though I had some good moments it seemed to take forever to wrap my head around making it all come together and feel cohesive to me. I tried a good hundred various stock songs that I have on hand and just couldn’t find my groove so to speak. For whatever reason this great song “Honey” by El Presidente came to mind. It was one that I had heard years ago and had kind of bookmarked in my head that I’d really like to use somewhere down the line. Popped it onto the timeline and literally like magic all the pieces fell in place. The look, feel, mood, texture, pacing just came came together so naturally and organic that I it felt more like I was just coaxing things into place instead of the usual feeling of the edit. As I used this without express permission it’s my sincerest hope that anyone and everyone who watches this vid immediately falls in love with the tune and go buy it! Gotta support these incredible artists. Find out more about them here:

El Presidente

El Presidente if you ever by chance read this know that you provided the inspiration behind every choice of imagery, every nuance, and every single solitary decision that I made while putting this together.

As I said I don’t want to be too redundant from my other posts elsewhere but I simply have to give one more deep and never-ending thanks to Stacy for trusting me to do something I wasn’t sure I was capable of. You perpetually impress me beyond words and I’ve sung so many songs of praise in your name that my throat is delightfully sore. Alexis, you are a golden drop of sunlight and having met you I can tell everyone that in real life you embody everything that I love and find so profoundly bold, elegant and beautiful about this video. Rebecca, you have effortless way of bringing harmony to the chaos and lighting up everyone around you with your presence. Kat your talent cannot be praised enough, you are the unsung hero and saving grace of every project you do. Matt and Tony, I never have to worry if you guys are on set. Your passion and dedication are everything I need and truly you guys deserve more credit than I because I would never be able to even hit record button or snap one frame without you.

Everyone else I truly hope you’ll forgive the brazen and shameless public display of affection, I can’t help but but notice that it seems every project I do I’m surrounded and lifted up by some of the most amazing and talented people in the world.

A few behind the scenes pics taken by Kat Johnson of Alexis, a goofy lookin guy and the most awesomest puppy in the world: