Director recalls shooting Chris Daughtry's "Changes Are Coming" video with a crew including his brother Edgar and cinematographer Kamal Asar. Howard Benson, who produced Daughtry's debut, had also produced the director's first record. Management wanted a muted final cut instead of the director's high-energy original edit.
Oh man, directing Chris Daughtry's "Changes Are Coming" video, that was a super dope experience. So my friend Glenn of Mungo Creative called our team and said that he had the Chris Daughtry video and he wanted me to direct it, and he was going to fly out the team. And I was immediately excited, not because he asked me to direct it, which I thought was incredible, but because back in the day Howard Benson made Chris Daughtry's debut record. Howard Benson also produced my debut record back when I was playing music. That's the story for a different time, but I felt a weird connection there, you know. It's just a simple video they wanted to shoot before the show to get some content out for the new single. No storylines, just kind of raw. So I actually got to pick my best guys and bring my friends out with me, which was actually super dope. My little brother Edgar Troncoso, singer of Prospect Hill. Kamal Asar, I just love this dude. He's done work all across the world. We brought Mike D'Amelio, who is just an animal, also done work with Godsmack and a million other bands touring. And we brought my boy Jarvis, who's done a ton of DPing for me over the years, and he's got a bunch of cred to his own name. The lighting director and the whole lighting package was— it was one of the best I've seen put together for a show, never mind a music video or anything. I mean, it was just absolutely killer. When we got there, we started setting up, you know, we had a meeting with Chris and management, and we, you know, got the vibes they were looking for and everything. And Chris is kind of quiet, super nice guy, just a bit reserved. By the time we got filming, Chris was unreal. Like, this guy was laying it down. The energy coming off the stage was unbelievable. I mean, it was just— it was a lot of fun. They were on a super tight timeline because it was in fact before a show, so we were filming a music video basically during soundcheck. We were doing some from the scissor lifts out there, and a lot of it was filmed on the stage, so we're really feeling the energy of the band. The edit was just an absolutely dope representation of that. The lighting and the cleanness and everything just looks absolutely killer, and presented the edit to management and they weren't feeling it. And I gotta say, I couldn't believe it because I actually thought it looked absolutely killer. But it doesn't matter what I think, if the artist isn't feeling it, you got to do what the artist wants. And I'm cool with that every time. So they went for a more muted vibe, and you know, regardless, it's up to them. But I really love that original edit. But whatever, who cares what I say anyways. Chris Daughtry's Changes Are Coming. Mad respect to Chris and the band. You guys are killer. Let's get some more BTS rolling so you can see how we do it here and make music. Let's go!
