Production Diary - Mother Vulpine

Mother Vulpine - Keep Your Wits
by Matt Maude

Matt Bigland has been my best friend since we were small. Think ten years old small. We're the best friends who share each other's names and have, over time, began to look a little too similar to one another.

If I had another brother, it would be Matt

Back in early 2007 Matt approached me and told me about his idea for the video for his band's first single. At the time, Matt was the leader man of a band called Mother Vulpine, a band who within their short shelf life, prospered to the extent that they played to a sell out shows on the stages of the Astoria, Apollo and others like it on a support tour with the Eagles of Death Metal.

His idea featured a rather large butcher being pursued through an ageless haunted forest by a hungry and heartless angry wolf. The band, wolfish in name and wolfish in nature would be in hot pursuit too, suggesting that the band and the wolf were one at the same.

Suffice to say, the idea itself was ambitious and the budget was ridiculous. With no money and no source of funding from any sort of record label, we sat long and hard looking at our respective bank accounts. Signing a grand out each from our accounts wasn't exactly digestible or advisable, but it got us there with fifty quid to spare. From there, we started planning it out, step by step, shot by shot until finally we were sat on the wooded crop of the Otley Chevin, ready to shoot one very wet and early Saturday morning.

The two day shoot was absolutely manic. From the off we were running behind after a very tricky first shot and looking at the watch, we split the crew into two halves to pick up the pace. On the Saturday we had to shoot all of the wolf sequences, all of the slow motion stuff and all of the quad bike tracking shots as we could afford them all for one day. Suffice to say we wrapped just before darkness fell, and not a moment before.

I won't go into too much detail as it borders on unprofessional but you know the expression: Never work with animals or children.
They mean never work with trainers or parents.

Our 'wolf trainer' / dog handler was an absolute twat.


Back as a whole crew on Sunday we charged over the Chevin shooting all the band sequences, cut aways, and the more complicated verse set ups. At one point, about 3PM Sunday afternoon both Matt and I were falling over through to lack of food. Thankfully a chocolate bar and double decker sandwich appeared from the nowhere (or actually from Louise Pracey Smith's good thinking) and we recovered the feeling in our limbs.


In March 2007, after the two day shoot and a two week edit, the video was finished and ready to shine on MTV's 120 Minutes and the Riot. Stedicam work, a high speed slow motion camera, a quadbike tracking rig set up, a wolf, no lights, a crew of fifteen including two DOP's all culminated into a video we are all truly proud of.



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