Behind The Scenes: One In The Chamber (Music Video)

dropthemicproductions
Feb 13, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Feb 15, 2024

Behind The Scenes: One In The Chamber (Music Video)

Artist: Saint https://www.saintmusik.co.uk/

Director and editor: Thomas Adcock

Cinematographer: Samuel Oxton https://www.instagram.com/samoxton/

Back in February 2022, the music video for One In The Chamber was shot. This was my first “proper” music video that I produced, directed and edited. I’d done a couple of videos in the past during university but none with the production value and quality of this one. This was also going to be part of a promotional campaign by Mastermind Productions, the company that Saint was working with at the time. Because of this and the eyes that were going to be on the finished product, I knew the level had to be stepped up from my previous work to ensure Saint could submit a video for the campaign he was happy with. For me, this meant being thorough with pre-production and planning to make sure everything went smoothly on the shoot days. That involved a fully fleshed-out script and shot list plus scouting out the right locations. Also working with the cinematographer, Samuel Oxton, to help fully realise Saint’s vision.

The song itself sees Saint reflecting on his past and that’s an element we wanted to display in the music video. We did this with two different scenes. One showed Saint working a job that he was fed up with and another had Saint at a party with people he didn’t particularly like. I wanted the job scene to have a lot of grey tones, a somewhat boring colour that relates to how Saint feels in the moment. We weren’t quite sure on what profession to pick for Saint but ended up having a scene where he picks up litter to have a job that wasn’t the most glamorous. This moment was kind of improvised on the day, as we discovered the location outside of the building where we shot the performance scene. To switch things up, we wanted neon red lighting in the party scene. This was to add a bit of colour to the video to contrast the other scene and show that party vibe. Both of these scenes in the video are meant to present Saint’s unhappiness with how things are going in life and that he needs to take his shot to improve it. This comes back to the gun and taking-your-shot themes of the single and other parts of the video.

In terms of the taking a shot message and Saint actually doing it, it is shown through another two scenes. The first is Saint sitting at a table with a gun to his head, about to shoot, which is him literally taking a shot and also links to the suicide theme of the song. We were inspired by the movie The Deer Hunter and its Russian roulette scene to have Saint sat at a table as if he was playing the game himself and how to frame this moment in the shot. With the other scene I mentioned, we originally wanted a scene that included a rap cypher. This is a bunch of rappers in a circle taking turns to spit bars, reminiscent of bits in 8 Mile. Due to not being able to get enough actors/extras for this scene, we had to improvise a completely new thing on the day again. So instead, Saint came up with the idea to have a scene where we see him trying to write the song but dealing with writer’s block as a replacement scene. To me the music video benefits from this new scene, as it’s a nice linear bit that’s broken up into three parts and sprinkled throughout the video, helping the whole narrative join together. It conveys the message as well, displaying Saint overcoming his struggle and eventually taking his shot to create the song.

The final scene to talk about in the film is the performance one, where Saint is located in an urban location and raps to the camera. We wanted a gritty and rough place as the backdrop to this performance and we found a quarry as an ideal location. This urban space matches Saint and his brand’s aesthetic so the music video really feels like it’s his. To add energy to the piece and match the energy in the song I wanted the camera to be constantly moving along with Saint himself giving it his all when performing. We ran through the song multiple times with each version having a different angle and frame. This added the energy we wanted as this scene constantly cut between the shots of the performance as well as having the footage completely handheld, which also kept the movement going.

After coming to a final cut that I and Saint both liked, the music video was released with the backing of the promotional campaign which was very successful. As of writing this, the film has almost 10,000 views on YouTube and was premiered alongside an interview with Saint on Wonderland Magazine. Again, this being the first “proper” music video I did, there were a few learning curves like figuring out how to do pre-production the right way and learning how to improvise on the days of filming. Overall I’m proud of how the video turned out, especially considering the budget we had and the limited resources at our disposal. Looking back at it now, it’s given me a good foundation of knowledge and understanding that I carried to later projects.

...Tommy (Drop The Mic Productions)