"Seven Foot Balls" with Towers and Trees

"Seven foot balls." It's a phrase I ONLY know in the context of shooting our music video for Montreal. No, the video doesn't feature any giant, inflatable anatomy, but it did require a great deal of precision.

The gist was pretty simple: let's shoot a video where the band's position in the shot remains constant, while the location in the background changes every second! Sure, you could do that quite easily using a green screen, but wouldn't it be WAY cooler if we actually drove around the city, setting up the same identical shot over and over again using a series of strings, measuring tape and triangulation?? Heck yeah!

It was fairly painstaking; each shot required about 10 minutes of set-up for one second of actual shooting. The final step of every shot was to make sure I (Adrian) was positioned correctly - dead centre and exactly 7 feet back from the camera. Just picture the measuring tape extending from the base of the tripod out towards my... right, well now you know why the name "seven foot balls" stuck.

The value of most experiences in this business can be measured by the people you share them with. Almost everything we do - rehearsals, shooting videos, making records, touring long distances, etc. - is a ton of work. But it's also incredibly rewarding if you're sharing them with other rad people who share your vision, passion and sense of humour.

That's why I recall "Seven Foot Balls" fondly. It reminds me of this crazy experience where for two weeks we worked our ASSES off but shared SO many smiles and laughs. In the end, it payed off. Daniel Pender created a killer video that has gone on to do so much for Towers and Trees. Who knew I'd be so grateful for seven foot balls?