Love Smells Video – Financial details

So, The Mustache Club just released a music video for “Love Smells”.

It’s a short music video that barely lasts 1 min 13 seconds. Simple concept: Pantaloon Descendo drags a fish around and brings it back to the sea.

The video was shot over the span of two days (March 23-24, 2013) in Trenton, Ontario (2 hours east of Toronto).

We chose this location because it’s an industrial town, which means barren and desolate landscapes would be plenty. That’s exactly what we were going for; we wanted to be able to shoot the video guerrilla-style without having extra people in the background. Set up quickly, shoot, then move on to the next location.

An isolated and desolate industrial city seemed like the perfect setting for this.

We also chose Trenton because if drove south for 1 hour, we’d have access to a remote shore by Lake Ontario, which was needed for some key scenes in the video.

So, how much did it cost?

Well, let’s break it down…

Gas bill – $150
Friday night: Drove from Toronto to Trenton. 200km

Saturday: Drove around Trenton: 50km

Sunday: From Trenton to Point Petre (sea side shots): 75km
From Point Petre to Trenton: 75km
From Trenton to Toronto: 200km

Total: 600km, $150

Food – $130
Ok, that one’s easy: we had to eat over the course of those few days.

Because we were very focused during the shoot, we skipped lunch on Saturday and Sunday. 

So we only ate out four times:

Saturday night and Sunday night: $100
Saturday and Sunday breakfast: $30

Hotel - $200
We slept at the hotel both Friday and Saturday night, which allowed us to get up early Saturday morning and start filming without having to drive from Toronto to Trenton. All in all, $200 wasn’t too bad for two nights, but it’s the one single expense that was the highest.

Props - $65
-Fish – $55 (7x 8$)

The whole concept of the video revolves around a fish, strapped to a chain, being dragged all across town and back to the sea. Choosing which species to go for was based on size and color. I’m no fish expert, but if memory serves me right, it was some sort of bass.

With all the dragging around, I had no idea how the fish would be able to withstand the constant friction and abrasion (turns out I was able to do it using only one fish).

One of the key scenes of the video features Pantaloon Descendo throwing the fish back into the sea. This is probably the expense that annoyed me the most. Only buying 1 fish would’ve been risky: it’s way too easy to miss a throw, and then that would’ve left me empty handed. Once the fish is thrown into the ocean, it’s not coming back. Back to nature!

So, just to make sure we caught enough good throws on camera, I bought 7 fish, at $8 each. Every time I threw a fish in the water I thought “well that’s 8$ I’ll never see again” – not the best feeling.

-Soap, 10 $
For a specific scene, Pantaloon Descendo needed to wash the fish with soap. You’d think 1 bar would’ve been enough, but I had to buy several different soaps just to be able to run camera tests, because soap comes in different colors. Bought some blue, green and white bars. Turns out the green one was the best.

Hardware – 97 $
In order to drag the fish around, I needed to get a suitable chain (12 $). I had to choose between silver and gold colours. In the end, I went for gold because I feared silver would’ve been lost over rocks and asphalt. I could’ve bought both types, but I felt pretty confident gold would be the best. Turns out I was right.

The chain was tightly wrapped around the fish to make sure it wouldn’t slip off (fish tend to do that), but it would’ve become loose quickly from all the walking around. In order to strengthen the chain’s grip around the fish, I also got thin wire (8$) that allowed me to weave it between the links. However, to make sure I’d be able to cut and twist the wire to my liking, I also needed to get pliers (12$). 

Since the shoot lasted 2 days, I absolutely needed a cooler (50$), ice-packs (10$) and hard ice (5$) in order to keep the fish fresh. Otherwise it would’ve stunk up the car real quick.

Clothes – 140 $

I bought all the clothes from Zara in January 2013 during their end-of-year sale. I wanted something that looked kind of badass yet wouldn’t be too flashy, without overpaying.

Sneakers: 30$ (orig. 80$)
Since the video involved a lot of walking, I wanted to wear something comfortable yet didn’t look too relaxed. That’s why I chose black sneakers with a white sole. They didn’t look too youthful, and the white soles attract the eye and help emphasize the feet’s motions as they slowly move forward.

Jacket: 50$ (orig. 120 $)
A mix-n-match between leather and jeans, with golden studs. The idea was for the gold studs to match the gold chain and have some kind of visual unity.

Jeans  30$ (orig. 80$)
To be honest, there wasn’t too much thought behind the jeans I chose, aside from a black pair that would create a seamless black effect from the sneakers to the pants.

Sweater: 30$ (orig. 80$)
Chose a black and green camo sweater that would complement the jacket without being too visually overpowering. 

In the end
All in all, I spent $782 on “Love Smells”. Pretty expensive weekend.

However, let’s put things in context here:

Food-wise, we would’ve needed to eat anyways had we been home, so I can’t calculate that as a true expense. I also kept the clothes, as well as the cooler, pliers, icepacks and soap so I can’t fully count those as expenses. Two years after the shoot, I still use these items.

Once we take those out of the equation, the video ended up costing me $440.

Not too bad for a 1 min 13 seconds video.

Do I expect to make my money back? Hell no. It’s an expense.

But it’s a pretty cool expense.