Sevdije Kastrati-Dill, ASC 使用 Astera 灯光为 Jena Malone 拍摄音乐视频

与一个小型的、紧密团结的团队一起工作，有一种特别的自由。没有装满装备的大卡车，没有技术人员的大军，没有堆积如山的文件–只有一个紧密协作的团队、一套全电池供电的灯光设备，以及共同相信每一个镜头都值得追求的信念。 当摄影师 Sevdije Kastrati-Dill, ASC 与导演 Jennifer Reeder 和演员兼音乐家 Jena Malone 一起进行为期两天的音乐录影带拍摄时，大家都充满了干劲：十几个人摄制组分成两组，一组在圣塔克拉里塔的汽车旅馆拍摄，另一组在充满饱和绿色和氛围红色灯光的室内布景中拍摄。 一台 Sony FX3。一个 Lucid Dream FX 扩散滤镜。Astera 灯光。正是这些元素的结合，使这首歌超现实、充满怀旧气息的视觉概念得以实现。

导演詹妮弗-里德（Jennifer Reeder）向卡斯特拉蒂-迪尔（Kastrati-Dill）伸出了橄榄枝，虽然没有太多的筹备时间和预算，但却提供了更有价值的东西：信任。两人在 Reeder 的长片《Perpetrator》中曾有过合作，对彼此的工作默契非常了解。

Reeder 正与 Jena Malone 合作，为 Malone 即将发行专辑的单曲《Barstow》拍摄音乐视频。她问 Sev 能否在前往科索沃拍摄下一部长片之前完成这支作品。摄影指导毫不犹豫地答应了。

The video follows a woman traveling alone to a neon-lit motel as she repeatedly encounters another version of herself, not as a threat, but as a quiet companion, an echo of memory. Actor Robin Tunney appears alongside Malone as her older self and the two women give a literally layered performance, realized through shifting double exposure effects in the edit.

The piece is vividly colored, especially in the motel location, which embraces a hard neon-noir clash of colors. The palette expands naturally from the location itself, particularly the red and green motel vacancy sign. “I always need the lighting to be motivated and have a reason why these colors are being used,” Kastrati-Dill explains. “The neon sign was a big inspiration for me. I loved its contrast.” The result is highly saturated: warm amber foregrounds bleeding into sharp green backlights, scenes bathed in deep red with dashes of cyan, a phone booth glowing against a twilight sky, and an eye-popping red convertible with a saturated edge light. “This is some of the most colorful stuff I’ve shot,” she says.

Working at this scale, every piece of gear must earn its place twice over. Kastrati-Dill came to the shoot with Astera Titan Tubes–fixtures she’s used for years and considers essential–plus, for the first time, two of Astera’s new adjustable spotlight Fresnels: QuikPunch and QuikSpot.

Quickly, Kastrati-Dill was able to turn the QuikPunch into a workhorse for the production. On the first day it served as the saturated green source (a proxy for the sign light) outside the motel. During the phone booth sequence, a single QuikPunch provided a powerful green backlight while a Titan Tube handled the warm fill from the other side, gracefully wrapping Malone in color. “It was amazing using the QuikPunch with a very small crew. Since it is battery powered we didn’t have to run cables or worry about power,” she says. “We shot for several hours, and they lasted the whole time with no issues. Plus, the output is quite strong.”

The QuikFamily and Astera Tubes both utilize Titan LED Color Science, making the fixtures instantly compatible. Gaffer Sika Stanton used the Astera ART7 app to control color and brightness in real time. “You can find the exact color and saturation you want and just make it happen when you’re there,” she says.

The Titan Tubes were used across multiple other setups: as a backlight to create a pink bedroom wash, a TV flicker effect, and rigged in pairs to light Malone from inside the phone booth. “Upon their release, Astera tubes quickly became the industry standard,” the cinematographer recalls. “You can fit them into all kinds of places, they’re naturally diffused, you can add more diffusion on top and control them remotely. I don’t remember ever running into issues with battery life. They are just very, very easy to work with.”

The Asteras were an optimal tool for a team already so concretely on the same page. Malone, according to Kastrati-Dill, completely trusted the crew, meanwhile Reeder and Kastrati-Dill operated with a fluency approaching to telepathy. “We don’t have to discuss things a lot on set,” says the DP. “We just make it happen.” That shorthand allowed for the kind of on-the-fly discovery that fuels the best music video. A close-up of Malone performing in front of a pink background became, in the moment, an opportunity to add a soft pink fill that pulled her further into the color world they’d built. Nobody called a meeting. Kastrati-Dill simply reached for the Astera Tube. “You can just play,” she says. “Using colors that way was really satisfying.”

Jena Malone’s new album releases this May. The “Barstow” music video is available to watch now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLmGC-Qilnc