When the producers of ABC TV's Spicks & Specks approached my electro pop comedy band The Bad Father to end their Europa Special, Amy Bodossian and I jumped at the chance.
We had originally hoped to perform our original material, but so when we were asked to cover "Take On Me" by 80s legends Aha, we begrudgingly agreed. We were determined to make the song our own, turning the upbeat dance floor filler into an absurdist pop piece.
We assumed the crew would have very little time to work out the blocking of the filming of it with us, so we created a three camera setup camera test for them in my best friends back yard. Luckily for us, her housemate was insane and the yard had disco balls and panther statues which made for the perfect set.
The result was better than we'd hoped!
Execution
The music video was shot on the Panasonic HVX202 camcorder in HD and edited on Final Cut Pro.
Results
Spicks & Specks
This camera blocking was used by the Spicks & Specks production crew for the Europa Special. Our performance was released on DVD, syndicated for repeat for the next 10 years on ABC-TV and Qantas in-flight entertainment. (It's wild watching a plane of people respond to your performance without them realising who you are).
Social Media
In a twist, Aha (the ACTUAL Aha) saw our video and shared it on Twitter to their fans worldwide!
Music
We released Take on Me as the first single on our EP Demonstration which you can stream on Apple Music and Spotify
