Vendetta
Directed by Nathan Haugaard — Music Video for Huddy
The First Act
Vendetta is the opening salvo of a four-video series I directed and photographed for Huddy. It needed to hit hard — bold, visceral, unapologetic. The visual language is baroque: candlelit practicals, rich amber tones, deep shadows, and a textural quality that makes the image feel like it was carved rather than captured.
I shot on the Canon C400, R5C, and Red Monstro with Canon Sumire primes and a classic soft diffusion filter — the same package used across all four videos in the series. The Sumires are warm, organic lenses that bloom beautifully when you put a candle or a practical in the frame. Combined with the diffusion, the highlights wrap and glow in a way that modern glass simply doesn't reproduce.
Fire and Texture
The entire video is built around hard contrast — deep blacks against concentrated pools of warm light. I wanted every frame to feel dense, almost suffocating. The color palette was intentionally narrow: amber, gold, and shadow. No cool tones. No relief. The viewer should feel the heat.
Shooting spherical and cropping to 2.35:1 gave me the widescreen canvas without anamorphic barrel distortion. For close-ups lit by a single candle, spherical was the right call — it keeps the geometry of the face honest while the diffusion filter and Sumire primes handle the texture.
The Bolt
Vendetta needed motion control — fast, precise camera movements timed to exact frames in the music. I mapped out the timing of every camera move down to the specific frame I wanted the motion to begin. I edited the entire music video using still images and my own previs, then sent the edit and my frame-accurate notes to the Bolt camera team. They pre-programmed the moves before we ever stepped on set, because we wouldn't have time to figure it out on the day. When Huddy walked in, the robot already knew the choreography.
Breathing Light
I wanted textured, breathing light — something that felt alive and unpredictable. My solution was to hang empty bottles and colored gel in front of the lights. The light passed through the glass and the gel, creating layers of color and caustic patterns that shifted with every subtle vibration. It's an analog effect that no digital tool can replicate — the light literally breathes as the bottles sway.
Super 8mm Film
I wanted to mix formats aggressively, so alongside the digital cinema cameras and the Bolt robot, I shot a lot of Super 8mm film. I used my personal Canon 1014XL-S loaded with Kodak 7219 and 7266 stock, running at 24fps. There's something beautiful about seeing a futuristic motion control robot working alongside a fifty-year-old 8mm camera — the full spectrum of filmmaking technology in the same room, serving the same vision.
