Brandon Parvini: Most of the jobs that we were getting were frankly ones that someone had shopped around town and then gone to these other effects houses and they had said, "No, we're not going to do that". So they would come to us and I’d say, "Well, I can maybe do it, I just have to do it differently". Once that happened, everyone would have to be educated for what this other process was about to be that allowed this creative that had otherwise been shut down in other places to potentially work and get it delivered on time.
Host (Wesley Slover): This is the Collab Collection, where we collect stories and useful insights about creative collaboration. I'm Wesley Slover. The connection between visual art and music fascinates me, and when these things come together well in a music video or film, it’s a deeply satisfying experience. To learn more about making that magic happen, I spoke with Brandon Parvini, a design and technical director with an extensive list of credits creating graphics and visual effects for some of the biggest music acts in the world.
Brandon Parvini: Coming out of school in 2004, I had a lot of friends that were directors and I was the only resident nerd they knew. Music videos were the introductory way into the industry in LA at the time.
Host: This was a time just after the music industry had crashed due to Napster, and labels were tightening their belts. Creative technology became more accessible, and Brandon co-founded a small design and visual effects company called Ghost Town.
Brandon Parvini: Very quickly, we became this one-stop shop for cheap and interesting effects with a lot of hotwired Macs that we were barely being able to get by with. We were very much not charging for a beautiful place in Santa Monica with espresso machines and sushi.
Host: Ghost Town began working with acts like TV on the Radio, Mandy Moore, and Kanye West. While they were thrilled to move from $40k videos to $150k budgets where they could triple their team size, Brandon notes that those budgets were a double-edged sword because there wasn't good oversight for a bunch of kids in their 20s.
Brandon Parvini: We were working on a video for Alkaline Trio called "Help Me". I had gotten crushed with a flu and wasn't going to be able to be on set. Usually, I’d be there to make sure what was shot would work for the visual effects in post-production, but when the footage came back, the green screen looked like a disaster.
Somehow the idea had gotten floated that a performance on a train was going to turn into a transforming 3D zeppelin. It was way more complicated than what we signed on for, and we didn't have the capacity to deliver.
Host: Brandon describes that summer as "brutal," with the team missing deadlines and a commissioner threatening to sue.
Brandon Parvini: Computers were literally sparking and catching on fire, the AC had gone out, and the office smelled like death because guys were working around the clock and sleeping under desks. We had done it to ourselves; someone on our team had said we can do it, so we had to come through on it.
Host: They managed to deliver, but Brandon says they learned a very hard lesson about fear of confrontation.
Brandon Parvini: There's a propensity in production to not have a bad interaction, so you say "Okay" or "Yeah, we can figure it out" in the interest of a positive vibe. That fear of crossing swords early on yields bad credit card bills at the end of production. You need to be able to have a healthy conversation about whether something is appropriate for the budget and timeframe rather than fearing that a client won't want to work with you because you said no.
Host: Brandon found a much better collaborative process when Ghost Town began working with the band Linkin Park. Unlike other acts who left everything to the label, Linkin Park was creatively literate and involved.
Brandon Parvini: Joe Hahn from the band actually had a background in effects and directed a lot of the videos. Suddenly, instead of dealing with ultimatums passed down through a director or label, we were having direct conversations with the act.
We realized many of the "ultimatums" were actually just off-hand comments. We could talk directly to the band and say, "We could do that, but we have to do X, Y, and Z. Is that juice worth the squeeze for you?" and they’d say, "Oh no, that sounds insane, don’t do that".
Host: This direct engagement led to a much more sustainable and personal relationship. In 2010, the band brought Brandon in for the enormous operation of the A Thousand Suns world tour.
Brandon Parvini: When we first came in, we were the "young punks" bumping the sauce a bit, and the veteran lighting designer who had been there since the Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses days was not totally thrilled with our involvement initially. But we were there with the backing of the band.
There were summits with 40 people—the tour team, merch team, web team—and we realized we were the connective tissue mapping between all of them. By the end, you realize you're the elasticine that can give everyone else what they need.
Host: Brandon credits this success to the band’s inclusionary and entrepreneurial element.
Brandon Parvini: They weren't just making requests; they would say, "Explain to me why this is the case" and "Walk me through how we're approaching this". They wanted to understand the process with a keen eye. That level of involvement created a family atmosphere where everyone felt their voice was heard and that they played a key, integral role.
Host: This episode was written and produced by me, Wesley Slover, with help from Jake Merritt. It was mixed by Trevor Richardson. Our artwork and branding was created by Audrey Havey. The Collab Collection is a project of Sanctus Audio; hear our work at sanctus.audio.