I’d been wanting to play with blacklight cinematography for awhile. Everything I’d seen on the subject was either very dated, corny, religious, or tribal. I had a vision in my head of chaotic and aggressive portraits singing to the camera, quickly switching between a handful of looks in a way where the viewer never really had a chance to “figure out” the face’s full detail. When my frequent collaborator and friend Austen showed me Midnight Divide’s new single while it was still in its infancy stages of production, I knew this concept would be a match made in dystopian junkyard splatter heaven.

The upside to this concept is that it could be shot simply and affordably without sacrificing visual punch. We secured the Studio B “Blackout” room at our recurring favorite, FD Photo in DTLA, then two Kino Flo 4x4 housings and replaced the regular daylight tubes with blacklights. A big Amazon cart of every glowing/neon substance I could find, and away we went. All-star makeup artist Siera Wildey brought her unique skillset to the shoot, and the band was excited to get messy. Good thing we bought a tarp.