How many millennials does it take to overflow a backyard pool? About 40, turns out. Longtime friend and singer/songwriter Catherine Johnson (better known by her stage name RØZE) came to me with an offer I couldn’t refuse: film a bunch of her fun-loving friends partying it up in a backyard while she laments her misstep in a relationship for the camera… in the middle of summer. After some brief location scouting we settled on a place in Santa Clarita and unloaded enough brightly covered inflatables to make EDC jealous. Her friends were ready and willing to do what it took to get the shot; going well into the night. (But hey, catered tacos.) We wanted something FOMO-inducing that also looked a little sweaty, and interesting enough to ensure huge replay value for Catherine’s considerable fanbase, who garnered us over 150,000 views in the first 24 hours.

I brought my imaginary dad William Hellmuth to pour his creativity into every frame. Small shoots like this are fun because they allow so much room for experimentation. During her performance passes, we wanted something a little “dirty” in the frame to add some depth, so he grabbed the tree branch over his head and pulled it down in front of the lens. In the night performance shots, he called out mid-take for something interesting, and I handed him a half-drunk water bottle on the table beside me, and poof, there’s your Dreamy Prismatic Softness(TM) seen during those shots. Once the gear was struck, packed up, and we were safely wrapped, everyone stayed for a real party, and I finally got to take a dive in that pool. ‘Merica.