Weezer, best known for their iconic tracks Buddy Holly and Beverley Hills, has been a music industry staple for over two decades – and isn't stopping any time soon. The geek rock outfit has released two new music videos both directed by Peter Quinn, and the grunge-inspired track What Happens After You? was shot entirely using a 360 camera.
VFX artist and video AI director, Peter Quinn, has been making some extremely impressive visuals and wacky social media content lately, having worked with the likes of Will Smith, Michael Bublé, Yungblud, Snoop Dogg, James Corden, and Camilla Cabello – bringing to life extreme catapults, UFO abductions, and multiple clones.
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The latest visual effects collaboration with Weezer, however, is filmed in a music studio with just Quinn, frontman Rivers Cuomo, and an Insta360 One RS 1-inch 360 Edition.
The music video is very cleverly shot and captures all angles of Weezer’s studio, having cloned Cuomo multiple times throughout in different scenarios, from playing drums on couch cushions, lying on the floor, having a solo dance session, shining a light into his eyes in the corner of the room, and playing multiple instruments including the piano:
Watch video: Weezer's What Happens After You?
It's awesome that all of the cloned Cuomos seem to interact with and look into the camera at the same points in the footage, as the track picks up the pace with a drop towards the end. "My challenge was only having one person but wanting to have the dynamic feeling of a full band performance," he told Insta360. "The Insta360 camera was the ONLY way I could film this."
Quinn had Cuomo play different instruments at predefined locations around the studio space, and following that he used an Adobe After Effects plugin for the Insta360 reframing. Quinn then had the task of merging all of the takes together and masking the footage; by this point, it was then only a matter of choosing which Cuomo clone to focus on for each part of the track.
Weezer's Blue album (its debut and arguably its best) is also present on the monitor screen behind Cuomo, which adds a nice nostalgic touch to the video. The lo-fi vibes of the video and the multiple personalities of Cuomo acting strangely also fit perfectly with the track's lyrics.
"When the song got more intense at the chorus for example, I quickly reframed the footage; spinning, zooming in, zooming out to ‘tiny planet’ then zooming in to a close up; to create a dizzying, frenetic sensation," Quinn explained.
Video director Quinn found his niche and rose to internet fame during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, where he found the time at home to practice and perfect his work on the art of special effects.
He also posts multiple how-to and explainer videos on his Instagram and Twitter accounts for those who are always asking the "How did he do that!?" questions.
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