Lights Out, Three Worlds, One Cut: Behind ONE FALL’s Ambitiously Humble Fantasy-Themed Music Video
- MattK
- Jun 6
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
There’s a lot going on in “Lights Out (Love and Class Warfare)” — a new track from Boston’s own melodic punk powerhouse ONE FALL's new EP, Cut & Run. It’s short, loud, tightly written, and full of bite: melodic shredding, gang vocals shouting the title at full throttle, and a wicked sticky hook.
So when they came to me with an idea for their fantasy-theme music video, fortunately they knew it couldn’t just be one thing.
The final cut jumps between three interwoven realities:
ONE FALL performing live in front of a crowd - raw, real, sweaty
The band around a table playing actual Dungeons & Dragons — a real regular routine for some of the band
A bargain basement fantasy world brought to life with cardboard swords, tin foil armor, and sweeping slow-motion hero shots within the deep woods
Crit Hits on a Budge
Helen (vocals, rhythm guitar), Phill (lead guitar), Darren (bass), and Caleb (drums) all leaned in hard, and provided most of the game pieces, figurines and dice you see onscreen. Friend of the band Jon plays the Dungeon Master — just like in real life, where he DMs their actual campaign from the very same room.
The fantasy sequences were filmed in the Salem Woods with a gimbal and an anamorphic lens, capturing epic drama in dollar-store armor.
And the live footage captured at Faces Brewing Co. in Malden is ONE FALL in their element — tight, fast, and loud, just like the track itself.
A Family Production (Literally! LOL!!!)
This one was personal. Helen is a longtime collaborator, and my rad ten-year-old son, Marty came along to the shoot to lend a hand — and ended up capturing all the disposable camera stills and VHS-style behind-the-scenes footage that wove their way into the final cut.
His eye gave the project a unique layer of warmth and texture, and he earned himself an Additional Photography credit in the process.
The Tools and the Fakery
If you can believe it, this wasn’t a studio shoot. It was pure DIY.
Filmed in 4K with anamorphic lenses and a DJI Osmo Mobile 7 gimbal
Edited in Final Cut Pro X
Color graded and mastered in Apple Compressor
No CGI. No green screens. Just guts, sweat, cardboard, and Capri Suns
Despite its humble parts, the video aims to feel big — because the song feels big too. The shout-along chorus. The tight transitions. The sense of urgency in every beat. The video had to try to match that thunder, and then some.
Why a Fantasy-Themed Music Video Was So Rad
For me, getting to work on this video highlighted everything I love about filmmaking: building worlds out of scraps, finding emotion and balance and meaning in chaos, and surprising people.
It's loud, weird, and dumb. Also, it's rad.
This was a blast to put together, and I'm grateful to everyone in ONE FALL for trusting me enough to be associated with their good name.
And if you haven’t seen it yet, here it sits...
More behind-the-scenes posts to come. I didn't even get to the part where my third-party plug-ins almost torpedoed the whole thing at the 11th hour. Or what a modern nightmare it is to get basic digital versions of analog photography.
Keep it rad, Matt
P.S. Listen to more ONE FALL here!!!