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Exclusive premiere: Precious Child’s surreal and dangerous music video “Coming Down”

Thursday, May 21, 2020 | Exclusive, Music, News

By MICHAEL GINGOLD

To accompany their latest song, Los Angeles-based musician/artist Precious Child has crafted a short-film-style music video with an abstract, horrific atmosphere that resulted from a hazardous shoot. You can see it and read about its creation exclusively after the jump.

The footage seen in the “Coming Down” video was actually shot five years ago, intended by Precious Child to accompany the song “The Past.” “With the help of two friends, in 2015 my bandmate Skyler and I lit oil and gasoline fires atop a derelict aqueduct deep in the forest of rural Maryland and shot the video,” Child tells RUE MORGUE. “There, we filmed a literal and metaphorical vignette of a dead hero’s resurrection, ritual and marriage to their Jungian Shadow. It was entirely self-produced, and the second video I ever shot, but it was not released for five years because I decided it did not fit with ‘The Past.’ I wrote ‘Coming Down’ for my new album heart.gif, and immediately knew the footage had found its partner.”

They also reveal that their performers literally bled and risked their lives for the project. “Excluding contemporary CGI-led films, a secret of classic movie magic is that in general, what you see on screen actually occurred somewhere, sometime. Today, when I am not touring, I direct music videos in Los Angeles professionally for my production company Shadow Sunrise. However, in 2015, I was not familiar with tricks and techniques, and so we just did everything what-you-see-is-what-we-did style. For ‘Coming Down,’ the actors–their first and only time ever acting–drew their own blood for various shots, layered automotive ceramic paint for makeup effects, were buried with a vinyl tube for air and did their own fight scenes, all in the middle of the night amid gasoline fires on a 20-foot-high rail-less bridge. As all of us were amateurs, none of us were familiar with safety. I couldn’t do this shoot today without a significant insurance policy and/or safety crew, permits etc. I sincerely appreciate my team on this video, who scrappily and boldly collaborated, successfully making this artifact of amateur art.”

You can find out more about Precious Child and their work at their official website, which also contains links to their songs and their socials.

Michael Gingold
Michael Gingold (RUE MORGUE's Head Writer) has been covering the world of horror cinema for over three decades, and in addition to his work for RUE MORGUE, he has been a longtime writer and editor for FANGORIA magazine and its website. He has also written for BIRTH.MOVIES.DEATH, SCREAM, IndieWire.com, TIME OUT, DELIRIUM, MOVIEMAKER and others. He is the author of the AD NAUSEAM books (1984 Publishing) and THE FRIGHTFEST GUIDE TO MONSTER MOVIES (FAB Press), and he has contributed documentaries, featurettes and liner notes to numerous Blu-rays, including the award-winning feature-length doc TWISTED TALE: THE UNMAKING OF "SPOOKIES" (Vinegar Syndrome).