BONNIE TRASH - KISSES GOODBYE

A black and white performance-based music video for the Guelph goth-rock outfit, Bonnie Trash. Shot in a large theatre space with Evan Gordon on the lighting effects. Always a pleasure working with these folks.

Director: Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor
Camera and Edit: Sara May
Lighting Design: Evan Gordon

Falcon Jane - I Own The Road

Falcon Jane is my musical moniker :) So in addition to directing this video, I was also starring in it! I wrote this song about long haul trucking, and the loneliness that truck drivers feel on the road. I wanted to create a video that captured that vibe, and that took place in the world of trucking: motels, roadside diners, on the road. We were lucky enough to be granted permission to shoot at Northway Restaurant and Truck Stop, and AJ Enterprises lent us their truck to shoot with as well.

Co-directed by: Sara May and Dominique van Olm
Camera: Dominique van Olm
Edit: Sara May
Production Support: Andrew McArthur

More Falcon Jane: www.falconjane.com

Nicolette & The Nobodies - The Long Way

A nostalgic music video for Guelph western fashionistas, Nicolette and the Nobodies. Nicolette came to me with the concept for this video: a road-trip theme with “flashbacks” to Super 8mm footage of the band being cozy at their homes. A reflection of how life on the road can be lonely.
Camera & Edit: Sara May
Super 8mm Footage by: Julia Busatto

More Nicolette & The Nobodies: https://www.nicoletteandthenobodies.com/

Nicolette & The Nobodies - Rodeo

A super fun, rockin video for these Guelph-based country stars! The concept behind the video was based on the band’s origin story - how they met at a karaoke bar many moons ago. I had the pleasure of working with director Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor (of Bonnie Trash) on this video, which was released on Art Haus Records.
Director: Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor
Camera & Edit: Sara May

More Nicolette & The Nobodies: https://www.nicoletteandthenobodies.com/

Gloin - Dark Moto

A creepy video for Gloin’s dark drone rock single “Dark Moto” from their album “We Found This”. Gloin came to me with this video concept and I was happy to bring it to life. We shot the video in downtown Toronto in one evening, right as the sun was setting. Featuring a cameo from legendary Toronto booker, Dan Burke.

Director, camera, edit: Sara May
Produced by: Gloin
Starring: Tyler Sydiaha, Dan Burke

More Gloin: https://www.mothland.com/gloin

Bonnie Trash - Silence is a Killer

It is always super easy and fun to work with artists who have a strong vision - and Sarafina and Emmalia of Bonnie Trash have just that! They create an entire world with their music, and they brought me into that world when we made this music video together. Silence Is A Killer is a collaboration between the three of us - one that started with a completely different narrative. But we love how it turned out!

Directed by: Bonnie Trash and Sara May
Camera & Edit: Sara May

More Bonnie Trash: https://www.handdrawndracula.com/artists/bonnie-trash/

EMILY GILBART - THROWING ROCKS

Emily and I have done three photoshoots together, so it was about time to make a music video! Emily is a natural on camera, and this was her first ever music video, so it made sense that she’d be starring in it. I wanted to make something simple that reflected the emotion and message in the song, while also highlighting Emily as the core of the music. So I combined the looks of my two cameras to create a “past-in-present” vibe.

Director, camera, edit: Sara May

More Emily Gilbart: https://www.emilygilbart.com/

Bonnie Trash - Have You Seen Her

Something a bit spookier! My first foray into the horror genre, and who better to do it with than doom-rock twins, Bonnie Trash? We shot this video over a couple of summer nights with a small crew. Our actors were amazing - naturals on camera!

Director: Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor
Starring: Nicolette Hoang & Either Or
Camera & Edit: Sara May
Story by: Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor & Emmalia Bortolon-Vettor
Set Design by: Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor, Emmalia Bortolon-Vettor, Sara May
Special Thanks to: Rugburn

More Bonnie Trash: https://bonnietrash.bandcamp.com/

The North Coast Band - Ohio In The Distance

Had a blast shooting this video with the North Coast Band. It was a gorgeous time of year to be shooting outside - warm enough to spend all day outside, while there was still ice on the lake and patches of snow on the ground. I tried to keep this music video feeling very natural and raw to suit the vibe of the song and the band.

Director, camera, edit: Sara May

More North Coast Band: https://thenorthcoastband.com/

MEGURO - YOU DESTROY ME

My first time shooting a continuous shot / long shot music video - which essentially means the camera doesn’t cut at all during the shoot. It was definitely tricky to get a perfect take, with all the lighting cues, camera movements, and performances, but with enough practice, we pulled it off! It was super fun working with Meguro and I think this video suits their gloomy pop rock vibe.

Director, Camera, Edit: Sara May

More Meguro: https://www.meguroband.com/about

SHETHEARCHER - HATE U LESS

A quick and easy shoot for a super catchy song! It’s easy to make a great music video when all the pieces just seem to fit: the artist, the outfit, the lighting (sunset!), the location! We shot this video in an hour and had it edited together a few hours after that. Sometimes a simple video can really give the song what it needs.

Director, Camera, Edit: Sara May

More Shethearcher: https://www.instagram.com/shethearcher/

ALANNA GURR - LIFE OF THE PARTY

Alanna had some great visual inspirations in mind for the music video for “Life Of The Party”. We worked together to come up with a concept, and then a plan to bring that concept to life. Since we wanted the video to occur at sunrise (but we didn’t want to start shooting at 4am), we decided to shoot the video in reverse at sunset!

Director, Camera, Edit: Sara May

More Alanna Gurr: https://www.alannagurr.com/

Andrew McArthur - Question

It was a pleasure to bring Andrew McArthur’s vision to life with this captivating and creative video. It was a logistical puzzle to figure out exactly how we were going to make it, but it all came together wonderfully.
Take the photos - print them - paint them - take photos of the photos - paint some more - take more photos - and so on.

Director: Andrew McArthur
Photography and Editing: Sara May
Painters: Andrew McArthur, Sara May, Emilia Perri, Alisa Thoma

More Andrew McArthur: andrewmcarthur.bandcamp.com

ARLO SUN - IDOLIZE ME

Whether it’s sawing through logs, or running through a snowy forest in a paper thin jumpsuit, or hitting notes you didn’t think were humanly possible, this woman has willpower I’ve never seen before!

This video for the first single from Arlo Sun tells a story of transformation and reflection.

Director, Camera, Edit: Sara May

More Arlo Sun: www.arlosun.com

GLOIN - CHA CHA (LIVE)

A space-prom themed live performance video for Toronto drone-rockers, Gloin! This was shot in a living room, using a lot of imagination and tin foil. The audio was recorded on a big ol tape machine.

Director, Camera, Edit: Sara May
Second Camera: Andrew McArthur
Sound Recording and Mix: Tyler Sydiaha & Gloin

More Gloin: https://gloinxo.bandcamp.com/

FALCON JANE - HEAVEN

A spooky beach video with a twist ending! A thematic piece that draws inspiration from Shakespeare’s The Tempest - one of my faves!

Director, edit: Sara May
Produced by: True Nature Media
Camera: Andrew McArthur, Dominique van Olm, James Webster, Jocelyn Burke

More Falcon Jane: www.falconjane.com

Click here to watch the short teaser videos I created for the release campaign for this album.

FALCON JANE - The Other Moon

How do you get to space on a very tight budget with no astro equipment? This is how! Dominique van Olm and I pulled together our resources and blasted off into a world of creativity with this new music video for Falcon Jane. With the right location, the right props, and the right costumes (not to mention, an industrial-sized fog machine), I believe you can make anything happen!

Co-Directed by: Sara May & Dominique van Olm
Produced by: True Nature Media
Camera: Dominique van Olm
Edit: Sara May

More Falcon Jane: www.falconjane.com

Click here to watch the promo videos I created for the release campaign for this album.

Vanity Phase - Walking Around

A simple concept but impactful music video for this total dance jam by one of Toronto’s coolest electro artists! We shot this video on the streets of Toronto with a two-person skeleton crew. We were a very mobile shoot, in and out of each location extremely quickly - I think the whole thing was shot in 5 hours. It was super fun to design the lighting set ups and make it all glow in the editing process.

Director, Camera, Edit: Sara May
Producer: Vanity Phase
Lighting & Camera Assistant: Dominique van Olm

More Vanity Phase: https://vanityphase.bandcamp.com/

AMC Gremlin - Nachos For One

In this layered and intricate song, AMC Gremlin uses nachos for one as a metaphor to represent loneliness and lethargy. This music video quite literally captures those feelings. After our original shoot, we felt that we needed some additional footage of AMC Gremlin performing the song, so he shot some video of himself and sent it to me. I think the authenticity of the aloneness in those moments make for a great intro and outro for this video.

Director, Camera, Edit: Sara May
Additional Footage: Andrew Collins

More AMC Gremlin: www.amcgremlin.bandcamp.com

L CON - BELIEVE

Lisa and I came up with this video concept together over a phone call. She wanted to portray the feeling of having two identities as a performer - on-stage and off-stage. We used the clown make up to represent the “performer” persona that a lot of musicians and artists have.

This video premiere on indie88.

Director, camera, edit: Sara May
Producer: Lisa Conway
Make-up: Amber Stevens
Camera Assistant: Andrew McArthur
Production Coordinator: Andrew Collins

More L CON: www.lconofficial.com

BEAMS - SWEET TEA (LIVE)

It was so fun filming Beams’ set at the wild Dakota Tavern in Toronto! I used to go to the Dakota Tavern weekly while I was studying Film at Ryerson University. Great to see that people are still going there to dance and let loose! Here is one of my favourite Beams songs from their set, “Sweet Tea”!

Camera & Edit: Sara May
B Cam Operator: Jordan May
Audio Recording & Mix: Beams

More Beams: http://beamstheband.com/

WAREZ - STUPID

My first time shooting with a green screen! I shot this video with Andrew over a couple of days, pulling over on our way up north to shoot in fields and on dusty country roads. We wanted to combine multiple facets of one person’s personality - the glam rockstar, the moody artist, and the wholesome country boy.

Special thanks to Mag & Daniel for the use of their studio!

Director, camera, edit: Sara May
Produced by: Sara May & Andrew McArthur

More WAREZ: www.warezonly.bandcamp.com

ROMSHII - HOT POCKET

Another wacky collaboration with the one and only Romshii! We worked together to come up with the concept for this music video, and were lucky enough to work with the amazing Ricky Schaede, who stars in this video as an alien drag queen!

Director, camera, edit: Sara May
Produced by: Romshii

More Romshii: www.romshii.bandcamp.com

ERIN BOLTON - CRUEL RELEASE CONCERT

This is a unique performance video featuring the incredible Erin Bolton performing at her album release concert. Erin wanted a keepsake video to remember this milestone; footage that documented the evening, captured the vibes of the space, and showcased her new songs. This video also serves as a great promo piece for her new album, “Cruel”.

Director, edit: Sara May
Camera: Andrew McArthur

More Erin Bolton: www.erinboltonmusic.com

Mutt - Into The Woods

Another dive into the world of green screens! Mutt had a pretty strong (and wild) concept in mind when we first met to talk about the video, so my job was to bring that concept to life. Think awesome costumes, coloured lights in the forest, good vs evil - all in extremely cold weather.

Director, camera, edit: Sara May
Produced by: Mutt
Art Direction: Mutt
Production Assistant: Andrew McArthur

More Mutt: www.muttt.bandcamp.com

Erin Bolton - Regal Fur

Erin and I are old friends from high school. She’s always been an incredible musician, so I was super excited to have the opportunity to make a music video for her. We decided to use our high school connection as inspiration, and shot this video in the cafeteria we used to eat lunch in. We wanted to portray what it was like to participate in a talent show; the fear, the vulnerability, the judgement. But, as insecure adolescents, often those judgements were coming from ourselves.

Director, camera, edit: Sara May
Produced by: Sara May & Erin Bolton
Production Assistants: Andrew McArthur & Ethan Cavallin

More Erin Bolton: www.erinboltonmusic.com

WAREZ - Four Walls

This video is an ode to the screens that raised us. I was a child through the 90s, the decade where personal computers and the internet were starting to make big moves in homes. The lyrics of this song are nostalgic and reference childhood memories: “I grew up in a house/ it had four walls”. I wanted to connect the imagery I remember from my childhood, the early Windows screen savers, GIFs before GIFs were cool, computer games, and old TV shows, to the meaningful melodies and lyrics within the song.

Made with almost exclusively found footage!

Director, camera, edit: Sara May

More Warez: www.warezonly.bandcamp.com

Falcon Jane - The News (Romshii Remix)

It’s always a treat to make a video that makes you feel like a super star! For those who don’t know, Falcon Jane is my musical project and creative outlet. Romshii took my song “The News” and made this great remix of it. We decided to make a video where Romshii is a Falcon Jane super fan, and suddenly I appear in his fan-boy-bedroom and take him to meet the rest of the band. It was a super fun project to shoot!

Director, camera, edit: Sara May
Produced by: Sara May & Romshii
Additional Camera by: Andrew McArthur, Robb Schaede, Jaclyn Barnes, Aidan O’Brien

More Falcon Jane: www.darlingrecordings.com/artists/falcon-jane/

Falcon Jane - Go With The Flow

Another music video featuring me! I made this video with my bestie, Dominique, over a couple of days. We drove around to various spots in my hometown, Orangeville, and tried to make me look as chill as possible. Playing tennis, smoking cigs, swimming at the public pool.

Director, edit: Sara May
Camera: Dominique van Olm

More Falcon Jane: www.darlingrecordings.com/artists/falcon-jane/

SAGES - Heartache Is

One of my earlier music videos - lots of magic influence here. Forests, crystals, fairies - you name it. A great song to edit to - SAGES makes amazing, trippy music.

Director, camera, edit: Sara May

More Sages: www.sagessound.bandcamp.com

Romshii - So F*cking High

A video about battling your inner (and outer!) demons. Hitting rock bottom and what it’s like to be there.

Director, camera, edit: Sara May
Produced by: Romshii
Production Assistants: Andrew McArthur, Aaron McCoy

More Romshii: www.romshii.bandcamp.com