About this project

Above is a music video edited together with shots from the film.
We have already completed about 60% of the shooting and need some funding to finish up the rest.

Working title: UNTIL THE SUN DIES

Michael Reich, the mind behind the cult video website Videothing.com is teaming up with Touch and Go’s premiere Crystal Antlers to create Until The Sun Dies, one of the most unique music films ever produced. What begins as an intimate document of the band’s 2009 European tour transforms into a terrifying psychological horror film. Until the Sun Dies has already been written up in pitchforkmedia and stereogum, with most of its principal photography already completed. July will see the release of the Crystal Antlers’ first full-length Tentacles on the legendary label Touch & Go. Videothing.com continues to generate steam with independent music communities. Given the unconventional aesthetic and style and the buzz surrounding it, Until the Sun Dies promises to appeal to a wide audience and revolutionize the music film genre.

LA Weekly described the Crystal Antlers’ work as “unashamed, unafraid, gritty hot-mess melodies that take cues from the Stooges, Joe Cocker, Screamin' Jay Hawkins (rest his soul) and Ozzy Osbourne.” Critically acclaimed by the likes of Pitchfork, Spin and Rolling Stone, Crystal Antlers released their first EP with producer Ikey Owens (Mars Volta/Free Moral Agents) in 2008. 2009 will see the release their first full-length Tentacles debuting in July on Touch and Go. There’s nowhere to go but up.

Michael Reich has directed videos for The Shins, Bad Religion and Brazilian Girls, as well as commercial content for Converse and Helio/Earthlink. Videothing.com can be exemplified by exemplified by its easily digestible punk rock aesthetic and receives on average six thousand of visitors a day. Enmeshed in the independent music community, Videothing.com has seen bands such as No Age, Datarock, and Abe Vigoda through their infancy and has documented A Place To Bury Strangers, High Places, HEALTH, Ariel Pink, The Vivian Girls The Slits, and Blonde Redhead. Videothing.com has been covered by the New York Times, LA weekly, Urb, Spin, Pitchforkmedia, and The Fader magazine and was recently voted one of the world’s “10 Coolest Music Video Blogs” by MTV South Africa.

In its initial brainstorming stages Until the Sun Dies was going to be an atypical tour film. Never satisfied by the ordinary, Michael Reich and the Crystal Antlers decided to do something that had never been done before. In January and February of 2009, Michael followed the Crystal Antler’s on their first European tour, capturing the band’s electrifying live performances, backstage antics and intimate moments. At the same time, Michael directed scripted sequences starring band members, which are designed to transform the narrative from music documentary to a harrowing psychological horror film.

Under a grueling tour schedule, long days and endless nights begin to take a toll on the band’s psyche. Amid cramped hotel rooms, a crowded tour bus and exhausting shows, tension grows between band members. Johnny Bell, the lead singer, grows more and more obsessed with perfection in the bands’ performances and new compositions. Johnny’s mental equilibrium frays as he begins to question his choices as a musician, experiencing negativity, doubt and paranoia influenced by visions and dreams of the Morrigan, an ancient goddess of destruction.

As the Crystal Antlers find their tour leading them deeper into the dark and frozen forests and ancient medieval villages of Northern Europe, what the Morrigan represents becomes a reality for Johnny. Haunted by visions of violence and tormented by his alienation from his friends, bandmates, and the world, Johnny is finally given an audience with The Morrigan who, in all her horrific glory, changes him forever...

Because of the style of Until the Sun Dies, a vast majority of the shooting was already completed during the Crystal Antlers’ European Tour in January and February of 2009. Reich has used eight different cameras to integrate different visual styles into the movie. The aesthetic will shift from grainy low lit images of fans outside the venues, to high definition pastoral imagery of the band wandering the forests of the Netherlands. The major parts of the film will be shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, renowned as the best still and video camera ever produced. The 5D Mark II allows the use of 35 mm still lenses, and therefore, it looks better than any other HD camera currently on the market.

The total costs for production is USD 200,000 including fees for Reich, Crystal Antlers as well as band management and music rights. Due to the DIY production style, the majority of this budget will be directed towards filming the special effects laden finale of Until the Sun Dies. USD 80,000 will allow us to finish principal photography.