This is a little testament to the beauty of Lennox Head and the Ballina Shire. For ‘Loreley’, my latest music video for Byron Bay hardcore outfit In Hearts Wake, we were looking for locations that had the ruggedness of a harsh Irish coastline. The clip is loosely based on myths about ‘selkies’, Irish water nymphs that live as seals beneath the waves. Our hope was to capture some of the cold and hardness of the areas where selkie myths come from, jagged cliffs and rocky beaches. Of course Byron didn’t seem like the right place for a video like this and we immediately thought of Sydney or some of the more barren areas of the South Coast.
I kept imagining the performance scenes at Boulder’s Beach though; I had been there a lot on school excursions from Byron Steiner as a kid and remembered it as a magical place. After a quick drive around the Lennox area we knew we had our location, the beaches are just so rugged and there’s almost no one to be seen! One of the most exciting features was on the southern side of the Lennox Headland, a rugged cliff face with windswept grass, the perfect place for a selkie to come ashore. The final segment of our video was shot here at sunrise and I must say it is one of the most spectacular sunrise locations I’ve been to.  As the waves crash onto the rocky shore there is a deep melodic rumble of the boulders shifting and tumbling down the beach, it is a truly incredible place.
We shot our band performance at Boulder’s Beach. In order to play at maximum intensity for the 6 hour shoot the band insisted on having the music very very loud. We arrived on location at 3:30am and by 6am were blaring hardcore music on repeat, the boys pushing themselves to perform at their best on the pebbly ground. Aside from the occasional fisherman getting into our shot the shoot went smoothly. Boulders was as magical as I remembered it, the salt spray catching the morning light and giving the whole scene a sense of rugged beauty.
Our most difficult shoot was at Lake Ainsworth though, where we used the overhanging ti trees as a lighting device. Our gaffer, Josh, climbed high into the trees to mount lights and we fashioned an ‘outdoor studio’ on the lake to shoot our climactic scene in which Loreley emerges from the water. Aside from the dog, Blue, being a little scared of his first time in a boat the shoot went very well, the eery darkness of Lake Ainsworth’s water adding to the creepiness.
Making this music video has really made me re-appreciate Lennox Head for it’s wild beauty. It’s a busy little town and yet we had no trouble finding our own slice of isolated coastline for each shoot, every location providing its own unique wonders. Thank you Lennox!
For more of Dylan Wiehahn’s work, checkout Spring Pictures –Â springpictures.com.au