Monahan Sets a Guy On Fire, Films It

Picture here the pyro, Ryan Monahan

…In his new music video that is. There’s a pretty interesting tale behind all of this. I heard from Monahan’s drummer that the guy in this video had never been set on fire before. Naturally, I just had to ask what the deal was. Is it true you lit a random guy on fire and had him dance?

This is true! 

The whole unfolding of events was very serendipitous….

Andy Rusk, is a professional pyro-technician/stunt-director (who works on Hollywood movies, and also the new Teen Wolf series), lives here in Athens, GA. Michael VanHassel, is his next-door neighbor, and volunteered himself to be set on fire! As soon as Brett Vaughn caught wind of Michael being lit on fire, he asked if he could be there to film the happening. 

Brett’s concept was to film Michael while dancing, and then to set it to slow motion. Incorporating “Moving Targets” into the footage was actually an afterthought, but somehow, it immediately made sense when the two were put together. Brett put in some crazy hours editing, looping, and working to stretch this very simple idea into a full length music video. 

There are a lot of slow, ambient layers in the song that are constantly “fighting” against its own relentless pacing. The way the footage captures this in a visual sense is really startling. – Monahan

Well damn. We should mention that if you like the song, Ryan’s offering it for free on his bandcamp account found HERE.

Monahan- Moving Targets from Brett Vaughn on Vimeo.