Beluga Lagoon’s New Single and Music Video – Filming in the Mesolithic

Andrew from Beluga Lagoon Films gave me a shout to help film the music video for Beluga Lagoon’s upcoming single. The concept was a good one: set the whole thing in the Mesolithic era, with Blaine playing a hunter wandering through ancient landscapes. Simple idea on paper. In reality… slightly more chaotic.

Day One – Mesolithic Craft Workshop (and Terrible Weather)

I headed down to Andrew’s place where he has a small office space. The plan had been to get out filming straight away, but the Scottish weather had other ideas. It was blowing well over 50-mile-an-hour winds and raining sideways for the entire day.

So instead of cinematic landscapes, the three of us — Andrew, Blaine (his schoolmate and Beluga Lagoon’s manager), and myself — sat inside beside the heater and turned the office into what can only be described as a Mesolithic craft workshop.

Andrew had already spent quite a bit of time preparing props and costumes. He’d also read several books on the Mesolithic period while planning the shoot, and the level of detail he goes into with these projects is pretty impressive. Nothing was done as a quick shortcut. I get the impression Andrew will never use Ai in the future, he will always stick to being practical and creative:)

Costumes made from real cowhide
Spears carved from wood
Feathers attached to the shafts
Traditional style bindings made from animal tendon

Back in the Mesolithic they would have used pine resin mixed with charcoal as a glue. We cheated slightly by using a tiny bit of modern glue mixed with charcoal so it looked the part. Only because of time restraints.

My first task was attempting to make a Mesolithic handbag out of cowhide using leather thread. Whether it would have impressed any Stone Age fashion critics remains unclear, but Andrew and Blaine seemed pleased with it.

A fish spear carved from found antler and tied on with animal tendon strips, very smelly work lol.

After that I moved on to attaching feathers to the back of spears and shaping a sharp fish-spear tip out of deer antler.

It all looked great by the end of the day. It also smelled fairly terrible. Carving antler stinks, and some of the feathers we ordered off eBay arrived with the occasional bits of bird still attached.

Meanwhile Blaine was busy making a pair of cowhide shoes while Andrew finished a hat to go with the full costume he’d already made. By the end of the day Blaine looked like he’d just stepped straight out of prehistory.

So Day One ended with zero filming but quite a lot of Stone Age arts and crafts.

Reeds, Smoke, and a Mysterious Hunter

The next day the weather finally improved enough to get outside. We headed to a reed bed Andrew knew about.

The idea for the video was to keep things slightly mysterious so you never fully see the character (Blaine) clearly. Just glimpses of a hunter moving through reeds and mist.

To create atmosphere we used smoke machines. I’d recently picked up a small handheld smoke machine. I originally thought it would mostly be useful indoors, but it actually worked surprisingly well outside and ended up getting used a lot during the shoot. Andrew usually holds a camera too, but today he stuck with wafting the smoke machine and directing me and Blaine.

Blaine crept through the reeds while we filled the area with drifting smoke. The shots came out really nicely — moody and prehistoric.

Later we filmed a campfire scene with Blaine sharpening tools and working beside the fire. For the close-ups of hands we actually used Andrew’s hands. He had deliberately grown his fingernails longer for the role, figuring people in the Mesolithic probably didn’t keep their nails neatly trimmed. He quickly discovered that long nails collect dirt everywhere — which, to be fair, worked perfectly on camera.

Smoo Cave

The following week we regrouped and headed north to Smoo Cave near Durness.

Andrew and Blaine had arranged things with Fraser, who runs the tours there. He warned visitors — and I believe also gave the local council a heads-up — that there might be some slightly unusual filming happening involving smoke machines and prehistoric costumes.

Once inside we fired up the big smoke machine and filled the cave with drifting mist. Blaine wandered about in full Mesolithic outfit while Andrew and I grabbed a whole load of atmospheric shots.

Andrew showing the Talent (Blaine) how to whirl his spear around to the music. Blaine’s timing wasn’t exactly metronomic. It was more… interpretive.

Smoo Cave is already an incredible place to film, but with smoke rolling through the cave it looked properly cinematic. The cave itself sits on the northwest coast near Durness and is one of the most dramatic sea caves in Scotland, with guided tours running through the inner chambers, where a boat is needed, during the season. (Smoo Cave Tours)

If you ever find yourself up that way it’s well worth a visit:
https://smoocavetours.com

Fraser was great company as well and very kindly treated us to a brilliant curry lunch at his house in the middle of the day between filming sessions.

A possible opening shot? See what Andrew does in his edit.

Freezing Rivers and Uncooperative Fish

On the way south we stopped at a river to film a hunting sequence.

The wind was blowing around 40 miles per hour and there was snow on the hills, so it was absolutely freezing. Blaine still had to get into the river with the spear and no foot wear. The water was that way where it is actually so cold it’s painful.

The plan was for him to catch a fish on the spear. The fish was real, but definitely not alive. We used a bit of fishing line to give it a small amount of movement when he lifted it out of the water.

Unfortunately the spear tip I’d made from deer antler wasn’t exactly the most reliable fishing technology ever invented, I should have given it a bit more Barb!

The fish kept falling off.

Eventually we managed to get something that looked convincing enough on camera between both me and Andrew filming, though Blaine was fairly frozen by the end of it.

That evening we ended up at the Bothy Bar in Aviemore where Andrew jumped up during the open mic night and played a few belters.

More River Filming and a Windy Crannog Recce

The following morning we filmed another fishing sequence in a more sheltered river spot. Using the handheld smoke machine again we got a series of shots of Blaine wading through the water.

I’d managed to get him some wetsuit boots which helped slightly with the cold.

After that we drove down to the Crannog Centre to see about filming there. In the end it turned into more of a recce than a filming day because it was blowing a hoolie and pouring with rain.

A coracle in that wind would probably have ended up somewhere halfway across Loch Tay.

Woodland Scenes and a Bit of Dancing

Several days later Andrew and Blaine drove up and stayed at my house so we could film some additional scenes locally.

We spent a day shooting Blaine trekking through native woodland and also filmed some slightly more unusual shots of him moving and dancing through one spot, almost like he was travelling through the landscape in time. It actually worked really well visually.

That night we went back to the Bothy Bar in Aviemore again. This time it was the 10th anniversary of their open mic night so the place was packed.

Katie from the DOO BELOW (the pub across the road where the open mic nights originally started) was there singing as well, along with several other really good musicians. It turned into a great night.

Hunting with an Atlatl

The next day we filmed hunting scenes in the forest.

Andrew had made an atlatl — an ancient spear-throwing tool used throughout prehistoric times. It’s basically a lever that lets you throw a spear much faster and with far more force than by hand alone.

We filmed this sequence deep in a beautiful patch of ancient woodland with silver birch and the occasional Caledonian pine scattered through it. To create atmosphere we even wheelbarrowed the big smoke machine into the forest.

Fortunately the smoke from that machine is mostly water vapour, so it disappears very quickly. That meant we could fill the woods with drifting mist without sending a massive plume of smoke up through the trees and accidentally attracting the attention of the fire brigade.

The aim was to make the hunting feel believable. We used antlers and bits of vegetation close to the lens and sometimes kept them slightly out of focus so it felt like Blaine was stalking a deer somewhere ahead through the forest.

Then came the throw.

Capturing the spear in flight turned out to be surprisingly tricky because the atlatl launches it incredibly fast. We tried to catch moments where the spear slices through the air as if it’s about to strike a deer just out of frame. Obviously we’re not filming any deer being hit or anything like that — it’s all suggestion and camera angles.

It was a really fun day filming and I think the sequence ended up looking pretty cool.

The Crannog Centre and the Coracle

After that we drove down and stayed in Kenmore so we could get an early start the next morning filming at the Scottish Crannog Centre.

This time the weather was much more settled and the team at the centre kindly let us borrow their coracle.

We patched a small hole in the bottom of the boat with a bit of leather and got Blaine out on the water while we ran the big smoke machine again.

Craig joined us that day as well so there were four of us filming.

There was just one small problem.

None of us had remembered to bring a wetsuit for Blaine. Everyone thought someone else was bringing one.

Fortunately Dave Girling, who runs a sauna right next to the crannog, came to the rescue and lent us a wetsuit which saved the day.

We didn’t get time to try the sauna ourselves unfortunately, but plenty of people were enjoying it while we were busy filming.

The coracle scenes turned out great in the end — smoke drifting across the water with Blaine paddling quietly beside the reconstructed crannog buildings.

Final Bits

After that there were just a few small close-ups and extra shots left for Andrew to capture himself.

As I write this he’s in the edit pulling everything together. The new Beluga Lagoon single and music video should hopefully be released next week or the following.

It’s always great fun working on projects like this. When you’re hanging out with very good mates for several days on what are essentially slightly strange little adventures around Scotland, there’s always plenty of banter along the way.

It’s a great song and the video has turned into something really unique.

Not bad for a project that started with three grown men sitting in a tiny office making Mesolithic handbags, shoes and hats while the Scottish rain hammered against the windows.