Song Sparrow Research Seattle HeatwaveWatch at the source

Brothers Harrison and Hamilton Boyce grew up in Seattle and when Harrison was set to move from the Northwest to New York City he asked Hamilton if he was willing to join him for a road trip. Hamilton agreed.

Loading all of Harrison’s worldly possessions into a rental truck, along with essential camera gear, the two set off on the northern route across the U.S. taking turns driving and shooting video.

Wheels spinning, camera rolling, they captured the ever-changing landscapes, from west to east, trees, rivers, amber waves of grain and the wide open spaces of the American heartland. They shot footage of various stops, the great geysers of Yellowstone, odd bits of civilization. Across Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, finally arriving in New York, they kept the camera running.

“After the trip we had this massive amount of footage and I wanted to start editing it right away but as soon as I unpacked in New York and Hamilton flew back to Seattle we became so busy we had to shelve it. When I finally picked it back up I was able to look at the footage with fresh eyes, which helped me curate the final clips and define a look and feel. If I had edited it right away I probably would have tried to mix in every single clip we got. I’m glad now that I waited.”

A large part of the inspiration for the final cut lies in the song “Seattle Heatwave” that appears on the eponymous second album of Song Sparrow Research, the band Hamilton leads in Seattle. “I find something beautiful and cinematic about the song and it’s just the right pace for driving footage,” said Harrison. “Since I tried to keep the framing and the type of shots similar throughout the piece, I ended up cutting out quite a bit. What I ended up with was scenery in between the tourist attractions and cities, the places we just drove through without stopping, the places that almost always get overlooked.”

In the final creation the music seems to be conducting the images; sweeping across the green Northwest, rivers, tall trees, skimming across brown wheat fields, to blue skies, a sunset in deep purple, a sunrise in hot pink. Dancing trees, intersecting reflections, weaving patterns, mirror images coming together then falling apart all blend to create a kaleidoscope effect, a double panorama in continual motion.

“I think Harrison did an incredible job of fitting the film's mood and the color pallet changes to the different sections and moods of the song,” said Hamilton. “Although when I wrote ‘Seattle Heatwave’ years ago, I never envisioned it would go with visuals like this; they turned out to be the perfect companion for the music. They seem to induce the right state of mind for listening.”

Harrison added, “When I play the film now I realize it captures a feeling that I came away with from the trip of leaving my home in the Northwest for a new home in New York, of driving those long stretches of highway with my brother, who would now be living on the other side of the country. I guess I’ll always feel like it represents driving to my future.”

Perhaps these 5 minutes and 19 seconds will evoke memories for others too or maybe just that feeling you get of being on the road.