McKay Stewart: Flips, fights and facts Guerilla shoot. Small budget. Big hearts.

I Made a Bond Music Video With Dan Liu

· McKay Stewart

June 2017. Los Angeles.

I needed help for a secret job.

I posted that I was looking for background for a music video. The director was Dan Liu. He had already directed my short West Side Swordy. By then he was also directing on The Walking Dead.

I asked online if anyone could help me learn Arabic. The job was set to start July 15.

I did not say what the video was.

I tagged it later with one word that gave it away: #bondjamesbond.

McKay Stewart in a dark suit and black tie standing on a wooden fence overlooking Los Angeles Me in the Bond look above Los Angeles. Photo from the #guerillasinthemidst shoot I shared on X.

The secret project

We called it a super secret project.

Hashtags I used:

  • #topsecret
  • #supersecretproject
  • #guerillasinthemidst
  • #bondjamesbond
  • #BTS

Guerilla means you move fast. Small crew. Real streets. No giant studio gates.

That was us.

The song was my cover of “Never Stop” by Safety Suit (Wedding Version). Unofficial. I sang it. Tea McKay acted in it.

I had spent about 7 years in musical theatre. I wanted to get back to singing. This was my shot.

El Matador, Malibu

August 6, 2017. Second-to-last location of the shoot.

I posted a smiling set photo and called it #topsecret and #BTS.

McKay Stewart and Tea McKay smiling on location during the Bond music video shoot On set with Tea McKay. Photo: McKay Stewart, shared on X.

August 7. We hit El Matador Beach in Malibu.

Cliffs. Rocks. Sunset light. Classic Bond beach energy.

I posted more “top secret bts” from there. The ocean stills from the finished video show why we went.

McKay Stewart and Tea McKay at El Matador Beach at sunset during the Never Stop music video El Matador at sunset, from the finished video. Frame from Never Stop (my cover).

Night shoot over the city

August 11. Night. Downtown glowing behind us.

I posted three photos with the Bond hashtags. One is black and white. Suit. Bow tie. Tea beside me. The skyline soft in the back.

McKay Stewart in a tuxedo with Tea McKay on a Los Angeles street at night, downtown skyline behind them, black and white Guerilla night look with Tea McKay and the LA skyline. Photo from the same Aug 11 BTS post.

Another shot shows the real work: a yellow hatchback with the hatch up. Camera on a low rig. Monitor lit. Dan Liu standing nearby in a jacket that says “FIND ME IN THE FUTURE.”

Behind the scenes night shoot with Dan Liu and a cinema camera on a Los Angeles hillside overlooking downtown BTS: camera in the trunk, city lights behind us. Dan Liu on the left. Photo from the same Aug 11 post.

Small budget. Big hearts. That was the pitch then. It still is.

Who made it

Core credits from the YouTube upload:

  • Director: Dan Liu (then of The Walking Dead; he also directed West Side Swordy for me)
  • Artist / singer: me, McKay Stewart
  • Actress: Tea McKay
  • Scoring: Leo Winokur
  • Recording artist / engineer: Jaidan Millar

Later I shouted out John Connor (our DP energy from the West Side Swordy days) and photographer Elizabeth Kingston Young for great stills from the project.

Dan kept climbing after this. He went on to direct more Walking Dead, then shows like For All Mankind, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Star Trek: Picard.

I got to make a Bond-style music video with him on LA streets first.

Singing it

After the shoot came the recording work.

September 4, 2017. I posted a blurry “pseudo-action” shot after a recording session for #mysupersecretproject, still directed by Dan Liu.

In the finished video I sing into a classic chrome mic. White shirt. Projector glow. Mood.

McKay Stewart singing into a vintage microphone in the Never Stop music video Singing “Never Stop.” Frame from the YouTube upload.

McKay Stewart in a white shirt looking toward a bright balcony in the Never Stop music video Interior / balcony look from the same video. Frame from YouTube.

The video drops

October 14, 2017. The secret was out.

Runtime: about 3 minutes (181 seconds).

I posted the YouTube link and wrote: “Music video out finally! Directed by @icechai Dan Liu of @thewalkingdead. Enjoy!”

Watch it here:

“Never Stop” (Wedding Version) — my unofficial cover, directed by Dan Liu. Uploaded October 14, 2017. Please support Safety Suit, the original artists.

In the description I asked people to support Safety Suit. Fair is fair. We used their song. We made our own pictures.

I also noted you could find me on the latest season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and in films like Eagle Eye and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Funny timing: five days before this video went live, on October 9, 2017, I booked my second Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. role — Roughneck. (That fight story is here.)

So that week I had a Bond music video dropping and a Marvel co-star booking. Wild week.

Why I still like this one

It was not a studio check. It was friends, a small crew, a tuxedo, a beach, and a night street with the city behind us.

Dan Liu trusted the guerilla plan. Tea McKay showed up and made the frames sing. Leo and Jaidan helped the music land.

I got to sing again.

And for a few nights in August 2017, Los Angeles was our Bond set.

The record

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