It looks like Deaf Havana had a particular idea in mind for that video, so with that in mind how hard or easy is it for you as a filmmaker to work with a band to bring these ideas to life? We toyed with loads of different ideas involving an 80's theme but eventually simplified it down to something that worked within the budget and that had a massive element of comedy inside it. James is a huge 80's fan so seeing him live as someone from the 80's for a few days was a very funny experience, something that will probably never leave me. In fact the band all brought something to the table in regards to their characters, they all adapted an alter ego personality and carried it through the video.
You also just did a documentary for Luke Concannon so how was this experience for you, and how does the process behind this kind of project differ from everything else you get up to film making wise? Documentaries can be a little less heavy than a music videos, with music videos their is a huge amount of expectation that is sometimes impossible to reach with such small budgets where as a documentary (as long as it contains the necessary information that the person wants to convey) can really allow you to put your own creative stamp on it. I was blessed to be able to work with someone who (to many people) is deemed so highly as a singer songwriter and in one day we managed to really highlight some of his past, present and future.
For acoustic music videos, some filmmakers limit themselves and simply turn on the camera and record, whereas we've noticed that with some of your videos you've actually gone out into the world and created some really good backdrops for an acoustic session (Futures for example) so with this in mind how do you go about setting up an atmosphere for an acoustic video, and how do you go about giving it your own personal stamp? Acoustic videos can be shot lazily and I guess it isn't always the film-makers fault, sometimes location is something that is heavily overlooked. For a long while before I really honed in on my directorial skills I over concentrated on location and setting, something that perhaps a DOP would be more known for worrying about, but from doing this it allowed to see what really worked as a back drop for a band/artist. I think I may have mentioned this earlier but location is one of the most important parts of a music video, it is going to fill up over 60% of the screen and therefore it needs to aesthetically please the audiences eyes, otherwise they will grow tiresome and bored of what they see. All the way through college our story telling was perhaps slightly weaker than other peoples, we would often not even use dialogue and relied on a soundtrack to carry a story with our friends "acting", however we still managed to really wow the audiences that attended the film festivals where our work was shown because of the camera techniques and locations that were used. For the Futures video a simple tracking shot and a vast backdrop with plenty of aesthetically pleasing features was all it needed to almost add a narrative to the simple and often over done acoustic video. Fortunately for me Ant (singer) was very open to ideas and wasn't afraid to go along with everything I had lined up for him. Bit of trivia as well, we actually got kicked off the boat by the owner who wasn't aware we were using it.
How rewarding is it for you when you see a music video that you created appear on a music channel? The sad thing is I have yet to actually see any of my own work on the television, we have recently got Sky installed so it will only be a matter of time. More often than none I am heavily over critical of my own work so it might be for the best that nothing has come past my eyes on the big screen. However, I did see the music video that we shot in Spain for We Start Partys played on the big screen in my home town center (Plymouth), that was quite a pleasant experience.