For a song called Sad Happy on an album called Sad Happy, what could be more Sad Happy than clowns going through rehab for being too depressed to clown?
We ended up writing a full on backstory for every clown in this to give the actors the proper room to improv within their character. It was pretty mad at times to be on set, to be honest. Not in a bad way, more a “oh God, we’re in a spooky abandoned hospital and there are mentally ill clowns running around and dancing and stuff.” You ever seen a clown scream and cry as he he literally rips open an inflatable clown toy like he’s gutting a fish that slept with his wife? I have. And we couldn’t even use that take so the true extremity of the scene is lost to history.
This is probably a good chance to talk about Theo’s general fear of spooky places too. At one point he saw a balloon in a hallway that we weren’t in at any time in the day and literally ran out of the hospital.
I put it there.
We were pretty much given free reign to pitch for any song on Macky’s latest album, and Active immediately drew us in. There’s such a mad energy to the track, and that chorus chanting ‘Work it” immediately brought to mind one thing: stripping. What else?
More specifically, it made us think of being stuck in a boring office environment but having this creative need bubbling up inside you. That same energy that the song has, but you have no way to let it out. In fact, the main character has such a need to live his stripping dreams that objects that involve stripping or rhythm around the office eventually tip him right over the edge and he just goes for it...
Here’s a fun fact: if you’re reckless in testing stripper trousers in pre-production, friction burns can happen. Here’s another fun fact: ointment can only help friction burns so much.
I wish I could say those facts were unrelated.
A video inspired by the work of a brilliant photographer named Miles Aldridge, except with a Bousher and Gee twist.
Miles is known for these vibrant scenes that are both colourful and depressing, which is often how people describe Theo’s life. Naturally, it seemed like the perfect fit for a song with such a great melody but bittersweet lyrics.
We meticulously worked on our own colourful compositions, except used them to tell the story of a band trapped in a vibrant mansion struggling desperately to write their next hit. And, as we’ve all experienced, their doubt oozes into their lives in the form of a horrible black goo.
I was responsible for that goo and now lie awake at night thinking about pumping viscous liquids, and black goo engulfing me in a suffocating wave of this sticky stinking slime - just pouring in through the windows and claiming me nightly like the unrelenting ocean claims the beach, only to release it again in fear of the next wave, and the next wave, and oh God the next wave.
It’s a serious problem. I can’t keep a relationship down because of the screaming.
After getting the brief for this track, Theo immediately called me and said excitedly “I can’t stop thinking about conga!” Not knowing if that was related to the track or if there was some underlying psychological issue, I went with it and - long story short - this was made.
We knew that we wanted to subvert the traditional approach to songs like this - upbeat tunes tend to mean straightforward love stories or pure party scenes. Not quite our style, and not the best promo approach when you want to stand out as a band. Without giving too much away, that was taken and twisted into something a bit more…intense.
The band was as excited as we were to try a different approach, so the collaboration from day 1 was excellent. Plus, not every musician is willing to aggressively conga for their music but that extra effort shows: this video was featured all over the place and the genre change half way through was widely appreciated for breaking the norm.
A video that brings the track to life by tossing in a good heaping handful of philosophy. Specifically, the narrative was based on a thought experiment called Mary’s Room which explores whether understanding colour scientifically is the same as actually seeing it.
That black and white basis immediately took our minds to classic cinema and, as Mary is a scientist in the thought experiment, the mad science films of years gone by seemed perfect. Young Frankenstein and Metropolis were primary references for everything from set design to acting to camera work, and the finished product benefitted from that clear vision.
Fun fact for you, the scientists were referred to as ‘Red’, “Yellow’, and ‘Blue’ throughout production which ultimately came to life in the colours of their bow ties. Tell your friends that one at the pub and they might just say “okay”. We like the little details.
Choosing to create a one take video on 16mm proved to be a challenging but fun experience. Given how expensive film can be, some immense preparation and a whole lot of rehearsal was necessary to make this come together as smoothly as it did. Plus, it was just fun to create the story of a strange primal man facing his old life. We were aiming for weird but not too weird.
You know what probably was too weird? I’ll paint you a scene: imagine two friendly hikers going on a gentle afternoon stroll through the woods and seeing a gigantic man-nest among the trees. “How peculiar” one might have said to the other before being all too ready to forget it ever happened. At that moment though a naked man clutching cake bursts out along with a burly camera operator and, out of nowhere, a strange dog who’s more interested in cake than set etiquette. So there you have a man in a loincloth, batting away a cake fiend of a dog, all while it’s caught on crisp 16mm film for far too long before ‘cut’ was yelled.
The moral of the story is that blocking off sets in a forest will always need more hands than you think. And dogs are slippery.
Too slippery.
A fun experiment in the world of meta film making, revealing a music video shoot gradually breaking down and becoming stranger as the 4th wall falls. This idea grew directly out of the song’s lyrics which tell the story of a relationship breaking down as the pair argue. We wanted to take that and deconstruct the very idea of a music video, which are always glossy and very fake. The meta irony there is that we created a fake display of something fake breaking down, which is something for you to think about in bed tonight.
There’s a lot to talk about with this shoot but the location deserves a special mention. You might be able to notice that it’s bloody nice, but what you don’t see enough of are the perks. Now I’m not talking about living on the side of a lake in a beautiful classic house that’s perfect for modern indie rock music videos. Oh no. I’m talking about having about 15 peacocks as pets. You see a glimpse of one or two throughout the video, but they were truly everywhere.
On a related fun fact, we used a few methods to reinforce that idea of a music video breaking down on set. Making the band pose and leaving the camera rolling while everyone else left without telling them anything was one of them, but what was soon discovered is that peacocks are strangely fascinated by stationary musicians.
But that’s a story for another time.
Grammy award winning artists FEVER 333 wanted a surreal video that brought to life the struggles of minority groups throughout America’s history, especially at its conception as a country. An intense subject that, as two pasty white males, we approached cautiously. We knew that the only way to do this subject justice would be to collaborate creatively with the band.
We had several lengthy conversations with the artists, each time getting closer to the final concept that you see in the video. It was a true collaboration, with Ian and I contributing concepts and style while the band helped to refine the emotional moments that were so crucial to what was made.
