It’s a good thing that editor Ross Bradshaw decided to reignite his passion for promos after a break of about four years because we’re loving his new video for Irish indie band Empire Saints’ new single Float On. We caught up with Ross to find out why he’s returned to promos, to chat about the growing music festival he’s help set up and to hear his tales of battling the elements on the Empire Saints shoot.
As somewhat of a late comer to film and video. I do indeed remember the first time I picked up a camera and I also remember within seconds of picking it up I put it back down again. At the start I was never a cameraman. To be honest the camera intimidated me a bit. My first love in college was and still today is: editing (offline and online). The minute I started my first music video I fell in love with the whole process. The more I got into editing the more I appreicated good compostion, well lit shots and good camera movement. When it comes to directing I always keep these in mind but I shoot and direct like an editor everytime.
How did you get into making music videos?
When I was younger I was a bass player in a band and in and out of art college so I always had a love for music and visual art. When I finally found my way into film college, music videos straight away pricked my interest. Although the course never really catered for them I kept my interest up by working with others in the class out of college hours. After college I stopped directing but would always agree to cut a video.
I love Float On – where did that idea come from?
The idea for Float On really came from the song itself. I know a lot of directors keep note books of ideas and thats something I’m getting into myself now but I only started forming the idea as I listened to the song on repeat. I really like taking on a video having no idea what I’m going to do. In Float On’s case I was really lucky because the song has a very clear idea of what its about and I could use that as a guideline and then elaborate my intial ideas to enhance the song.
And how did you achieve the jumping-off-the-cliff effect?
Through a lot of eye blurring hours in Photoshop and After Effects.
And what was the rest of the shoot like?
Ah the shoot! I may have given up directing for years and only got back into it at the start of this year but I’m not naive enough to think that even the most well planned shoot will go smoothly but Float On really did take the biscut. What started out as a two day shoot and quick turn around edit turned out to be a four day shoot and weeks of post production. What could go wrong did go wrong. On the first day we woke up to the worst weather you could imagine and being on the side of an exposed cliff really didn’t help. We had to call off the bands performance, the boat we had planned to shoot on and the helicotper we were using. On the rescheduled band performance day the motor on the helicopter packed in so we had to arrange yet another day, which was difficult with everybodies commitments. The only day that went to plan was the effects day but the effects planned took far longer then expected in post. I suppose every cloud has a silver lining though as I had the luxury of really focusing on every aspect in the video.
Aside from float on what piece of work are you proudest of?
There are many things that I’m proud of and each for very different reasons. The video I did before Float On. Damn Honey by Simon Fagan because it was my first video back for fours years and I was really happy with the outcome. An internet show I regularly cut (That Show With Those Girls) because of the challenge of cutting so many shows under tight deadlines and working with such great presenters. Finally the festival I helped create (BrayMusicVideoFestival) because its Ireland first and only music video festival and we set it up totally independant of any arts schemes or government funding. We’ve managed to run it now for two years and its getting bigger and better all the time.
What inspires you?
The obvious answers of course: my partner and two daughters, great directors: Kubrick, Scorsese, Anderson and the Coens but I also get inspired by simple, clever and new ways of looking at the ordinary, the mundane, the grey. I love taking the train to work and watching ordinary people fighting or celebrating, just living life really. Undicovered bands
with great tracks. I’m 29 so I think theres a lot to see that will inspire me in the future. Hopefully more ordinary people that surprise me.
