This music video we truly LOVE, an absolutely until-death-do-we-part number. And we’re not the only ones to fall for this beautifully shot, melancholic clip called Always Coming Down. The judges voted the director, Stephen Carroll, the winner of the shots New Director Award Asia/Pacific 2011 at a party in Sydney this week where we caught up with the Melbourne-based newbie.
Had you done previous work with the band Cordrazine before this cracking clip?
We had made a clip for a solo artist Nick Batterham early last year. It was an amazing experience, shooting in the pine forests of Mt Macdeon, following a young man who wakes up everyday to set bear traps, one morning waking to find he’s captured a girl. Nick was really happy with the clip and had mentioned that he was part of another band Cordrazine.
Hamish the lead singer had told us that the majority of the lyrics for Always Coming Down were written in a chicken coup, early one morning, after a big night. That intrigued us. After chatting to the band we decided we really wanted to shoot something underwater. Visually we felt shooting high speed underwater would work in symbiosis with the weight of the track. We also wanted something that would show the physicality of Hamish, the lead singer.
We pitched the idea to the band and they got really excited. What was great is that we managed to pull in favours from crew that we had worked with in commercials. This gave us the opportunity to shoot a high concept idea, underwater, without feeling like we were compromised, which is often the case with clips. We ended up blacking out a state of the art dive pool in Melbourne. We shot on a combination of Red and Canon 5D.
Shooting underwater must have brought its own set of challenges?
One of the major challenges in shooting was communication and fatigue. In hindsight it seems obvious, but the simple act of giving direction to two DOPs who are underwater for three hours at a time, is a little difficult. We ended up scribbling stuff down on a white board and submerging it, the DOP’s who would then “nod” their cameras when they understood. It was challenging to say the least. The fatigue of the two performers was another big factor. It was a six-hour shoot, which sounds small, but when you’re submerging to five metres every few minutes, it takes its toll. Fortunately, Cassie the woman that plays the siren character was an experienced diver and underwater camera assistant. And with Hamish, well, we were very lucky that he’s a super fit guy, I think if he’d you’re your average muso he would have lasted ten minutes.
Tell us a bit about how you got into directing…
I studied at the Victorian College of the Arts and was lucky enough to graduate with a short film, Kin, that was selected for a number of international festivals. After that I was given the opportunity to work as a directors assistant for a while on feature films. That then lead to working as a DA in the commercial world. Again, I was lucky enough to work with some amazing directors who then encouraged me to step up as a director. To do that I made a few spec spots in an effort to “fabricate” a reel in some sense.
It was while working as a DA I met producer Tobias Webster who expressed an interest in teaming up. Shortly after that we met with Jo De Fina who had started the exciting new production company The Otto Empire. We had already been handed a script for our first commercial so on the back of that commercial and the specs I had already shot we were signed with Otto.
When did you first pick up a camera?
I’m not sure when the first time I picked up a camera was. It might have been when trying to get into the Victorian College of the Arts, which has a pretty rigorous selection process. Before that I was working as a cabinet maker funnily enough…. an industry about as far removed from this as you can probably get.
What’s your Plan A?
At this stage it looks like more commercials and hopefully more music videos. Branded content, particularly fashion films, is something we have been exploring recently. We’re really excited to be at Otto, such a great group of people.
