Donnie Darko vs. Richard X
The-Raft talk to 'Albert', the directors of Richard X's latest video!
J: Explain the idea behind the video?
A: We’re really into this film ‘Donnie Darko’ and there’s a great scene in there where his little sister and four of her mates form a little dance team called ‘Sparkle Motion’ dance in front of the parents and friends at a little pageant. And there was just something quite charming at how...I suppose, at how seriously they took the whole thing, how well choreographed it was to an extent and how engaging it was. It was kinda funny yet kinda interesting to look at. And we were interested to see how that could be subverted so that five 10 year old girls could be dancing in front of their parents, then they turn into fifteen year olds then become 25. What would it look like, and how would their dancing change. It’s as simple as that really...it was an observation that turned into speculation that turned into an idea that fortunately Richard X liked.
J: Did the idea come directly from listening to the track itself?
A: Umm, well it was a thought we’d had for a while, even before we heard the track. Then when we got the song, we ran a little test by cutting it into that ‘Donnie Darko’ scene, and it seemed to work. We sent it to Richard X and he seemed to like it as well. / Also, the track seems to suggest a certain amount of nostalgia, but it wasn’t a simple as taking our cue directly from the lyrics, but definitely loosely.
J: What was it like shooting the video on the actual day?
A: It was hard, there was a lot to do...because we had three sets of girls dancing, and they were choreographed really well and the moves were great, but getting the cameras in the right positions and rotating the dancers for different scenes. So there were a lot of camera positions and lots of dancing, and all the other little bits like the audience and Richard X’s cameo, so there’s lots of different elements. / It was quite a tricky one to balance. I mean, it’s not unusual to have dancers in a video, but we weren’t trying to film it like a traditional dance video, with moves choreographed for the camera position. It was supposed to be an observational thing that these girls are performing to an audience and our cameras are there watching. So it’s trying to keep it visually interesting but not making feel like a traditional dance video.
J: It looks quite film like...
A: Yeah...it’s this thing were it’s like we’re almost watching something real happening. / There is a slight narrative structure to it so it needed to be shot in a slightly narrative way.
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