travel < BACK to the future
“...understated, captivating dancers.”
One of the aspects of our work that we enjoy the most is coming up with music video concepts - and we like to ensure that each of our videos are very unique. Music videos involve collaboration between artists and new friends, as well as cohesion between the visuals and the sound.
“Lyrics take time for me and so foreseeing this I decided reading poetry might help bring on some lyrical fluency. I was just reminded how constant the human condition is. Good poetry is an elusive glorious glimpse. Lyrically, Tyger Tyger is a homage to those who put pen to paper through the centuries.”
ABOVE Sean O'Brien a.k.a. Joe Blossom at our first Tyger Tyger meeting at Deluxe Café, Wellington.
WHEN SEAN (Joe Blossom) O'BRIEN first approached us about making a music video we toyed with the concept of the NON-MUSIC VIDEO, or a video not comprising of elements that we would generally consider to define a typical music video (i.e. the visual companion piece to a song, that generally contains a storyline or theme).
INSTEAD it meandered from that particular concept and became more of an expression of the stark + yet magnificent beauty found in nature, sound, words, faces and between humans.
ABOVE Early trials with projections of Sean 's face layered on top of his face created a very haunting and unsteadying effect.
IT WAS a playful process - we were able to try out many different ideas and work on rooftops, against white walls, behind shimmering fabric that was projected onto.
NEITHER of us had worked with Sean O'Brien before the start of this video. We soon found that he has a very precise eye and a fine-tuned attention to detail. He's also very generous - with his time, good humour and quiet wisdom. We set about trialling some concepts, while also gathering footage from Great Barrier Island (Auckland) and Kerikeri (Bay of Islands), New Zealand.
ABOVE Choreographer Tessa Martin and Sean go through their paces.
SEAN also got in touch with a good friend and choreographer, Tessa Martin (now based in Belgium). Tessa is hilarious, as well as being a fantastic dancer. She moonlights as DJ Tessa Mary Soul - complete in full Nun regalia.
She agreed to come on board and Sean + Tessa began collaborating.
“...understated, captivating dancers.”
ABOVE Choreographer (and wicked DJ) Tessa Martin joined the team and performed in the video as well.
ABOVE Make-up by the lovely Clare McNamara.
ABOVE Tessa and Sean in costume rehearsing during a dress-run.
ABOVE Hair by Clare McNamara.
ABOVE Captions don't suffice.
ABOVE The magnificent Rainbow Falls, Kerikeri, Bay of Islands. We filmed a lot of these falls, playing with speeds and abstracting the falling droplets for the music video.
“Both Kerikeri and Great Barrier Island are places of special significance to both Sophi and I, and it was great to be able to portray and share the beauty of these places in the video.”
ABOVE Mark and Sophi monkey around while filming Rainbow Falls waterfall on location in Kerikeri, Bay of Islands.
ABOVE Sophi's mother Julia joined in.
“... [Tyger Tyger] is a bit of a homage to the poets and sages through the ages. We were writing at Waitarere Beach and I stopped into a secondhand bookstore in Levin where I bought a heavy anthology called ‘The New Golden Treasury of Verse’. Lyrics for me always take time to come together and foreseeing this, I thought reading poetry might bring about some lyrical fluency. And so I began reading before I went to sleep and first thing when I woke up. That book is a real treasury because it reminds you of how the human condition is constant – perennial. You can go and read about it 400 years ago, but not in the language of historians... rather, the economy of verse. There’s always something elusive about poetry. Good poetry is a glorious glimpse...
”By the way, I found that reading poetry before bedtime improves dreams by 67%. You should try it.”
Filmed + edited by Mark Russell, choreographed by Tessa Martin,
production Sophi Reinholt + Lance Ravenswood.
