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Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Creative in association withGear Seven
Group745

Biffy Clyro’s Black Chandelier

30/01/2013
Production Company
London, UK
156
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Big TV’s Andy Delaney on smart shooting for the Scottish rockers

 

When rockers Biffy Clyro were on the hunt for a music video with the scale to smash the States, they needed a director who was used to epic projects. Cue Big TV. The duo, who have just signed to Black Label and who are currently working on their first feature film, were the obvious choice. After all, they do have a track record that includes Billboard-topping Brits such as George Michael, the Spice Girls and Dido. We caught up with Andy Delaney to find out more about the dark dystopia he whipped up with partner Monty Whitebloom.
 
 
LBB> The Biffy Clyro video looks like a pretty big production number – why was this sense of scale important?
 
AD> It was pretty big, given the budget. We had to do some pretty clever things to get the most out of the money. We were asked to create something with scale and that’s what we gave them. It was quite ambitious really. We hadn’t done any videos for a while and we thought it was a really great song.
 
LBB> Where was it shot?
 
AD> We shot it in a studio in London - the external shots were in Paddington. Hopefully it looks non-descript and not too English. The record company wanted something that would work in America.
 
LBB> When you first heard the song, what was it that lead you to that sci-fi story and setting?
 
AD> We knew we wanted them to play the song live. In their other videos the band have acted and played roles but we thought that would be a bit silly for this one. We wanted to film them in a really dramatic way, but to show them playing and integrate them into the story that way. 
 
I’m not sure what the video means. Is it some kind of Zombie Beatlemania? Or is it forces of the unconscious rising up? Or it’s the power of rock destroying oppression… I’m not sure what it is actually, we just wanted to have something oppositional. We wanted to make something that had drama and that was very cinematic and strong. It was important that the band came through very authentically.
 
I’m not sure where ideas come from, they just slowly emerge. Because there are two of us, we knock things back and forwards and evolve an idea that way so it’s hard to pin down where it actually comes from. 
 
LBB> You mention being smart with the budget – how did you manage that?
 
AD> The helicopter was done by our post company in LA, for example. In the past we did videos that had million dollar budgets – that just doesn’t happen anymore. People come to us because they want to do something big, but we know we have to be very clever about how we do that. We want to be able to continue to make things. We have some very good people on our side so we can make things look pretty epic, very reasonably.
 
LBB> The climax of the video is pretty impressive – how did you achieve that? 
 
AD> It was pretty much done in-camera. We wanted the frozen mass of people to be there while the band played, so we had to shoot them together. We filmed it on stage, live, with people holding themselves in position, with wires to hold them in place. There was a bit of overcranking and cleaning up in post, but actually we just had to be very careful about how we photographed it. We didn’t use a big rig or anything. Hopefully it’s quite an unexpected way to finish the video.
 
LBB> Aside from being smart with the budget and creating the final set-piece, were there any particular challenges that cropped up, shooting in Paddington, for example?
 
AD> No, not really. We had to shoot things really quickly and there’s the challenge of making something very ambitious in a very limited amount of time. It means that you have to be very prepared because you’re only going to get one take of every scene. You need to figure out a way to light the shots which is very dramatic but also very quick to do. When you attempt to do something that looks big you have to be very clear about what you’re doing so that you can work quickly – and we know how to do that. The record company and the management were very good. We told them that it was extraordinarily ambitious for the money and they weren’t going to get a vote. We said that they had to just watch us and let us get on with it because if they were to start commenting on things and asking for retakes, we’d never finish it. They were very good and organised and did exactly what we said.
 
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