PRETTYBIRD's Joseph Wilson Directs Eerily Surreal Promo for Patrick Wolf's 'Nowhere Game'
PRETTYBIRD director Joseph Wilson directs acclaimed singer, songwriter, composer and producer Patrick Wolf in music video for 'Nowhere Game', from his forthcoming 'The Night Safari' EP. As defiant and thrilling as 'Enter the Day' was romantic and wistful, 'Nowhere Game' provides yet another scintillating clue to the enigma that is the much anticipated 'Night Safari' EP, due for release next spring on Wolf’s own label, Apport.
The latest track arrives with a beautifully cinematic, eerily surreal, night shot video from the award-winning director Joseph Wilson (PRETTYBIRD), whose work exploring LGBTQ+ narratives has been critically lauded and celebrated in equal measure. 'Nowhere Game' is actually the second part of a short film which will arrive in the coming weeks.
Wilson directed out of production company PRETTYBIRD UK, with executive producer Juliette Larthe, producer Chris Murdoch and DOP Anibal Castano, with costume design by Patrick Wolf and Marco Tullio Siviglia. Wolf and Wilson collaborated closely on the creative conception, which was inspired by Greek mythology and the Myth of Sisyphus.
Patrick Wolf delves into the video’s concept and creation here: “This video is the second part of a film directed by Joseph Wilson that journeys through the first two tracks of The Night Safari E.P, this second part opens with me rowing down the black frozen river of the previous song into the “Nowhere Game” that Joseph and I imagined up inspired by our own mutual experiences of nowhere. Every stitch of clothes and costume in the video from my own to the nowhere creatures too was handmade by me and the visionary Marco Tullio Siviglia, our collaboration, as it came to pass with every creative and dancer involved on the video became as magical as it was accidentally emotional. As we all began to enter past the midnight hour it soon began to feel like an act of solidarity filming in the abandoned Beacon Hill Fort on the coldest night of 2022”
Director Joseph Wilson worked with movement director Ted Rogers to direct the performers or the ‘gloms’ as Wilson and Wolf named them. Their story was inspired by the Greek Myth of Sisyphus, who is condemned to roll a rock up to the top of a mountain, only to have the rock roll back down to the bottom every time he reaches the top. Patrick spoke about how he had learnt to let go of his resentments, lifting a great weight of his shoulders. So the idea was that the ‘gloms’ were pulling around their resentments (which start off as small pieces of coal) and develop into large heavy boarders as the story goes on.”
Joseph Wilson comments: “When Patrick approached me about collaborating it was really a ‘pinch yourself’ sort of moment. I used to listen to Patrick at college before I came out and had been to a couple of his London shows when I was 17. I saw a lot of myself in Patrick and he gave me hope that there were other people like me out there so to be working with him all these years later is very poignant for me.
Aside from our creative vision, we share a lot of similarities growing up as outsiders and both overcoming our own traumas through the pandemic. I had come across Beacon Fort a few years ago (I’d been saving it for the perfect project) and this felt like the perfect setting for the Nowhere Game. Located at the very edge of a quiet coastal town in Essex, the cold concrete structures and its prolific history of war, battle and invasion created the perfect setting for the Nowhere Game. Many of the cast and crew were lifelong Patrick fans, which made the shoot feel even more worthwhile. I remember looking up to the sky and seeing a dozen shooting stars as the performers pulled rocks around Patrick whilst he played the viola. It was such a moment! Regardless of the fact there was no electricity, and it was the coldest day of 2022! It was all worth it.”
Wolf is one of the most talented and idiosyncratic musicians of his generation, with a run of critically hailed albums, starting with “Lycanthropy” in 2003 to “Lupercalia” in 2010 which saw him incorporating everything from viola, Celtic harp, dulcimer, baritone ukulele, piano, harpsichord, analog synthesisers and re-sampled field recordings in his music and collaborating with the likes of Marianne Faithfull, Tilda Swinton, Angelo Badalamenti and Patti Smith, among others. “The Night Safari” EP will be released early next year.
