WORDS FROM THE DIRECTOR, KEVIN MASON:
The ideas for this video shoot came from a few places, but mainly the 80′s styling (soundtrack etc) of Drive, the Ryan Gosling film as well as JG Ballards Crash, or at least David Cronenburg’s film version. I also watched Vanishing Point a few times, and took something from the idea that the lost ‘hero’ Kowalwski just drives, and does so because he is stuck in mental limbo – this became the reference for smashing the windsrceen etc before the shoot. A lot of my video work/fashion stories take a strong influence from cinema.
I was really keen to try and get the fetish quality of materials across, in key scene (for me) of the film Crash Rosanna Arquette gets her leg brace stuck in the leather of a super expensive car in the showroom and it tears the leather. This mix of hard polished metal and leather was the styling brief that I gave to Heather who came back with some amazing jewellery pieces, like the knuckle duster rings, which she paired up with beautiful leather wear. We even managed to squeeze in an original antique Victorian leg brace in the final shots. I am intrigued by the mix of man and machine, and how people feel a car is part of them.
Sam Hiscox and I worked on our direction to the model that everything had to be slow, deliberate and almost automated with movements. Each gear change should be punishing, really pushing hard, so we could emphasis the model and the car being one. The make up direction was fairly simple, with an emphasis on really contouring the face first and then adding a slight metallic shimmer to the cheekbone as we progressed.
With the edit we wanted to recreate the feel of an overwatched, over recorded VHS tape, and reflect this in the font as well. Sam produced a beautiful edit that shimmers and glitches and re-enforces the feeling of machines and mechanisation. The lighting direction came from wanting to make a sensual, neon, seductive feel. I then gave an industrial feel brief to the two people that produced a beautiful score for us.
Director: Kevin Mason
Camera/Editor: Sam Hiscox
Model: Mimi at Profile Model Management
Styling: Heather Falconer
Hair: Stylist Kalvyn Celic
Stylist’s Assistant: Sophie Yates
Assistant/Lighting Tech: Leon Foggit
Second Assistant: Matt Martin
Set Construction/Car Modification: Matthew Ring
Set Dressing: Alex Thirlwell
Original Score: THEO CELANO and ELIAS MOUKARZEL
Designers: AND_I, SVETA SOTNIKOVA, MARIA PIANA, ATSUKO KUDO, BJORG, DANS LA VIE, BERNARD CHANDRAN, MISSTA
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