Mar 2021
How did you put together the Wiley-Dusky shoot?
I can’t really remember. It was last my music video. Back in 2016. Amber Millington produced it with a great fixer/producer in Bangkok called Ten. They did all the work really; I just remember sitting in the back of a van looking out the window and listening to Thai ballads and Justin Bieber (‘Sorry’ was big at the time and we were all giddy for it). I had a bad habit back then of working arse-backwards on projects; proposing a made-up idea and then scrambling to put it together once it was commissioned. So not doing any research beforehand. The job itself was kind of run and gun, I think we shot for 3 days. A tiny crew, Nic, our DP, an incredible Thai steadicam op and his two assistants, and then Amber, Ten and myself. I’ve always liked working in that tight knit way. My work had been quite pre-planned before, but I was keen to make something on the fly. Lots of other directors at the time were shooting these kinetic ‘doc’ videos with hundreds of set ups and different locations and I think I just wanted to jump on the bandwagon a bit. Throw caution to the wind and be a bit more reactive than I was used to being. Or just make something flashy.
Some of it was shot in industrial estates on the outskirts of Bangkok and some of it in a national park up the north. It was all quite casual for the most part. There was a scene in a waterfall in the park. I was petrified of leeches and those little fish that swim up people penis’, but we couldn’t afford wet suits, so we had to buy kids pyjamas and gaffer tape them tight at the ankles and wrists. It was one of those shoots. (I mean that in a positive way).
I’m not sure it was a complete success as a video. It was definitely in a trendier vein than I had worked in before. And have since (still the only time I’ve used a steadicam!). The final thing felt kind of impersonal and a bit too cool for me.
Who in Blur approached you to do their video?
I wish I was well known enough to be approached by a band like Blur, but I’m not. I did have an amazing rep at the time (Joceline Gabriel), who convinced even me that I could do the work. It was commissioned by Will Nichols at Parlophone, so I guess he was team-blur. But it was completely shaped by Damon Albarn. I’d written a vague 2 page pitch about Chinese fitness dancing (I’d seen the pensioners in the parks in China, dancing together in the evenings to this brilliantly tacky techno folk music) and to go with the treatment I made a little video in which I found an amateur fitness/folk dance instructor on YouTube and cut some his videos together to show how the choreography could work with the track. When Damon saw it suggested we just go and film the man from the videos. So we phoned him up. His name's Philip Hui, he’s a computer programmer in San Francisco. He was the nicest guy, but obviously quite suspect that we wanted to put him and his students in a music video. We spent two weeks with him and his crew. In the day times we visited community centres around the city (we saw and photographed every one of them) and in the evenings after he finished work we’d meet him at a school to rehearse. It was another example of doing the research after the fact, hoping that there’s something out there that matches your imagination. But in my memory it was all quite relaxed. Or maybe not actually, now I think about it I do remember being worried that I was asking him for too much and that he was going to walk off the project any minute. I find it a bit more stressful working with non actors that way, they've always got the freedom to fuck things off if they've had a gutsful of the film crew.
Where did you learn your craft?
I don’t think I really have a good sense of craft. I think (rather pretentiously) that I’m some sort of rank amateur. Anything I’ve learnt is just the accumulation of experience. Just from prepping, shooting, editing, and figuring out how things work and go together by getting things wrong and having to find solutions to cheat things. And watching films of course. And reading fiction. And thinking about communication, how to communicate an idea succinctly, but also interestingly. But I’m definitely still a student. Still figuring it all out.
What is in the future for you?
I’m in the process of editing my first feature documentary. I’m cutting it myself, which at first was a voyage of discovery and now is just a hellish world of pain and self-doubt. It’s about my next-door neighbour, she’s a fantastic film buff in her 70’s, she’s a lifelong agoraphobic but full of beans. The film’s kind of a gently tragicomic piece about love and loss and a late in life discovery of sexuality. It’s kind of a peaceful film. But funny, very dialogue heavy but minimal and still. I shot it piecemeal over two years between jobs and started cutting it just as the pandemic hit. So I’d saved up some money to be able take time off work to edit. So I was quite fortunate that I had stuff to do when everything stopped and I also has some money there to the rent. It’s almost finished. I’m hoping to do more documentary work after this film. At least one more feature doc.
How is the pandemic treating you
^ see above
What would you like readers to know about you and what you do
Don’t know.
Which works of yours should ppl see first?
I'm not sure. I’ve not watched any for so long. Maybe the Blur video, or the one I did for Local Natives. Those are the only ones I remember not completely cringing at when I saw them last.
You’ve worked with Michael Kiwanuka! What’s he like?
He was great. Just really down to earth and easy going. I’ve done two projects with him. A simple performance video from his first record, and this advertorial (?) doc-ish thing for fender. He didn’t remember me though. I was quite young and frightened on the video shoot, I’d not really done an artist video before and it was my first job when I arrived in London so I think I was all sheepish and unsure.
Who else do you wish to work with
Kanye. Kanye. Kanye. And also the ghost of Jerry Lewis
Finally, there is a movie in you, I can feel it.
That’s kind, thanks Kev. I hope so.
Good luck in your endeavors-
✌ And you. Cheers Kev!
Ben Reed's website is benjaminreed.co.uk