Director: Prad Senanayake
Director: Prad Senanayake
Artist: Jinja Safari
Video: Dozer
How
were you approached for the job?
Conrad
Lloyd and Josh Kellet from Universal got in touch and asked me to submit a
pitch.
What inspired
you on your idea for the video?
I
started off wanting to work with the whole concept of relaxation, and all the
strange and absurd things that people do in order to achieve it.
This
led me to research new age groups of the 1970's and their bizarre combinations
of science, spirituality and psychology that they had going on back then. Naturally,
this led me to invent my own weird little sect.
When doing your research, were there any sects that stood out?
There
were a few. The Raelian's: who are big into their UFO's and study things like
human cloning and 'Sensual Meditation'. There was also a book published in the
70's called 'The Secret Life Of Plants' which had all sorts of strange
psudeo-scientific spiritual stuff in it, such people connecting electrodes to
ferns and communicating with them.
What was the
budget?
Is
it ok to omit this question? Only reason why, is that this was a passion
project for me, budget was pretty average but I liked the song so I pulled a
bunch of favours to get it done.
Tell us about
the production process?
We
started with the concept of 4 distinct scenes going on in the commune,
including a fake band performance. Using this as our foundation, I worked
closely with the DP and Art Director too bring each area it to life in it's own
way.
What were the
limitations you faced with the production?
The
biggest was location. We had to find one that really had character. To me mid
century modernist design seemed a perfect fit for the story.
We
went everywhere and even put callouts on architecture blogs. At the 11th hour
we found the Boyd Baker Residence tucked away in country Victoria. It ended up
perfect, from the colour pallet to the authentic furniture.
Were
the owners of the house open about the shoot?
They
were totally fine. I think a family trust owns it. They found what we were
doing quite fascinating.
What
was the turnaround?
From
memory 2-3 weeks
How
long was the actual location shoot?
It
was a one day shoot on location.
Who were your key collaborators?
I
frequently collaborate with the same people. I got my regular DP/Drinking buddy
Liam Gilmour on board, and between us we developed a measured and considered
shooting style for the day. I also worked closely with the art
department/stylist Christina Remnant, which was fun because we got to pretty
much invent a cult between us.
Have you worked
with any of them before?
I
work with Liam on most of my videos when he is available. Only worked once
before with Christina.
What did you
shoot on? What lenses did you use?
Arri
Alexa with vintage Pancros.
Tell
us about the casting? Where did you find everyone?
Casting
was mainly done by digging through people that had already applied for other
jobs that were not cast but I always wanted to use for a project.
I
always keep a bank of interesting 'faces' on file for jobs like this.
How
did you get everyone in character?
I
burned some Nag Champa and gave them individual massages. No, in actuality as
soon as they got on their costumes and had a few run throughs, they got into
the vibe pretty easily. I got the 'leader' of the band to study the mannerisms
of Eastern celebrity holy men from the 60's and 70's, like the Maharishi Yogi.
Do you feel that
the client understands the production process? How involved were the band and
label?
The
brief from the band and label went something like: "This kinda reminds us of a pool party before Coechella full of
hot girls...sorta" that was about it.
So
you could say it was pretty open! I I had free reign to let my ideas go
wild.
I
think the label and band had only 2 small changes to the edit and we were good
to go.
If you had a
chance to approach it again, what would you do differently?
Simplify.
Simplify. Simplify. Lately I’ve been trying to boil down my ideas to express
them as concisely as possible with no fat.
Which
is tough because I am maximal by nature.
You can see Prad's other work at his website.
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