Director: Marc Oller

Director: Marc Oller

Video: 'Laberinto'

Band: Verkeren

How were you approached for the job?

It wasn't through the normal channels because I already knew Verkeren before we made this video. In a matter of fact, the singer has a good relationship with CANADA and myself. We had already talked about making a video for them so, in this case, it was quite personal.


What inspired you on your idea for the video?

The band gave me creative freedom so I had to create an idea for myself from the beginning. I thought that this video had to be kind of a declaration of intentions for the band, so it needed to transmit their essence. 
Just to get an idea, the band is formed by a group of crazy thirty somethings who you cannot stop laughing with. They're making jokes all the time and even one of them rules a very successful Youtube comedy channel. For me it was obvious that this video had to be fun and since I enjoy telling narrative stories (especially the ones involving teenagers) it had to be a weird-moustache-teenager-romantic-dancing-comedy. It just couldn't be any other way.



What was the budget?

I don't remember, but it was VERY SMALL.


Tell us about the production process?

For me the actors go first. They are the most important part of the video. So once we began with the pre production, the casting was the first thing to start with. The girl, Kimberley Tell was easy. I had already had my eye on her previously so I knew it had to be her, but it got really hard to find the proper actor for the male role. We casted 50 people and finally we met David Anguera, who's a really talented actor and performer. 

The book colours on the shelves are a really nice touch. Were all those books sourced from the library you shot in?

Some books were taken from the library and some others were brought on the set by the art director. Anyways, most of the books were regular books covered in red or blue (the main background colours) using different materials.

The dancing seems very loose and fun. Was there much choreography with the lead actor, did he improvise much?

This choreography was created in an unconventional way. The choreographers, David and I met in the CANADA office. There we played the song very loud and we all started making these weird dancing movements and saw what made us laugh. I remember that it was a hilarious day at the office. 
The choreographers had already thought of some dance movements for the song, but David was so creative and funny that we had to take advantage of that. We wanted to have a natural and improvised choreography, so I recorded ourselves dancing with a video camera in order to get the spontaneity of the moment and then I edited a video with the best moves. 

With this material, the choreographers created the final dance. In other words, the choreography was based on an improvised dance, but we knew exactly what we were going to do in the shooting.


What were the limitations you faced with the production?

The production process was very difficult because of the low budget. That affected the video in different ways. For instance, we couldn't afford the library we wanted so we had to spend a lot of time searching a good location that fitted in the budget. We also had to adapt the shooting to a one-day-shoot instead of a necessary two-day-shoot. We shot nearly 24 hours in one day and we had to remove some shots that we had no time to do. 

24 hours shooting is a huge undertaking, how did everyone get though it?

The crew was fantastic and I have to thank their effort, because it is thanks to them that we were able to shoot this music video. They were very passionate and I believe they liked what we were doing, so they made things really easy for me.



What was the turnaround?

It was 3 weeks from production to completion. The real turnaround was the one established by the budget. The longer we spend shooting, editing or post producing, the more expensive it got.


Who were your key collaborators?

My key collaborators were Alberto Bañares (DOP), Carla Moreno (Art Dept), Txesma Lasa (AD), Vicki Viñas (Stylist), Ana Cano (Makeup), Carlos Font (Editor), Blanca Ballesté (PM) Brendan Golden (Sound), Tuixén Benet and Angela Boix (Choreographer)


Have you worked with any of them before?

I had worked with all of them before except for Alberto Bañares (DOP) and Carla Moreno (Art), who was the first time I worked with them.


What did you shoot on? What lenses did you use?

We shot on the Arri Alexa and used the Zeiss Superspeeds lenses.


How involved were the band and label?

In this case it was very easy to work with both label and band. The label gave us 100% freedom to do whatever we wanted. I think we were also very lucky to have Verkeren as clients because they understood the difficulty and ambitiousness of the project and helped us in everything they could. They even were PA or runners when needed!


If you had a chance to approach it again, what would you do differently?

We took what we had and we did our best, so I don't believe I'd change anything

Photos taken by Francesc Pascual