Terence Neale in the PanicRoom

Terence Neale is best known for his music promos for Die Antwoord and Skrillex but has also shot ads for clients including KFC, Nandos and Netbank through South African production company Egg Films. Recently signing to RSA for representation in the UK and US markets, the director is excited about what’s on the horizon in terms of future work.

Last week, Neale made the 11-hour plane ride to PostPanic Amsterdam to speak at the company’s inspiration night, PanicRoom following fellow creative talents Polynoid and The Stone Twins to the stage.

Below, the director talks about some of the inspirations behind his work, paying homage to his hometown of Johannesburg and its infectious culture and way of life.

In terms of what inspires me, it’s a really broad question. I think it can be anything from the emergence of the internet to conversations you overhear in the street but when I think about what’s influenced me the most, the fact that I was born and raised in Johannesburg [comes to mind].

The city does have a huge influence over the way I think and the way I work, the attitude and style; Johannesburg is a very interesting city, a very new city, developed in the late 1800s. It’s the financial hub of Africa.

There are a lot of cultures there; different textures and people feed off each other. When I was young I always wanted to get out of Johannesburg and South Africa and I always looked to the rest of the world for inspiration from the same movies and music you probably saw and listened to but the more I think about it, I’ve developed a style that tries to emulate those things that are happening where I grew up.

The first thing I’m going to show you is my Ragga Bomb music video for Skrillex. There’s a quote by Cormac McCarthy – ‘Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave’ – and I think that’s very true for Johannesburg in that although it’s a city that can be a very scary place, at the same time it can be really inspiring.

I think the real heroes of this video are the Johannesburg waste pickers. Basically they are the people who go through the city’s trash and recycle it for money. If you ever go to Johannesburg you can usually see them walking around the streets with bags of rubbish.

A lot of people make a living from collecting trash. They separate it and take it to the recycling depot and although they get a minimal amount of money for it – around €5-20 per day – that’s how they survive. It’s not much but they’re able to get by.

They’re actually really open people. In South Africa there’s a lot of poverty and people are really poor, but the garbage pickers choose to be proactive about trying to make a living so they were really enthusiastic about getting involved in the video. We worked closely with four of them who taught us how to ride the carts they travel on.

But there are so many things happening in the city, everywhere you look.

I also did a video for Die Antwoord, called Baby’s on Fire, which was shot in the suburbs of Johannesburg. People there have a very special attitude and way of life; almost an ‘I don’t give a fuck’ kind of attitude, and get in your face.

We didn’t really use any additional actors in the video, everyone is from the area. When we were shooting these two kids just showed up so I included them in the opening shot. They were just riding around on their bikes.

Because we work on really tight budgets you have to be prepared and organised knowing exactly what you’re going to shoot to meet the schedule on time, but on occasion you can also be a bit flexible to let some magic happen.

But certain subcultures and sub-sections of society inspire me and I think it’s really important to stay true to what’s real.

There’s a short film by photographer Roger Ballen who was born in New York but has lived in South Africa since the 1970s. He lives and works in Johannesburg and it’s a very personal film interpreting his experience.

I think it describes the kind of craziness of working in the city and it’s really interesting for me because I relate to the different things you have to go through and the way you have to behave in certain tricky areas.

All this does paint a really dark picture of Johannesburg but it’s only one side of it and
 some good things do happen there, too. In terms of Ragga Bomb and Baby’s On Fire, this is the stuff that inspired me.”