DOUGAL WILSON'S MUSIC & PICTURES

From studying astrophysics at Durham University to collecting a string of top directing awards, Dougal Wilson's rise through the directing ranks has been nothing short of meteoric. We caught up with Blink's unstoppable talent at last week's Synaesthesia Event in London to find out more.

The copywriter-turned-directing maestro helmed spots for Coca-Cola, Orange and Stella Artois to name but a few. And fresh from being voted as one of the top three UK directors by his peers, Wilson joined the star-studded line-up of famed promo director Tim Pope and percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie at this year's Synaesthesia Event, which took place on November 19. Co-hosted by the Audio Network and Saatchi & Saatchi, Wilson's talk focused on his The Barber of Seville short film for Sky Arts. Here he talks us about that project, his 'hero' Dame Evelyn, and the Copenhagen climate summit.

This event is about the celebration of moving image and sound and you've been asked to speak because of the brilliant way in which you capitalise sound and humour, such as with the Barber of Seville piece you did for Sky Arts… What were some of the challenges in making a clip where you had to express a storyline with no dialogue?

The background for that film was that I had to make a short that complimented a famous aria performed by the English National Opera - and I was given Largo Al Factotum from The Barber of Seville by Rossini. When it was performed by the ENO it was sung in English (as opposed to Italian), and when I had a look at the libretto I realised that there would be a lot of vocals mentioning barbers and haircut-related things. So that steered my idea into a barber's shop setting.

Then I came up with a story to do with hair coming to life - but it had to be a story that could be told in a series of images, rather than with dialogue, as there would be constant music over the top of it. That steered me to a silent-movie format, where everything is told in mute images. My main inspirations here were Buster Keaton and a fantastic Anthony Asquith silent film from 1929 called A Cottage on Dartmoor. These films also have a very occasional title card when a piece of dialogue is absolutely necessary - so I also used title cards when I needed someone to say something that couldn't otherwise be expressed with visuals alone.

I've always enjoyed how efficient the storytelling is in silent films, when the narrative has to be pared down to pictures alone. But I suppose the format survives today when directors make contemporary narrative-style music videos.


In the Barber of Seville piece you manage to express many sensory outputs from a very limited colour palette. What were some of the other key challenges in bringing the concept to life?


Well the colour palette was quite simple as it was black and white! But Andy Kelly (the art director) and I did the best we could on our small budget to give the set and the props a 1920s British silent movie feel (although as the story goes outside this kind of falls on its face as we couldn't afford a 1920s style street....or delivery van!) The photography was an important element for the feel of the film. Alwin Kutchler, the DP, used a hand-cranked camera body and deliberately cranked it slightly irregularly to give the action a slightly staccato, juddery feel. He also used uncoated lenses and very hot light sources to give the images a silvery quality. I was hoping all these style references would help me get away with the stupid visual jokes....


How long did the project take to complete?

It was a two day shoot, but there was probably about three weeks of preparation, to build all the hair costumes and work out the storyboard, then another three weeks of editing and post production after that.


Where do you draw your inspiration from?

I really like old British silent films, such as A Cottage on Dartmoor, and old British films in general, like early Hitchcock (The Lady Vanishes, or The Thirty-Nine Steps), and Michael Powell (The Edge of the World). But this story was also partly inspired by Billy-Bob Thornton's barber character Ed Crane in The Coen Brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There. There's a scene where he gazes at the hair falling on to the floor, and ponders, "This hair... You ever wonder about it…? How it keeps on coming... It just keeps growing... And it's part of us... And then we cut it off and throw it away."


What do you hope people will glean from events like Synaesthesia?

Well the event I went to certainly had a pretty eclectic group of
Speakers - Tim Pope, who's done some really classic videos, and the legendary percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who's always been a bit of a hero of mine. Glennie did an incredible performance on a instrument that she had to pour water into - I can't remember the name of it, but it rendered everybody present speechless. So hopefully it'll be pretty stimulating for the audience and see them off with a bit of an inspired spring in their step (although I can't really speak for my own slightly ramshackle presentation).


What other projects have you got in the pipeline?

I'm pitching on a couple of videos, and working on a couple of personal things. But the main project I have coming up is a sponsored bicycle ride to The Copenhagen Climate Summit from December 5 to 12! Myself and three other friends (dubbed The Carbon Cycle - photo in gallery) have foolishly decided to cycle the 260 miles to Copenhagen (via a North Sea ferry) to make our voices heard at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, and to raise money for both Re~Cycle: Bicycle Aid For Africa, and Friends of the Earth. It's an attempt, in our own small way, to raise awareness of the importance of the Summit and the desperate need for a meaningful climate deal before it's too late. Without wishing to plug it too brutally, our Just Giving page is: www.justgiving.com/thecarboncycle
We also have a Facebook group
dougal wilson