Iouri Philippe Paillé on Beats, Rhymes & Thug Life

Director Iouri Philippe Paillé's new music video features a bong-smoking office thug who morphs into a monkey and blows his own brains out. But the promo is full of five-second unexpected skits that’ll keep you entertained to the end.

Created for a collaboration between Canadian electro-jazz act Misteur Valaire and rapper Heems, and featuring an appearance from actor Maxime Alexandre Racicot, the promo introduces a rebellious thug, suited and booted in an office setting. However, a hard day’s work is the last thing on his mind...

Below, Life Gets Brutal's director, Iouri Philippe Paillé, tells us more about the production, which was made on a shoestring via Antler with some cool VFX via Shed.

Where did the office theme come from and tell us about the idea?

The chorus, "You belong to the city, why are you trying to play me baby", sang by all those voices, made me think of someone that is out of place. A thug that somehow landed in the most brutal place possible: a boring nine to five office job. I thought it was an interesting and playful take on the name of the song, Life Gets Brutal. For a thug, the street life isn't brutal, the street life is just how it is; what's brutal is having your life spin against its own nature.

How did Maxime wind up being cast and why was he right for the role?

As I elaborated the idea, it became obvious to me that I had created a character. A character that wasn’t about Heems, that was about a misfit; a larger than life, white trash thug stuck in its perfect counterpart, the brutally boring nine to five, behind the desk job. As this became clear, and I decided to go with an actor, it opened up some really playful ideas I would never dare try with a rapper.

I could use his skills, (not to mention his tolerance to being played with on a very long day of shooting), and make him act in a very specific, odd, over the top way. Thanks to our great casting manager, Roxanne Doucet, we cast mainly weird looking guys, seeking for an explosive and hard to find combo: an odd looking misfit actor that had the patience of a saint but could rhyme like a badass. It wasn't easy, but I finally found him. I had worked with him on a music video for Mika (Make You Happy) and when I saw him at casting, I realised it had been written for him.

The video is set in one location – how long did you shoot for?

This shoot was a "tour de force"! We were working on a shoestring production budget, and I decided that having the right location look the right way was crucial. We shot the video in a weird motel room, the kind of motel room you rent for an hour (yeah, you know what that means). I was looking for wood panel walls, and a 1980s old boring office vibe.

Carolyne De Bellefeuille, our awesome art director, redid the whole interior to transform it into an office that seems extracted from a 1988 insurance building. We shot for a straight 16 hours. The hard part was all the resets. I decided the only way to shoot this in one day was to avoid masters, and decide in advance exactly what lyrics would be paired with what effect, and then shoot every specific shot in five second sequences.

My first assistant director, Alexandra Quesnel, lost her hair over it, but she managed to keep us on track all day long, and it wasn't an easy task.

Was the plan to include VFX all along, or did that get introduced as the idea developed?

Every shot was initially planned. All the five-second sequences were shot specifically either for an in-cam effect or a VFX. But I must say, with the fantastic creative powerhouse that is Shed's team, they brought the whole thing to another level! Their creative input and ideas throughout the post production process were most welcomed and a lot of their cool ideas came through in the final video, which is what make it a very fruitful collaboration.

Did you come up with all the sketches and skits or was the artist involved in that side of things?

I wrote about 75 ideas that I first presented to the band. They liked it, got the vibe, and we exchanged on what was relevant or less relevant. From there, they gave me full control on what would end up in the video. I distilled and distilled the ideas until I felt like it all weirdly made sense (yes, in all its chaos, weirdness and odd blend of events). I thank them for that, I love when bands dare to give full creative control to us, especially when we have such a nice creative team behind it.

Did you go through many props to get the shots?

Every prop was assigned to a specific four-five second sequence, so we ended up using pretty much all we had! We shot much more drawer top shots, using every single relevant prop we had (and even some other props that you never see and reference some of the lyrics). I felt like less was more with these drawer shots, as I liked them but wanted the video to stay high paced and exciting.

It looks like a big edit job; tell us about that stage…

David Valiquette. He is my favourite editor in the world. A good friend, too. Even though the video was "shot for edit", because of the very short precise sequences, it wasn’t easy to piece together. He and I had a long back and forth [conversation] and many, many versions! At one point, he went on a job in Thailand for a week, and it gave us a little time to let the edit sit in our heads. When he came back, we went back at it and knew exactly how to polish it. I must say Shed's layers of effects really took the edit to a whole new level.

Was the artist happy with the result?

Definitely. It’s quite different from what they usually do so it was a process for them to realise they were gonna release something that will be engraved in your head, but they were awesome. These guys are very creative and very respectful of our work. They understood everything I wanted to do, and were willing to push themselves out of their comfort zone because they recognised the potential and are always looking for fruitful collaborations.