God (and Karmarama) Only Knows How They Did It

If you haven't already seen the new ident-cum-music video-cum-short film for BBC Music then stop reading this and watch the below.

Seen it now? Brilliant, isn't it?  

Airing in a 'roadblock' event on the BBC on Tuesday October 7 at 8pm GMT, where it played across all channels, including all of the BBC's radio stations, the new film, which is set to the Beach Boys' famous hit, God Only Knows, is a huge labour of love for everyone invloved in its creation; a period of creation which began two-and-a-half years ago and which features artists including Pharrell Williams [below], Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Kylie Minogue and, of course, the song's writer and former Beach Boy, Brian Wilson.  

The film brings together the above stars [and many more] plus the 80-piece strong BBC Concert Orchestra, awad-winning producer Ethan Johns and charity Children in Need. Agency Karmarama London is the driving force behind the project and creative director Sam Walker [below, second from left with Joe de Souza, third from left] discusses how it all came together, why it has taken a long time to come to fruition and what it's like working with the cream of the world's musical maestros. 

You’ve been working on this project for some time; tell us a bit about how and when it started.

It's definitely the longest project we've ever done and I don't think anyone thought it would take as long as it has. The brief for the project was two and a half years ago and we've been recording and shooting for over eighteen months. The ambition of the project grew and in the end took on a momentum all of its own.

What was it the BBC wanted to achieve with this campaign?

The BBC is incredibly important to the world of music and contributes so much. It's not only a platform and a curator but also develops new talent, breaks new ground and represents genres and audiences that simply don't get a look in anywhere else.

It plays a truly unique role and this project was about recognising that and creating something that would remind people what BBC Music can do. They do what they do just for the love of music, without commercial interests, and it's for this reason that they manage to be as diverse, inclusive and progressive as they are. It's basically a love letter to music from the BBC. 

It’s was obviously an epic undertaking; was it always envisioned as such?

Originally it started off being a regular, albeit ambitious, trail without relying on any particular talent. We had this idea about an orchestra playing a version a classic track and then the theatre coming to life.

Originally it was Iron Maiden's Phantom of the Opera and had volcanoes and the sea swamping the whole place. It kept evolving and changing and then the idea of talent was added in. Once the ambition of the piece became clear the visuals changed to reflect that.

Did those goals remain the same throughout or did they change as the project grew?

The aim was always the same even if the execution wasn't. 

Tell us a bit about the song; were there other contenders for the main track or was God Only Knows always the first choice?

We went through hundreds of different tracks. As I mentioned, the original concept had Iron Maiden's Phantom of the Opera - using the instrumental part played by a classical orchestra -but the project quickly evolved away from that.

We then needed a populist but credible song with lyrics that had meaning. We searched for months and then got down to about six or so tracks. There are surprisingly few that fit the bill. We needed something universal that appealed to a wide audience but was still bold.

We had a couple of Beatles tracks, another Beach Boys one, two David Bowie tracks, some Kinks and a couple of others from different decades. There are so many tripwires you need to be careful of but hopefully we ended up with the right one. Once we'd chosen it and got Ethan Johns on board as producer we sat down to work out how to approach it.

It was quite intimidating to try and do a new version of a song that is regularly voted one of the five best songs of all time. If we were going to do it we would need to do a version that was respectful of the original but still find a way of making it our own. 

And was Brian Wilson immediately amenable to the idea?

Brian Wilson [above] hearing about the project, hearing the orchestral base for the song, and saying he liked it and was in, was a massive step forward for us. That's when it felt like it might actually happen. Until that point we'd already got some great people but if we hadn't got Brian it would always have been a massive and obvious omission. He had to be in there and we're so chuffed he likes it. 

How hard was the process of deciding who should be featured in the film and who should sing which lines?

Ridiculously complicated. We had a weird matrix with all these huge music stars listed in different combinations. One person said yes, we had to change the balance, another said no we had to think of a replacement.

It was an ever-evolving piece that didn't settle until the very last person we got with three weeks to go. For us it was never fully complete talent-wise until Dave Grohl [left] said yes. And because of the unique way the BBC appeals to wide audiences it was also important to represent multiple genres of music, from pop, to rock, to jazz, to world and obviously classical.

It was slightly bizarre for us to be telling these huge artists which lines they would be singing but it was also like a huge game of musical chairs. Not everyone sang the whole song so if Stevie Wonder sings a particular line then that line has gone. It doesn't matter who comes along after that, if Stevie is singing that line then Stevie is singing that line.

We tried to come out of the blocks with a big opening and for us Pharrell Williams was the obvious choice. He's the artist who's had the three biggest songs in the world over the last two years which is some statistic. It was then a case of trying to keep surprising the viewer all the way through the song, with different genres, different ages and different styles. 

People are bound to make comparison to the BBC’s Perfect Day film after watching this; were you aware that would be the case while making it and do you consider it a fair comparison?

When the project started it was nothing like Perfect Day [below] and just featured the orchestra, but the more it developed and the more it became about talent the comparisons were inevitable. The first time it got mentioned we were not happy. Perfect Day is still remembered by most people and it's over 19 years old!

It's one of the biggest and most memorable trails of the last two decades and to be compared to it felt like setting the bar almost unachievably high. But once the link had been made we had to stop fighting it and get on with it. Ok if that's what we've got to do, that's what we've got to do. Trying to follow one of the best loved trails ever is not a easy task or something most people would want to do. We hope we've managed to do something that can stand on its own.

It’s has far more scale than Perfect Day; was that a conscious decision?

Yes, Perfect Day started from talent out, whereas ours started from a concept with a story and narrative and then added in talent on top. It made it way, way harder to shoot. It wasn't just a case of filming people singing to camera, that had to fit in in the impossible orchestra narrative and perform certain actions depending on where they fitted in the film.

The lighting, action and even wardrobe all changed whether they were nearer the start, the middle or the end. We aimed to create depth and scale by building it around the overall narrative of the orchestra and theatre coming to life. It was much harder to do than it could have been, but hopefully it's been worth it. 

The film has been under wraps for a long time; was it hard keeping such a huge project a secret?

Yes, it's been the most embargoed film we've ever worked on. It was one of those where if it had leaked out at all the whole element of surprise would have been ruined. Everything from the treatment to the talent list was under strict NDAs.

The song title leaked out over a year ago but because it's been going for so long people seemed to forget, which is probably a blessing in disguise (I guess a lot of people probably thought it wasn't happening because of how long it's taken). None of the talent had ultimate sign off so not even they saw it until it was finished.

They all participated with such a positive and trusting attitude, primarily because it was for the BBC and also in aid of Children in Need. Frankly, without that trust it simply couldn't have happened. It's too complex a project and there are too many people involved to allow everyone to have final say.

The track is also being released as a single to aid Children in Need; when will people be able to purchase it?

The second it launches you'll be able to buy it in all of the usual places. It will be available online but also as a CD single in shops. All proceeds go to Children in Need (so go buy it!).

Amazingly, and we think for the first time ever, all three of the major record labels (who own and represent pretty much all of the others) are working together to release it at the same time. It's a brilliant gesture that they're doing this in aid of charity. 

What was the most challenging part of the whole process?

The whole thing has been a beast to wrestle with to be honest. Getting the talent was an incredibly long and testing process. A catalogue of ups and downs for over eighteen months. We'd get one person and our morale would be boosted, we'd lose another and we'd be back down again. Until we filled the last line we couldn't relax.

Visually it's also been very difficult. We'd hear about a positive response from one of the artists and then have to create a scene and costume that fitted with their personality in a very short amount of time, sometimes in even less than a day.

It's unlike anything we're likely to do again on numerous levels. We ended up doing about fifteen or sixteen shoot days over the eighteen months culminating in a long shoot in Alexandra Palace with the orchestra. By the time the shoot came around we had so many plate shots to shoot that we ended up doing two 20-hour days. 

Who were you most star-struck by while putting the film together?

We didn't get too star-struck but it's hard to not love Stevie Wonder [below]. He's a true legend. And he's a nice bloke too, so you can't beat that really. Oh, and he uses Fisherman's Friends to help him sing better when he's got a cold. 

Do you think all projects from here on will be a cinch by comparison?

I can't imagine anything else taking this amount of effort, emotional energy and time to do again. It really does seem like a once in a lifetime project, certainly for us anyway. We hope people like it. It's hard for us to be objective about it after all this time. 

You can read more about BBC Music's God Only Knows, including insight from the BBC and director Francois Rousselet, in the next issue of shots magazine, issue 153, out next month.