Droga5's Creative Team on Their First Music Video

Droga5 New York has just completed its first music video. Created for client Sony UK and German electronic dance artist Paul Kalkbrenner, the video, called Cloudrider, is the first of a trilogy of promos exploring the world of protagonist, Florian.

The series of films were overseen by Alexander Nowak [above, right] and Felix Richter [above, left], the New York agency's German creative team, and directed by Furlined's Björn Rühmann. 

Below, Nowak and Richter explain why they took on the project and how it all came together. 

Tell us a bit about this project; why is Droga5 involved in a music video?

Paul Kalkbrenner and Sony UK are our clients here and Paul's manager approached us in January for a US promotion of Paul’s seventh album, called 7.

How did the two of you get involved with the project?

Paul's management wanted us specifically to work on this. Since we're fans of his music and Germans who have been living in the US for six years, it made sense. Not to mention we have so much good support here at Droga5 to take something like this on. 

What are the main differences working on a normal brand/client brief to working on this?

Paul's management and Sony were both very trusting and collaborative. There was less back and forth, little feedback and great freedom to make things the way we wanted to.

Where did the idea for the video come from?

There were a few inspirations including the peculiar role of EDM [electronic dance music] in the US: Despite its origins in Chicago and Detroit the genre is considered foreign in the US.

Also, when we met Paul in February we got to know him as somebody who is really all about his music. He doesn’t want to talk about it but just make it. He’s very pure and passionate in that sense.

This led to the thought of a character, who possesses a great gift but ends up rejected because he doesn’t quite know how to approach people. He’s foreign to the world.

From there we developed the story together with our director Björn Rühmann a lot further, included lots of personal stuff and subtler meanings. We really enjoyed being allowed to do something that didn’t have to end with a crystal clear single-minded message.

This is the first part of a trilogy; are you working on the other two episodes and if so, can you tell us anything about them?

The second episode will show a different side of Florian. The third will offer him a second chance.

This is quite a sad story; can we expect happier episodes in the future?

The trilogy is about the process of coming to terms with bad things that happen to you so naturally there will be sad moments, but also more uplifting moments to come.

What did Björn Rühmann bring to the project as director?

We had worked with him in the past and he’s family, so we knew that the idea of Florian could be close to his heart. We involved him very early on and it was a great and very close collaboration throughout. We shaped the content of the trilogy over many phone calls together and then Bjoern kept us involved throughout production.

What was the hardest part of putting this project together?

The challenges were the usual ones: Fast timeline, lots of other stuff on the plate. But we had an amazing team around us. Our production partner, Jefferson Projects, pulled off incredible things for the budget and time we had.

A lot of people contributed out of passion for the project. Nick and Greg of Arcade Edit did an amazing job editing these films together as well as MPC on post. 

When can we expect part II?

Part II will be released in about four weeks. Part III in about eight weeks.