Playlist: Dom & Nic

Dom & Nic, the directing duo behind ground-breaking work for The Chemical Brothers' stunning Wide Open promo (released earlier this year) are the second to be selected in in our latest online feature, Playlist.

What’s the best promo you’ve seen recently and why?

DOM: I really liked Canada’s The Less I know the Better video for Tame Impala. It was bold, bizarre and very original. I just wouldn’t have thought of an idea like that in terms of content or structure. I also loved Dougal Wilson’s Apparition video for Stealing Sheep; it’s got a great mix of humour and darkness and, as with all his work, it’s been meticulously-planned with mind-boggling attention to wonderful detail.

NIC: HURTS' LIGHTS. It’s subversive but highly entertaining and mixes dance and violence whilst telling a passionate and charming love story.

What’s the first promo you remember being impressed by?

DOM: Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights. I was six and the sight of Kate dancing around a field in a red dress definitely made a huge impression... In fact, I watched it again before we made the Chemical Brothers' video. After Kate Bush, it's David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes video. It was striking and a little frightening but in a way that made you want to keep watching it.

The first video that made me want to make music videos was Tim Pope’s Close to Me video for The Cure. The band are squashed into a wardrobe that is filling with water after it's fallen from a clifftop and into the sea. It was so simple but perfectly-complemented the claustrophobic feeling of the track, as all good promos should.

NIC: The Beatles' Yellow Submarine. My dad let me watch it on TV when I was young boy so now I’ve passed onto my children too. I took my 3-year-old son to a screening at the arts cinema by my house. He wore pyjamas as it was passed his bedtime and there were only a few people in the audience. But he sang along to all the songs.

And what’s your all-time favourite music video?

DOM: My all-time favourite music video isn’t exactly a music video in the traditional sense. It’s the sequence in The Graduate where Ben and Mrs Robinson’s loveless relationship develops. Over this montage, Simon & Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence and April Come She Will are played in full, back-to-back without a soundbed. It uses wonderfully simple action cuts within a scene to transition between him at home with his parents and his hotel liaisons with Mrs Robinson. I’ve always wanted to make a video based around this device... but I suppose someone else will probably do it now.

NIC: I really don’t know if I can choose just one. The great thing about music videos is that because they are pretty short and the music and ideas can vary so much, there’s always something surprising and unexpected within them. Lots of feature films contain music videos too. Wes Anderson seems to always slip a music video into every film. The Ride of the Valkyries scene in Apocalypse Now was quite an influence on me as a music video moment.

What other directors/artists do you look to for inspiration?

DOM: I’m always inspired when I see another piece of work that I wished we’d done ourselves, whether it’s a music video, a commercial or a film. Anything that makes me feel jealous also makes we want to create new work. I take inspiration from everywhere; there’s endless sources to be inspired by in life and all forms of art.

NIC: All artists are inspirations. Film, music, dance, theatre, photography, painting and sculpture are all wonderful inspirations. Any piece of art that starts a conversation with its audience is a great influence and an important contribution to our lives and our culture. Shakespeare, Van Gogh and Beethoven are just some of the all-time greats. Film directors are also a great influence on me; I find it hard to not enjoy a film.

What are you listening to at the moment?

DOM: At the moment I’m listening to A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead. As artists, they are always evolving and doing what they want - which is something to aspire to.

NIC: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony ‘choral’, Mozart’s piano concertos, Radiohead’s new album, a lot of French music, I love Jacques Brel and Prince.

What’s your favourite bit of tech, whether for professional or personal use?

DOM: For professional use, I would go for Maya. It’s software that very talented 3D artists that we work with use to create convincing computer-generated imagery. It's only limits are down to the artists using it.

We shoot everything that's possible in camera and for everything else, there’s Maya. Personally, I’m not really that techy so I would go for my new Poseidon submergible kitchen scales, a recent purchase from when we were working in the States. I use them for baking bread as the platform is big enough for portioning dough.

NIC: The Internet. It’s amazing but it’s also the most frustrating, distracting and upsetting invention.

What artist(s) would you most like to work with and why?

DOM: Thom Yorke. He’s always up for challenging himself in the videos he does, whether he's holding his breath underwater or undertaking a piece of contemporary dance, his talent and lack of vanity make him a very cool performer. Also, I love his music.

NIC: It’s always exciting to work with someone new.

How do you feel the promo industry has changed since you started in it?

DOM: The obvious answer would be to say financially. Budgets were never massive 20 years ago but they were a lot bigger than they are now. Of course, you can make a great video cheaply - Spike Jonze’s Praise You Video for Fatboy Slim is an example of how great things can be done for five quid. If you get a talented director to do it for free; and he gets his mates to be in it and shoot it for free; and he shoots it somewhere free; and gets the post done for free; and everybody brings sandwiches to the shoo;t and it’s all shot on an iPhone - then hey presto!

The reality, however, is that limited budgets means restrictions on realising ideas. Ideas with big art department requirements or big lighting set ups will always need money. When we started making music videos, it was like being at film school where you could learn the tools of the trade and also make enough money to just about live on.

I’m not sure how new directors get by now without a commercial career as well. There are lots of great videos being made now but I bet many of them are financed through favours and goodwill from people working in the industry. In our case they certainly are. There have been some positive changes as well. The Internet means music videos are much more accessible and seen more. They are also not subject to the levels of censorship they once were. It was most frustrating having MTV or the Chart Show demand you re-edit your video for a universal audience. When we started, there was no chance of making a video just for an adult audience unless the label were okay with it being banned. Relax and Smack My Bitch Up were not the norm.

NIC: Budgets have shrunk and the internet has transformed how audiences see music videos now. So now they're as important as singles as so many people view the song on YouTube.

Music videos have had a resurgence of late; where do you see the industry being in five years’ time?

DOM: It’s difficult to imagine in terms of the industry, as I don’t really see why there would be any more money available to support any profit or growth. Maybe more money will come in from product placement but then you just end up with music video/commercial hybrids and the creative freedom is compromised.

As a creative pursuit I can imagine them flourishing again because good directors want to make them again and for the sole motive of creativity. Music videos offer directors the opportunity to write their own scripts and experience some degree of auteurism. I would welcome back a time when top directors are competing with each other to come up with a great idea for a great track.

NIC: Hopefully with directors, performers and crews on equal footing for remuneration with the artist.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know…

DOM: My Aunt Danny came fourth in the Great British Bake Off a couple of years ago.

NIC: We based our whole treatment for a Chemical Brothers video on miss-hearing the lyric. We didn’t find out until after we presented the final edit.