Fashion Special: Tell No One

It’s obvious why directing duo Remi Weekes and Luke White are known as Tell No One. Magicians never reveal how they do their tricks and, as filmmakers for brands from Alexander Wang to O2, though their chosen medium is different, Weekes and White are also in the illusion business. David Knight steps into their magic circle

With their highly distinctive and elegant use of visual effects – usually stemming from graceful choreographed movement – Tell No One’s work is the screen equivalent of the card-sharp’s sleight of hand. It has a very specific effect upon the viewer, who knows their eye has been fooled, but invariably fails to spot the trick. So in Mine, their shoppable film for fashion website NOWNESS, clothes fly off dancers and hang in mid-air, to be filled by the bodies of other dancers – or simply and magically appear on their bodies; in their recent film for US fashion store Nordstrom figures appear, multiply and disappear through a combination of kaleidoscopic and mirror effects.

Sublime sorcerers

In Tell No One’s ad for lifestyle magazine Kinfolk, an ever-increasing sheet of silken fabric emerges from a dancer’s hand, producing more dancers from its canopy, and finally enveloping everyone as the sheet assumes the shape of a house; and in another film for NOWNESS, Umbrella, brollies appear, open and multiply in a loft space like flowering blooms.

In the past few years, Tell No One has created a broad range of fashion-related creative work, for clients like Replay, Alexander Wang x H&M, Z Zegna, and Matthew Williamson, while their portfolio of non-fashion work includes ads for Bailey’s, Coral, O2 and, most recently, The National Trust. Their particular form of visual magic has been widely admired, has garnered awards at Cannes, and been shown at art galleries worldwide, including The Guggenheim in New York.

“I hope all our films look like magic tricks,” says White. He’s tightlipped about how they achieve their greatest visual tricks, but the pair do reveal that continual experimentation is crucial to the creative process. “We’re given loads of time to experiment before and during the shoot,” says Weekes. “The experimenting is imperative for us.”

As this suggests, Tell No One’s hands-on approach involves both in-camera and digital manipulation. Their working method is also an extension of a strong, longstanding bond – they grew up together on the same street in Muswell Hill, north London. “We met when we were seven years old, playing on our bikes outside our houses,” says White. They attended the same school, then both went on to study at Chelsea College of Art, where they began to collaborate. “We sort of fell into directing together when we went to college,” explains Weekes. “It’s important you have a partner so that you can bounce and build ideas without judgment.” White adds that “Some of our ideas are huge, and when we need reining in, we work well together to find a more doable solution. Maybe that’s how our in-camera effects were born, as poor students.”

Their time at Chelsea became a period of fruitful experimentation, exploring techniques in a series of increasingly impressive test films. The first to make an impact on the outside world was Experiment No. 6: Seaweed, which features White making shapes in the air with his arms, that remain on screen as he continues his movements, creating a pleasing ‘tree’-shape of arms.

Seaweed was entered into YouTube’s Biennial at the Guggenheim in New York in 2010 and won first prize. It also led them to being signed by their first London production company, Skin Flicks. A flirtation with music videos was followed in 2012 by Metamorphosis, a short film they directed for Euro RSCG London and Credit Suisse to promote The National Gallery’s Titian exhibition. Starring Anna Friel, the sumptuous film won a gold Lion at Cannes 2013.

Something of the Knight about them

It was soon evident that Tell No One’s alluring style was well suited to fashion imagery. With Experiment No. 9: Dynamic Blooms, they applied their mastery of After Effects to a set of stills by leading fashion photographer Nick Knight, transforming images of dancers in chiffon into exploding bursts of liquid and smoke. Their subsequent ad for Bailey’s Irish Cream, was effectively a slicker version of this. Since then they have focused on placing their effects work within a more everyday, narrative context. “Different jobs offer different opportunities,” says Weekes. “We try to search out the projects that are human, and involve storytelling with some effectsy stuff.” 

“Our films feel magical but are still of this world,” adds White, “And it’s important for the styling to support this mix of reality and oddity.” The pair, represented by Good Egg in London and in Paris by Premiere Heure, have tended to express the beauty of their ideas more fully in fashion films such as Mine, which offered them creative freedom, and, says Weekes, “seems to have translated the best into the advertising world”.

Though fashion film is a good fit for them, White admits it’s not always easy: “Fashion is hard, there are a lot of people to please, and some shots require the same skills as if you were shooting a stills campaign. Ultimately, it is the same problem everyone has – time and money.”