Playlist: Noah Harris

Blinkink director Noah Harris is know for working across a dizzying variety of mediums, from live action to stop frame animation, combining a strong graphic sensibility with a love of physical objects.

Having recently directed the E.ON x Gorillaz collaboration [below], Harris has also put his talents to use for artists including Julio Bashmore, Police Dog Hogan and many more.

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

I can’t choose one of these I’m afraid…

The Blaze:  Territory

My good friend and DOP Toby Howell put me onto this… it’s just a brilliantly put together piece of film making – the casting, performances, cinematography, edit, flow… and to top it all the guys who made the music directed the film… Bloody polymaths, well done for making me feel hugely inadequate.

Leningrad: Kolshik

This is just epically brilliant, in every way… Apart from the music, which is why it’s best watched with something else playing… anything seems to work. But I recommend the soundtrack to The Magic Roundabout running through a delay unit.

Yeti Lane:  L’Aurore

Although I work with stop frame a lot I’m not really a big fan of it as a medium for character driven narratives, it can feel a little twee.

I use it as a functional way to make real objects move, and I try and make them move so seamlessly it could be CG or live action, trying not to let the technique get in the way of the image.

However, there are people out there working with stop frame who just do great things with it… and Simon Gesrel is one of them. The first thing I saw by him was the Zombie Zombie video he made, a homage to The Thing with action figures – It’s great, well worth a watch.

The Yeti Lane video isn’t stop frame however, rendering everything I’ve just said kind of pointless...

It’s a series of frozen moment tableaux, which play out a perfectly conceived Dusk Til Dawn-esque narrative.

The art direction is astounding, the model making amazing, and for a film where nothing moves except the camera… It’s grippingly brilliant.

What’s the first music video you remember being impressed by?

I grew up without a TV… so I was always pretty impressed by anything that moved.

I think Tim Pope’s videos for The Cure were some of the first videos I became aware of… particularly Close To Me which had that whole getting in a wardrobe, falling of a cliff and ending up on the seabed thing going on. This is the first time I’ve watched it in decades and it’s still great.

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

I’m going to be a little obtuse here and choose films, which stretch the boundaries of the description – music video.

The first is Whateverest, a short film, which is kind of an extrapolation of a music video for Todd Terje. It’s highly entertaining. And then this one I think is the music video to top all music videos. The fact that it’s a concert film not a music video is neither here nor there.

Prince: Sign o’ The Times An important film to me.... of course it’s largely about the music but it’s an epic visual spectacle too… from one of the finest performers I can think of. I lost many hours to this and could lose many more.

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

Inspiration does come from other directors - I think Alejandro Iñárritu is the master in film at the moment… For one director to have made Amores Perros, Birdman and The Revenant is extraordinary.

The best documentary I have seen recently is Northern Disco Lights. Its about the Norwegian electronic music scene throughout the 90s and beyond.

But more often it’s from other places… 

I’m really into modern sculpture… I love Glitzy OTT stuff like Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, Big, brash and not particularly deep… I like the balls behind making work like that. Hirst’s new stuff in Venice is sublime… Although sadly I haven’t seen it in the flesh yet.

I’ve developed a bit of an obsession with ceramics and porcelain too…

There are some amazing artists working at the moment – Juliette Clovis and Ah Xian both work figuratively but in very graphic and abstract ways.

And then let’s mix that stuff up with a bit of fire and brimstone – I could stand and look at the paintings of John Martin for hours and hours without getting bored. EPIC.

What are you listening to at the moment?

My listening generally takes in Gilles Peterson on 6music and Bill Brewster’s always excellent DJHistory Podcast. The Nextmen Podcast always gets a listen too although they’re irregular.

I listen to a lot of house music and Ron Basejam is my go to producer. Check out his remix of ‘The White Lamp – It’s You’ if you want to hear complete and utter perfection.

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

I couldn’t live without – Macbook Pro, iPhone, Adobe Illustrator, Ableton Live, Roland Drum Kit,

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

I would like to do something really fucking weird… For a really big mainstream artist, completely subverting expectations…

Failing that, I guess everyone would like to work with artists with great creative outlooks… and deep pockets… like Radiohead, Damon Albarn, Kanye etc.

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

Well, I feel like a bit of a charlatan even answering these questions… because I’ve actually made very few music videos… However, I’ve seen the industry go from something huge, in the heyday of MTV, to something almost ignored, and then a huge resurgence over the last 10 years or so…

The issue for me now is that there are huge amount of videos being made… but the majority of them are pretty pointless, and I can’t really endure them to the end.

We should make fewer videos… and make them BETTER.

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

About 15 years ago I inadvertently joined an S&M club in Oslo whilst sheltering from torrential rain. I still have the membership card. My only proof it wasn’t a strange dream.