Directors Filthy Animal Discuss Their Debut Promo

How did you come to make a Fizzy Blood promo?

We’ve wanted to direct for a while but just needed to take the plunge. After talking to Agile Films, who loved what we’ve done as creatives, their MD, Myles [Payne], offered to help us make our first music video. Jolyon already knew Fizzy Blood’s manager through an Instagram page he runs (@vinylmonger) and they sent over a track for us. We’d seen Fizzy Blood’s videos on YouTube and even if they’re a little raw, they all have a great energy. It looked like they’d be up for anything we’d throw at them – we wrote the ‘rolling around in paint in Speedos’ scene there and then. 

MUSIC VIDEO: Fizzy Blood, ADHD

You’ve worked together as creatives for some years, at 4Creative and now at W+K; why did you decide to enter the world of directing and where did the name Filthy Animal come from? 

We’ve been fortunate to have been surrounded by great directors wherever we’ve worked. We were at Mother when both The Bobbsey Twins from Homicide and The Sacred Egg were in the creative department and we learnt a lot from them. Then, at 4Creative, we worked with great directors like Rob Blishen, Neil Gorringe, Keith McCarthy and Alex Boutell. And seeing Dougal Wilson at work on the Paralympics campaign was an education. Jeff Low directed our first campaign at W+K, and he literally sat us in the chair next to him for the entire shoot and walked us through everything. We started to think, ‘yeah, we could give this a go!’. As for Filthy Animal, we are just massive fans of Home Alone.

 How much has your experience as agency creatives contributed to your directing? 

A shit load. First off, we have been on enough shoots to know our way around a set. So we didn’t feel like complete lemons [on our first shoot]. Our agency background definitely helps us get to ideas that are simple and single-minded – we think any great music video should be able to be summed up in one sentence. But then we have to put on our ‘director’ hats and start to dig into all the details to craft something people actually want to watch.

How did you approach presenting ADHD in a music video? It’s not a condition that is often depicted in the creative media. 

Mental health was a theme we spent a lot of time thinking about while working on the Paralympics campaign. That was incredibly inclusive of a wide spectrum of disabilities, but one of the things we struggled to portray in Dougal Wilson’s awesome film were so-called ‘invisible’ disabilities. The problem is if you can’t see it, it’s very difficult to portray it in a visual medium. So we approached the promo in a different way. Instead of trying to show what it was like having ADHD, we wanted people to feel what it was like having ADHD. We did some research online, and a lot of people described it as trying to watch multiple TVs at once or trying to watch one TV but someone keeps changing the channel every few seconds. The lead guitarist of Fizzy Blood, who wrote the song, agreed that this was a good representation of how ADHD feels to him. So we went with it.

Still from ADHD

Why did you decide to add a VR component? And what were the differences between the straight music video and the VR experience? 

The idea was always for the film to be as immersive as possible, so transforming that into VR felt like a natural move. The guys at Happy Finish loved the project and agreed to help us out. Because of the split-screen approach, converting it into a 360° video was (relatively) straightforward. We love the fact that when you watch it in VR, it plays out as a different experience and there are lots of little moments that aren’t in the traditional music video. 

Behind the scenes of ADHD

What have you learnt so far as directors?

Storyboard as much as you can and, as clichéd as it sounds, preparation is everything. First ADs shout so you don’t have to. DPs make you look good. Always listen to your producers. Don’t be too proud to take advice. Gym managers don’t like you clogging the showers with fake blood and feathers.

What keeps you inspired and what do you love most about the creative industry?

Our inspiration is fuelled by a combination of jealousy and admiration. We often see great promos or shorts that we wish we’d done. But the benefit of being in a partnership is that we get on each other’s cases. If one of us comes up with a shit idea, the other will say so. We are always pushing each other to get to something good. What we love about the creative industry is being surrounded by smart, talented and interesting people who make us look like we know what we’re doing.

Any other directing projects in the pipeline? 

We’ve just shot our first spot for Sainsbury’s which is exciting. We’ve also had a good reaction to ADHD so we hope to get more promo projects.