Abbie Stephens Bends The Rules

 

 

First off we just want to say how much we loved this video. How did you come to collaborate with the band?

I was approached by the commissioner Natalia Maus to pitch on the track, and was instantly drawn to it.

What was the inspiration for the concept – was it entirely yours or was it brought to you?

The brief was quite open really, they wanted the video to be performance- based but with a twist. All We Are were described as a band “who do not shy away from the unusual,” which is perfect for me. I felt like I could really let loose on this idea.  

This track really grabbed me. The lyric 'I hear nothing at all but your breathing' struck me as really chilling and I wanted to make something that reflected this strange, beautiful darkness. I started thinking about intangible things; things that aren't necessarily there or that we can't see. I came up with the idea of using picture frames as portals into this parallel realm, with the band and the objects that surround them passing seamlessly between the two worlds, the details of which are revealed piecemeal as the portals mysteriously slide over the surface of the image.

 

What was it like working with the band and did they have much input into the creative process?

They were amazing. They bought into the idea from the off, and were really excited about it. Normally you expect some tweaks and changes from the treatment but they were really happy to let me get on with it. At the shoot itself they brought such a fun energy with them and were giggling and joking along behind the set. It was a bit of a challenging idea, and with some of the setups we had to have them up ladders etc and they didn’t batter an eye lid. It was also raining really hard at times on some of the exterior shots but they just got on with it. Guro was sitting in the pouring rain when we filmed the bench shot. They were such a fun band to work with.

We believe we spotted a couple of art history-esque visual references, from M. C. Escher to Michelangelo. Were these part of the concept of the film?

Yes the Escher box. I love that shot, it’s so simple and graphic, got to love a bit of Escher mind-warping. And Michelangelo? The hands through the hoops? That was not an intentional reference, I just loved the idea of two people connecting through different parallel universes. They can feel but they can’t see.

 

The locations seem wonderfully surreal and abandoned. Where was it shot and what was the feeling you had in mind when looking for them?

This location was a great find by my producer Paz Parasmand, and handily near my parents house for when the production car broke down and my dad had to bail them all out. They didn’t want the location to be publicised as part of it is a private home. It is a wonderful mansion building, with derelict out buildings in the vast wooded grounds. It felt like 3 locations in one. Which was perfect for the feel of this video. I was looking for a grand old house, something that felt a bit eerie yet grand and beautiful. This place had everything with the land, conservatory, library and scary outhouse buildings.

 

How did the shoot itself go – did everything run smoothly?

The shoot ran pretty smoothly. We shot in November last year, so we were battling light and had to drop a couple of set ups because of that. The DOP also had the tricky job of lighting night for day, which we hadn’t anticipated in our lighting list; there were a couple of key shots that needed to be shot in the day light, such as the shot of the band at the window and the blind shot. Also the Rain wasn’t planned so that was a bit of a pain and set us back a bit. On the whole though it was a great shoot.

Your film is littered with wonderful eye-bending graphics and visual effects, which somehow seem both part of and interacting with the landscape. Can you shed some light on your technique?

It's all masking techniques, we shot one plate with the band and one without, and then masked them out of sections such as the bench, or through the blind. The more complicated shots were the ones with lots of movement, like the wine glass or the hula hoop. We have a great VFX guy working on these. We were able to add some movement into some of the shots with a small motion control rig, such as the movement on the hands coming through the circular frames. There was a little bit of painting  and CGI where the VFX guy had to paint in the back of the hula hoop, when the back dropped behind her arm, but the rest was all clever masking.

 

While there isn’t an obvious narrative there is still a clear sense of progression over the course of the video. What drove the concept forward for you and how did you approach the structure and ‘story’ aspect of it?

It was an idea that these holes into a parallel world became more and more integrated into the scene. They are introduced, the band discover them, interact and play with them and in the end are completely submersed by them. That was the basic premise. I had heaps of ideas so they start out more subtle and get pushed as the film progresses.

Your other videos have a similarly strong and distinctive visual style to them, can you tell us a bit about your background? (We believe you studied graphic design, do you have many other influences?)

Yes I studied Graphic design at Central Saint Martins, it was a really great time to be at the school. We had a really small group of about 20 students who specialised in moving image and we all really bounced off each other and drove each other forward. My keen interest in design has definitely influenced my films, with an eye for compositions.  I think it influenced my thought process and how I generate ideas. I studied product design for my A-levels, so I believe that is also where my interest in art direction began, lots of my ideas even now are very prop based. I’m influenced by everything; art, music, theatre, friends - you can’t help but be influenced by everything around you. It’s just how you process it and turn it into a great idea for a film that counts.

 

On that note would you say that film is your main creative outlet or do you have many others besides?

Aside film, photography is something that I have really gotten into as a means of capturing ideas quickly and not letting them sit on the shelf for too long, it’s been a really exciting medium. I bought a camera before I went to Burning Man last summer and had the best time taking pictures in the most beautiful setting with amazing people to capture. I was, further to that, commissioned by Adidas to take some sports wear stills, which was so much fun! I have since been really excited about capturing special moments as well as the everyday and I took to photography really naturally as I have a good eye for it. My films are very visual and I’m used to composing pleasing compositions and capturing both people and objects in pleasing lights.

Another non-related creative output is that I spend about 3 nights a week swing dancing. There was a time last year that I went most evenings. I took it up the summer before last and haven’t looked back, its beneficial to everything that I do.

 

You first came to our attention a few years ago with your ‘Loose Fit’ video, which still gets mentioned even today. Did that feel like a watershed moment (mind the bad joke) in your career and can you tell us a bit about the making of it?

That was the 1st film I had directed since graduating and was definitely a motivational force to steer me back down the directing path. I got a motion graphics job straight out of uni working for Vice and so I was working full time when I Made “Loose Fit - Table Beggar”. I shot it one weekend, and then spent the following evenings and weekends for about 2 months cutting and re-animating the frames. It was a dark time in my life, I didn’t see anyone really. I had a few lovely friends who popped around to help, mainly to keep me sane. It was pretty much a solo venture of love. At one point I dropped a newly changed scalpel straight through my foot and was so determined to keep working I just strapped it up and tried to ignore it while I finished another batch of 100 pages.

I’d done a little test and the technique was so enchanting it spurred me on until the end. To see every sequence play out next to one another was magic, it went down really well. I think still to date it has had the most hype about it. I remember adding it to vimeo and getting so excited that in a day 200 people had viewed it, and then refreshing it and the views hit the thousands. It got Staff Picked on the 2nd day of being online and took off around the internet. It was such a rewarding project, but still took me a while to get my animation head back on after that.

That video gave me the confidence to get out there, and to pursue directing.

 

I just signed to Colonel Blimp for Commercial and Music Video Representation. I’m so excited about having such a wonderful support network behind me, and am raring to make some new work with them. We have been developing a few ideas and I’m excited to unleash them on the world.