Edward Drake's Apocalyptic Vision

First off, we have to say how much we loved this video. Did you have to pitch for it or were you approached by the label/artist?

Island Records. If you ever get the chance to work with them - even for peanuts & change - do it. Commissioner Jasper Waller-Bridge was an ace collaborator, I know they reached out to a few people, though he championed our little idea right through.

Was the band involved in the pre-production process or did you have free-reign?

The guys were super open and kind of self-aware enough to recognise they were quickly being shoehorned into being a band that was on a path to getting lost in the noise. The track is confronting to listen to, and I think a big part of why it drew me in was, “Ok, they’re actually saying something. They’ve made a platform for themselves, and now this is the chance to find a way to get an actual message across.” That’s why, I think, they were super open to wanting to create – and not interfere with – a piece which allows the sound to wash over you.



We read elsewhere online how your concept for the video was sparked by a series of bizarre experiences while you were in Ireland – could you elaborate on this for us?

There’s something in the whisky / water in Ireland. I have family in Belfast & down in Limerick, and after shooting there for a month I took a few days to see this country I was from and had never really explored. I was invited to a communion / Christmas in July party and saw traditional events unfolding and questioned why these rituals – angels, essentially humans with the gift of flight, or the robes / habit of a nun, something incredibly similar to a burka / hijab – are so ingrained in the culture, yet we don’t take the time to question them really. At the party, the nuns drunk all the wine and a young woman dressed as an angel was looking very poorly and trying to look sober.

When a drunken nun sparks an idea, never question it. That’s a rule for life right beside something about eating yellow snow.

Did the idea come to you fully-formed or did you have to hammer the script out a bit?

I dreamed a dream. The idea to tell a story in one-take had been (and still is) on my mind, and I was originally planning to do it as a short. There’s a sense of freedom through the piece that it couldn’t be seen to be too deliberate – we needed everything to feel organic and unplanned, so when the track came to me, I took it as a sign this was the way to make it.

The pitch was, “In search of an unknowable moment at the end of the world.” Anything we added was always in service to the song and this idea of feeling through a point in time we really have no business speaking about.



Can you explain what the various characters represent? There may not have been seven horsemen, despite the apocalyptic setting, but there was a suspiciously demonic-looking cyclist…

The biggest concern I had was that I wanted the visuals to be unconnected. I want you to find your own meaning by bringing your own experience to the table. That sounds incredibly pretentiously intellectual. But in a funny sort of way, I think it’s the only way to experience anything in life – by comparing it to other experiences & ideas. Why do you feel he’s demonic? Is there a childhood memory I’m tapping into where you were terrorized by a shining man on a bicycle? I’m serious here, too. Your reading of it is 100% correct – each character stands for something, and it isn’t sins / commandments.

There’s a narrative. If there were a big moment of exposition you wouldn’t be half as interested or challenged, I think.

On that note we have to ask the question we’re probably all wondering – why is there a girl dancing in a dressing gown and who exactly is she?

There’s a phrase in Milton’s Paradise Lost that stuck with me “…To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess, a paradise within thee far happier.” Essentially, Milton’s saying heaven & hell are a state of mind. For the girl dancing, she’s found her heaven. At the end of the world - with the sky opening up & all that is breaking down around her - she has found her way to live with it, and the man in the suit hasn’t and never will. He recognises she is happy, he craves that idea of being lost in a state of bliss and not having to worry about what is happening or trying to do something about it.



The video is striking from a production standpoint as well as a conceptual one. What made you decide to film it all in one shot?

Immediacy. The sheer immediacy of not cutting away and giving the audience an easy way out. That’s why you capture a story in one-take; to live in and through the moment with these characters. If I’m doing my job right you shouldn’t clue into the fact it’s one-take until the second viewing. I had a meeting the other day where it was screened to a few people in the industry and most of them didn’t recognise it was one-take until the only other director in the room asked how we shut down the location for such a long period of time. I love that. It makes me so happy to not draw attention to the filmmaking techniques at play, to let the natural drama unfold, and to have people argue over the ideas at play more than the specifics of the shoot.

Did you have long for pre-production?

The green light came on Monday, we shot on the Friday, delivered next Sunday. It’s not that uncommon, and I was pretty set on the blocking / lighting design when we were talking about doing it.

How did you find the location?

The architecture of the area is so unforgiving & Brutalist. It’s like someone read 1984 and used that as their inspiration. Brixton / Kennington is mid-gentrification and the clash of street art & urban planning struck me as unique to London.

The producer had his heart set on a location by the wharf along the Thames, which would have been amazing at a different time of year. I was scouting for another video when we come across the estate and park you see in the final moments. The little pen where the angel lies reminded me of a graveyard waiting for it’s first corpse.

Did it all go smoothly on the day?

Divine intervention. I’m agnostic, but someone upstairs put in a good word for us. The biggest issues were the scheduling. The permits allowed only a set amount of rehearsals before we had to go. Everything that could have gone right ended up doing so.



How large was the crew - were people diving out of shot left-right-and-centre?

We were smart with picking who exactly needed to be where. I don’t usually work off my own monitor unless it’s a locked off thing we’re shooting. I like to be right by the camera. That meant at any one time I would watch the steadicam operators monitor, duck behind the amazing director of photography Nick Morris, the AC pulling focus was also with us, and then the gaff team roamed around us. Blocking was tight as can be so we ran little animations that looked like we were calling a gridiron play.

Considering the lengthy duration and the pretty large area you covered, how did you manage to keep unwanted passers by/joggers out of the picture?

The world cup was on. Anyone who would normally be there to harass us or jump in the shots was under a table or watching the end of their game. We had four amazing Lithuanian PA’s who intimidated anyone that dared. Actually,  no. The production almost came to a stop… There was a Bolche old lady I saw Lukas [1st AD] give a sandwich and cup of tea to before we could continue with a setup.

Did you have much to work on in post-production (aside from the sky falling in)?

There’s around three spots we used some roto on to stitch pieces together a little more smoothly, other than those and the meteor showers, what you see is what you get.

What’s next for you now? Any exciting projects coming up?

Lots and lots of meetings, which is great, but I’m horrible at selling myself. Most of time they boil down to a lot of me asking if we’re supposed to eat the sandwich platters they have at these things while suggesting they let me make my $200 million “King Lear in space” script I wrote on the plane ride in.

And there’s the feature. It’s called “Ante” and it’s an ace challenge. I can’t talk about it or JJ will have his personal swat team swat me.