Paul Weller honours charm of young romance for Rise Up Singing music video

The location was secured just two days before the shoot. A house with many original 1960s features, now owned by a couple who work in film/TV/promos art department, it complements the music video’s contemporary yet classic timeless feel. Standing out in contrast against its patterned red carpets is Flo, a green, ring-tailed iguana, chosen by Macdiarmid as co-star to lend a quirky poetry to visuals otherwise firmly grounded in realism. Despite being brought in last minute to cover for the first lizard that called in sick, Flo puts on a marvellous performance, complete with cheeky winks and timely head turns.

Calum Macdiarmid comments: “The video was particularly fun because it felt like a short film with a focus on narrative which made getting the necessary coverage much easier. The hardest challenge was trying to tell a super minimalist concept - boy gets ready for date - in a way that gave it a little arc, and went with the flow of the music. My ambition was to make it feel almost like the music was a score written for the story, using the rise and fall of the energy to punctuate certain moments.”