The Awakening with Florence Welch and Gucci Bloom

Production company SMUGGLER's new signing, Fiona Jane Burgess, and Gucci Bloom present us with an intimate look at Florence Welch and her artistic process. 

The Awakening sheds light on Florence’s connection to the natural world and how that feeds into her musical inspirations. Burgess’s direction creates an intimate portrait of Welch, poetic visual language is established through the gliding shots capturing the historic Hatfield House beautifully. At the heart of this project is a journey of self-perception, self-discovery, and self-actualisation. In every sense of the word, it’s a reflection on the idea of personal growth, of evolution, of blooming. It is about finding ourselves, creating ourselves, treasuring a pure moment of apotheosis.

“For me, shooting on film is as much about the process as the end product. It demands a more considered and thoughtful approach to filming. In practical terms, there’s a very real financial cost with every second you shoot, so it means you have to be very precise and efficient. It creates an atmosphere on set that’s attentive and focused, I can’t really put it into words but it somehow elevates the whole production. There’s a magic to the analogue process that everyone collectively respects and appreciates. The latitude, character, depth, and colour of 16mm yields softer, more romantic and dreamlike visuals that I felt would aesthetically support our themes of reflection, awakening, growth and freedom.” said Burgess.