Amber Grace Johnson on Her Affinity for Affective Filmmaking
Studio RM, the creative studio specialising in colour grading and post production across film, print, and digital, is partnering with Little Black Book to sponsor The Directors channel. It’s a space for celebrating directors who create aesthetically beautiful and nuanced imagery, the creative potential of technology, and diving into the trends in contemporary culture which these visionary minds so often spark.
LBB> When did you first realise you had an affinity for filmmaking? And how did you act upon this realisation?
Amber> With the kind of childhood I had, everything sort of felt like a movie. My parents raised us with wild imaginations, to feel everything, to try everything and to be anything. They made sure that all the small moments felt so colourful and rich, no matter how minor or insignificant. As a deeply curious person and lover of all people, I feel like filmmaking was always inside of me but it wasn’t until I was 24 that I started to direct.
LBB> The style of a film changes brief by brief, but how would you underpin your general visual style? Are there certain factors that you could pinpoint as a signature for you?
Amber> It’s difficult to define your own artistry and I guess the fact I am a twin plays into my wanting to avoid being categorised. But from what others have told me, my visual style feels high concept and big, at times surreal and futuristic, with strong female characters, and inventive camerawork. I like to create worlds that never feel familiar, devise powerful characters, and flip reality. I love when the cinematic experience feels like a 360 audio and sensory experience; the cinematography, lighting, colour, sound, mise-en-scene, blocking, and of course, most importantly, the idea. A new idea we haven’t necessarily seen.
LBB> How important is the role of colour/grade in the overall look and feel of one of your films? And how do you use things like colour and grade to accentuate your vision?
Amber> Colours create feeling. I see it in the nostalgic way an old photograph can transport you back to a special memory or the way a scent can totally disarm you and take over your. It’s a subconscious thing that hijacks your senses and sets the tone. I tend to approach colour backwards but, in general, I always find myself attracted to a certain look: rich like an oil painting, with the talent sculpted and heroed by the light, and lots of colour separation.
LBB> What is your niche craft obsession? Was it an obsession straight away or something that has evolved over the years?
Amber> I love the writing process and that moment when I first get hit with ideas. Then I enter a flow state, like a mad man on a mission. My favourite part is the ideation phase and working tirelessly to get the end result to be whatever it is I can see inside my head – it’s like a form of giving birth.
LBB> Which pieces of your work do you feel shows what you do best – and why?
Amber> I’m not sure they have been actualised yet! I’m currently working on storytelling from a deeper and more personal space – something almost anti-visual, all heart and all plot, no mood. I really look forward to showing people my own personal vision. Hyundai’s Ioniq was my favourite because the trust from the client allowed me to really push my imagination to the limit. And, of course, working with cinematographer Rob Hardy and production designer Marco Bittner Rosser was an inspiring experience.
LBB> You directed FKA Twigs’ ‘Tears in the Club’ music video - a surreal spectacle full of dream-like (and nightmarish) imagery. What kind of ideas came to you when you first heard ‘Tears in the Club’ and how closely do they resemble the finished video?
Amber> I always joke that life would be so much simpler if I didn’t have to go so hard! I only had a few hours to write on it (and less than a week to produce) so after fully absorbing the lyrics and of ‘Tears In the Club,’ it became personal. I only really know how to ideate from an impassioned and intimate place. And so there we have it: I’ve cried many times on the dance floor, both happy and sad tears. I’ve been hysterically heartbroken. I’ve been called crazy. I’ve wanted people to lick my tears while dancing in dark dance clubs. I’ve felt trapped by my own pain before. This film came to life as a beautiful abstraction from these experiences.
The video opens on Twigs lying in a puddle of her own tears, abandoned and weak. Her friends try to save her - despite her pain being physical, almost like an exorcism - luring her back into the club. Flashbacks from the night before reveal her running rampant like a feral dog. Strangers under pulsing lights lick her tears. She’s a bull in a china shop, wreaking havoc in an abandoned hospital. We see her embracing all the “crazy,” yet possessing a distinct control of her vulnerability and sexuality. And then of course, we see her seducing her enemy, while pole dancing in a vessel of her own tears. Her power grows with a vengeance. I’ve always been interested in a siren and alpha male dynamic which is how The Weeknd and Twigs play off of each other’s lust and power in this film. Who's really in charge? Then, finally, we close up on Twigs, big and strong again, and The Weeknd running scared, captured in the palm of her hands. Her little toy.
The opening’s mask was something I would not let go of. The idea of being a shell of a human after a heartbreak, the need to glue yourself back together. It is much like the Japanese custom “Kintsugi” which treats the breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.
LBB> You also shot the video for Jorja Smith’s latest single, ‘Try Me’, a rousing 4-minute musical saga that ends with the British singer-songwriter performing an interpretive dance in an epic Roman amphitheatre. How did you work Jorja and her team to bring this vision to life?
Amber> Jorja is a dream collaborator, she doesn’t like me to have any preconceived notions when I’m writing on a new track. So she’ll send the songs usually with no brief and then I’m trusted to come up with whatever ideas rise to the surface.
In the most basic terms, the life of an artist can feel like a fight for your life. Your art consumes you, consoles you, acts as a lifeline, and when you release it to the world it can feel like life or death, when exposing yourself so vulnerably. Originally, I was thinking back to a text exchange with my twin sister who shared some words during a time I needed most. Comparing our lives to being bullfighters, she reminded me that life is a fight and “we cannot and will not fall off the bull..we must stay on the bull.”
This thought swirled in my head for a while and materialised after I recently watching Adrien Brody play Manolete, the prestigious matador in Menno Meyjes’ “A Matador’s Mistress”, alongside Penelope Cruz, who plays the love of his life, Lupe Sino. I fell in love with the erotic passion of this love triangle; between the fighter, his lover, and the undying love for his craft – which becomes a never-ending dance with death.
LBB> You have collaborated with Jorja on a number of her biggest music videos – what would be your advice to other directors who wish to collaborate with artists on music video projects?
Amber> Jorja is as real as it gets. It’s pretty unbelievable how she’s remained so pure despite her success. She makes my job easy because she’s funny, deep, profoundly talented, and lovable. But I think the reason our relationship has worked so well is because she trusts me blindly. Sometimes there’s an unspoken connection that you can’t really explain, it just is. Complete trust rarely happens, and when it does you hold on to that relationship for dear life!
LBB> Are you currently working on any exciting projects that you can tell us a bit about?
Amber> Writing and shooting a short that I look forward to bringing into this world and showing people a piece of me they have yet to see. Directing an episodic doc-series this Fall that I’m keen on. I’ve shot a few commercials recently that brought me to interesting places and as usual dream-writing for artists I look up to. Honestly, I want to do it all, so here goes nothing!
