Anthony Furlong Kick-Starts Music Video Career

Award-winning US director Anthony Furlong came to Radar looking for help “I had been wanting to start doing music videos for a long time but never had the industry contacts to do so.” On Radar he found Lorenzo DiGrasso’s brief and turned in a whizz of a music video. His casting instinct was spot on - his HitGirl, KickAss styled lead Oona has since bagged the lead for the New York staging of hit show ‘Matilda’. Anthony also unintentionally caught the zeitgeist, as KickAss 2 is due out summer this year (I know, hurray).

 

 

From Anthony: "The idea for this video came to me last year when I was casting for a commercial I was directing. For the campaign, I had needed to cast some young girls to do some dancing and I instantly fell in love with Oona's energy (the young lead in the video). She has this fun, quirky look but danced her heart out. She reminded me of a tiny Susan Boyle. The corporation the commercial was for didn't think she had the right look for their brand, but I held on to her audition tape vowing to work with her on another project. This video was the perfect opportunity."

 

Through the video, our superhero protagonist meets her match when confronted with older, more experienced dancers. Fortunately, she's got backup!

 

"During the production, I knew that we would have to work very smart and very fast, as the days here in NY are very short in December. I was very fortunate to have Oona as lead, as the other kids are friends of her family which meant they would already be comfortable with each other and have a good chemistry - this is very important when working with kids and vital when on a time crunch.”

 

"For the adults, I had originally started looking for actual street performers, but ended up working with a local talent agency. I managed to work with very talented people who perform in dance-off competitions regularly and they were fantastic."

 

Final words from Anthony: “Thank you so much for the wonderful site.  Now, I can finally branch out and do work outside of the advertising industry.” And we can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

 

Credits

 

ARTIST: LORENZO DIGRASSO. 

TRACK: FINALLY

DIRECTOR: ANTHONY FURLONG

Director of Photography: William Rexer

Editor: Wendy Rosen