Directing Duo SOB Discusses the Making of Collard's New Music Video 'Favour'
SOB > We started with the idea of creating a dream sequence where anything could happen. We wanted to create a world where different moments could easily fade into each other and there wasn’t any guarantee of security. A wave could take you from your bedroom to a beach, a helping hand could lead you to a rocky situation and something as small as an embrace could take you out of that. Cherished memories and life moments can often turn from idyllic and comforting to dark and isolating. By contrasting the upbeat sound with quite a dark aesthetic we wanted to put an emphasis on how beautiful moments can often turn sour and how the best of relationships can suddenly fade into something toxic.
LBB > You’ve now done quite a few music videos with Collard, do you enjoy working with the artist specifically? Did you know of Collard before you worked on the music videos – who approached who?
SOB > Yeah we love working with him! He really isn’t concerned about what other people are making at the moment or keeping up with trends. We think that's obvious when you listen to his music. He wants his videos to be a representation of that attitude. We’ve known him for a few years now. We got introduced through friends when he was looking for someone to work on his single artworks and we've been close friends ever since. Just after we graduated from uni he asked us to work on the creative direction for his debut album, 'Unholy'. We did everything from the album artwork to directing the music videos.
LBB > What were your initial thoughts on doing the ‘Favour’ video?
SOB > We listened to the track and we knew it was a banger so we were looking forward to starting on it. Nearly every song we hear from Collard share similar themes, but somehow sound so different so it's always exciting whenever he sends us something new. It’s also nice having a dialogue with the artist so we can hear what the songs are about and what emotions motivated him to make it.
LBB > And for the edit, who did you work with?
SOB > We worked with the brilliant Laura Reyes from Homespun; having worked with her on a previous project she has a good understanding of how we like to work. We share a similar sensibility with her which is a dream. She always understands the route we want to take just by looking at our shot lists and isn’t scared to push things to the point of abstraction.
LBB > What will be your enduring memory of working on this video?
SOB > I think what’s always going to be memorable about making this video was the uncertainty of the pandemic at that point in time. We went from shooting the video to doing most of the post in isolation. Luckily we had time for a couple of face to face editing sessions with Laura before everything switched to working from home. We graded the video over Skype with Tim Smith which went so well. Big thank you to Tim. It was a relief to see everything finally coming together!
