Photoplay/Playtime's Michael Gupta Shows Vampiric Love in New Music Video for Winter Swim

Dropping just in time for Halloween, a woman nurses a baby vampire to maturity before receiving the ultimate gift in Photoplay / Playtime director Michael Gupta’s haunting new music video Easy for Australian band Winter Swim.

Exploring a complicated, co-dependent relationship, Easy unpicks themes of identity, family and growing apart. A cinematic journey told from the perspective of a woman with a darkly challenging choice, Easy ponders the principles of loyalty and the cost of tormented love. 

Winter Swim approached Gupta with the desire for a narrative that connected to the soundscape of the song. Inspired by his Melbourne International Film Festival 2021 official selection film The Echo, the band handed over full creative license to Gupta to write and direct a film to connect with the moody tempo and pace of the track.

Winter Swim - Easy from PHOTOPLAY on Vimeo.

Gupta says: “For Easy, it was important that the tone was grounded, utterly realistic and not heightened. We shot over several dusk evenings, always with an eye to letting the scenes unfurl with restraint, drip-feeding the story gently to draw the audience in.

“The set up and design is modern yet timeless with no indication of technology or an overt time period. Taking inspiration from the work of Michael Haneke and the likes of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s modern classic Let The Right One In, Easy is an unsettling Australian vampire story that hides the devil in the details.”

Adds Photoplay / Playtime executive producer Oliver Lawrance: “Michael has brought Winter Swim’s haunting music to cinematic life with a dark tale that feels completely authentic and real. As a director his performances are so grounded and his visual take flips the everyday and draws you in. I can’t wait to see what he does next.”