The Work That Made Me: Elliott Power
Elliott Power a west-London multi-disciplinary artist, spanning music, film-making and photography. Learning his craft under award-winning director Daniel Wolfe, Elliott’s solo directing career has gone from strength to strength.
Elliott’s work is recognised for its strong visual language and his ability to create immersive, emotionally charged worlds. His Eartheater music video breaking imminently, is a great example of his style.
Elliott has spent the last decade operating as a true multi-hyphenate, blurring the lines through music and the visual arts, collaborating with the likes of Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones for their exhibition ‘Immortal’ (alongside Björk and Iris Van Herpen). As well as providing soundtracks for fashion brands such as Wooyoungmi and Stone Island.
Elliott recently collaborated with London musician and counterculture figure James Lavelle on his ‘Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick’ exhibition at Somerset house and Saatchi gallery’s immersive sound design exhibition ‘Beyond the Road’.
The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Guinness ‘Bet on Black’ Directed by Frank Budgen. Frank’s work always had such an amazing look, desaturated and photographic. It’s a timeless ad that's aged so well. The track from Benny More & Perez Prado ‘Babarabtiri’ still rings in my head 22 years later.
The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
I never had any intention to get into the industry and become a director, but my friend and cinematographer Deepa Keshvala thought I had something, she then introduced me to Daniel Wolfe, who I assisted for 18 months. During my tenure I assisted Daniel on the Volkswagen 'Hello Light' spot, this was an eye opening experience for me.
The creative work that I keep revisiting…
The creative work that I keep revisiting is Talk Talk’s final album ‘Laughing Stock’ (1991) a dark, beautiful genre bending journey from start to finish. On every listen I discover something new.
My first professional project…
Prior to directing I was a musician so my first professional project was my debut album ‘Once Smitten’ released in 2016 on Marathon Artists Records. It made absolutely 0 commercial impact whatsoever, but I gained a very small/loyal cult following that allowed me to travel for the first time in my life. Music was my gateway to directing, I first picked up a camera out of necessity, I had no one to shoot my videos, so I just did them myself.
The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
I carefully curate what I watch and consume, therefore I rarely see anything that I've hated enough to make me angry.
The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
The piece of work that I’m jealous of is Ela Minus ‘N19 5NF' directed by my friend Losmose. I called him up straight away and simply said ‘Teach Me’ Losmose is a director that has a bright future and I'm excited to see what he does next.
The creative project that changed my career…
Facebook ‘Skate Nation Ghana’ that I co-directed with Bafic & Justyna Obasi, this was my first ever TVC and the start of my journey with Love Song. To work with so many friends on the project was amazing, a truly unforgettable experience. This commercial will go down as one of the best of the 2020’s.
The work that I’m proudest of…
The piece of work that I’m proudest of is my music video for Eartheater ‘Faith Consuming Hope’. We made the video on a shoestring budget in -15 Kyiv Winter. I’m eternally grateful to Radioaktive films for being so accommodating and helping me make this video happen.
I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
Very early music recordings of me aged 13 definitely make me cringe. I’m often reminded about them in my group chat with old school friends.
The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
I recently directed a music video for Miink titled ‘Paper Doll’ We shot the video in a small town an hour outside of Mexico City for one night and managed to squeeze so much into 12 hours, a ring of fire, a pack of dogs, an eyeless woman, a man holding a crow, interior performances, exterior performances. It was very ambitious, but the result speaks for itself, a timeless tableau vivant. I have to shout out The Lift Mexico, they went above and beyond to make this video great!
