'22' S-Crew

Bleu Desert direct ’22’ for S-Crew.

Shot on 35mm in Bruxelles, Belgium.

Words from Bleu Desert below.

Are you able to tell us a bit more about ’22’ and the circumstances under which it was made?

BD: The S-crew contacted us and we had the choice between different songs. When we heard ’22’ it was instantly our choice. The lyrics and the mood of the song matched perfectly with an idea we had been working on for a long time, in between a music video and a short film.

Poster — ’22’ S-Crew

Can we double-click on some of the techniques you’re using in this video?

BD: The main narrative and visual idea for this music video was to embody the point of view of a police car. A car is quite restrictive as a shooting space but also a great cinematographic tool. We wanted the camera to always be in the car or rigged to it. We wanted to feel the vibrations, use the window as a frame on the world, and move the camera with the door closing… It was important to stay simple and sober. As the tone switches when they steal the car we convey this feeling with some trickier and dynamic rigs.

We used black and white with a slow frame rate to symbolize the point of view of the policemen in the car. On set, we shot the same action twice and asked the actors to be way more aggressive for the black and white takes, as it was for the biased point of the police. We also decided to light the B&W takes more aggressively containing more contrast with Antoine, our DOP.

On set, we shot the same action twice and asked the actors to be way more aggressive for the black and white takes.

In post, our colourist Arthur Paux found a specific feel to these shots, almost creating a negative look but staying natural to keep our narrative thread. Then Ayumi did some experimentation on those shots, essentially playing dynamically with the highlights. Finally, Kouz added some abstract sound design to really give this predator’s point of view.

I’m interested in your collaborative process. How do you tend to work together as a team? Do you cover specific areas?

If only two of us are working on a project, the third one will always be there as a third eye, guiding and helping the others with hindsight.

BD: We are a trio but we approach every project differently. We will sometimes decide to work all together, sometimes choose a duo for a project. When it comes to finding a concept, we always work all together on this part, everyone will pitch in his idea and we confront our views.

Then, we will divide the work. One will work more with the DOP, the set designer, and stylist… the other more with the actors, stunts, SFX/VFX… As we are a three, the most important for us is to speak as only one voice with our teams.

If only two of us are working on a project, the third one will always be there as a third eye, guiding and helping the others with hindsight.

Watching, I made a link with Romain Gavras’ ‘Stress’ for Justice. I’m curious about what you think of that comparison.

BD: Justice ‘Stress’ is for our generation one of the biggest reference in terms of music video. Being just kids when it was released it was mind-blowing! It was the feeling of seeing something you are not allowed to see… so much violence yet so realistic.

I guess we also have this realistic feel and the tension that builds up during the first part of the music video. We also wanted to show the violence of our society in a very direct way. Each scene is inspired by recent cases of french police brutality or common practices of the anti-crime department “la BAC”, a very controversial police department.

However choosing to always be rigged to the car, filming in 16mm, and having the artists appearing in the second part of the music video brings a different vibe. Where ‘Stress’ embraces a documentary style we wanted to find the balance between a realistic/gritty feel and the aesthetic exploration of the world the spectator is thrown into.

We also had other references working on this project like Taxi Driver’s escalation, ScHoolboy Q’s ‘JoHn Muir’ music video (mainly being cautious to go a different way)…

What are you reading at the moment?

BD: I’m reading ‘Room to Dream’ by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna. The book is about David Lynch’s life, based on testimony from his friends, family, the people he worked with, and himself. You really get a good look inside his work and being a fan it’s really inspiring.