We have a special love for Focus Creeps, the directorial duo of Aaron Brown and Ben Chappell, who’ve been responsible for videos like Girls‘ “Lust for Life” and “Hellhole Rat Race,” Cass McCombs‘ “Executioner’s Song,” Neon Indian’s “Sleep Paralysist” and plenty more. With each new video they direct, they’ll be giving FADER a special behind the scenes rundown of each of their projects, the who, what, where, when and why of each video. We’ve got their answers and on set photos after the jump and the final product of Lia Ices' "Daphne" video above.
What video are you making?
Lia Ices' "Daphne"
Why are you making it?
The song was visually really inspiring. And Lia and I had some pretty exceptional resources in Sonoma, so we had no choice but to rise to the occasion.
Where are you?
I'm in LA. I'm from Sonoma though, where we shot the video. Lia lives in Brooklyn. The video was achieved, simply put, out of the help from countless friends. It was like a collaborative carnival looking back on it. We shot the video at Andrew Mariani's winery, Scribe, which had an abandoned Hacienda and really dramatic landscapes, and endless amount of wine, and so on. Andrew's uncle, Andrew, had a plane, his friends liked to party, his friend's kids liked to party, my friends from high school turned out to be really talented and accomplished camera rig operators, Colin Blackshear and Josh Livingston, my mom performed a portfolio of emotions for Christin Turner's camera, a fellow video director, who came up and collaborated a whole other dimension of film effects. The video was inspired a lot by collaborating with the stylists too: Jay Carroll, Louesa Roebuck & Natasha Newman-Thomas, who all concentrated on different characters and thematic parts of the video. Last but not least, Henry the lead boy was awesome and we found a falconer, Kate, in the area. There's so many people who helped it's hard to not forget anyone.
What is the story?
The video opens in a lush, mysterious, pastoral setting, where Lia's joined by a falcon and a young boy. At first the three remain separate yet appear unified in some way, with the bird and the child extensions of Lia. The song is, in Lia's words: a personal reflection of the ancient myth of Daphne, describing one woman's transformation into a tree. The video doesn't interpret that literally but expands on that feeling and the lyrics in it's own way.
What weird shit happened?
Nothing at all, it was totally normal, except when we blew up Andrew's Hacienda and then turned Lia into a bird.
Was it fun?
Really fun, again, the video was really built from everybody who helped make it, beginning with Lia's song all the way to the goose and the goats.
