Trudy’s new one for new pop cutie Pixie Lott is a big production number, featuring a whole new dance craze.

Which sort of hurts, as she explains below.

Pixie Lott
Mama Do (Mercury)
Prod co: Merge@Crossroads
Director: Trudy Bellinger
Producer: Hera King
Production manager: Alicia Farren
1st AD: Barry Wasserman
DoP: Denzil Armour-Brown
Cameras: Sam Brown, Mark Adcock
Art director: James Hatt
Wardrobe: Cynthia Lawrence-John
Hair: Kevin Ford
Makeup: Karen Alder
Choreographers: Paul Roberts, Kate Pearson
Editor: Sam Jones at Cut & Run
Online: Henry at Smoke & Mirrors
Representation: OBmanagement
Commissioner: Dan Curwin
Watch: Quicktime movie

Trudy Bellinger on making the video for Pixie Lott’s Mama Do

“This song has an infectious clap that runs throughout and I wanted to visually reference the clapping and embellish it as the unique hook of the video.

“As this is Pixie’s debut video it was important for the label to show off all her incredible talents – she is stunning, and a brilliant dancer. I wanted the choreography to really stand out as being fresh and different. The clapping was the obvious starting point to create a fusion of pat-a-cake, capoeira and physical theatre. In order to achieve this fusion of styles, I worked with two choreographers: Paul Roberts for his slick sharpness, and Kate Pearson for her innovative physical theatre.

“The fusion really worked, and after two days of intense rehearsals we had an amazingly tight piece, although we had problems with the twenty dancers being covered in bruises! In order to get the attitude across and the intensity with the choreography they really had to slap each other. We had to change the styling to hide all the bruises, particularly on the thighs.

“The concept was also brought about by the lyrics, which are about sneaking out in the night and getting up to no good without your parents knowing. The idea of her crawling through her bed into this other world made it fantastical and gave me creative licence to have a few surreal elements. The bed scene was made up of thirty or so mattresses inside a tent of giant silk. The light was amazing, and once inside the bed set it felt so calming and peaceful. This serenity really reflects in Pixie’s performance in this section.

“Through a door in the bed we see Pixie and the girls arrive through a locker into a locker room where they start to prepare themselves for the clap off. I shot at MC Motors and as this location is used a lot, I didn’t want it to look like other videos but liked the textures and the structure. We built a locker room with a leopard print floor, a boudoir/girls cloakroom with a pink perspex floor, leopard print drapes and a circular red leather pouffe.

“The contrast of the hot pink next to the red brought a contemporary fashion edge to the video. Using red and pink neons sewn together with lots of pipes and industrial props, the main dance area was transformed into a more power station or factory feel with a club edge creating an exciting backdrop to the clap off.

“Denzil Armour lit it and Sam Brown did second unit, whilst Mark Adcock shot Bolex enabling me to get coverage of the six sets and choreography in one day. The drama of the clap-off was created shooting at 100fps and speed ramping and jump cutting. And Ducati supplied all the bikes for the guys as well as Pixie’s white one, which we added her logo to.”