Ellie Goulding’s Gun’s And Horses by Petro
Friday, 30. April 2010 - 9:39 am
Shot in Griffith Park in the Hollywood Hills, director Petro translates the grown-up acoustic tones of Goulding’s Guns And Horses with pretty photography by Adam Frisch. Joined in the forest by a band of merry girls, this is Goulding’s third single from the gold-selling Lights album.
Ellie Goulding
Guns And Horses (Polydor)
Director: Petro
Production Company: Draw Pictures (LA)
Producer: Christopher Salzgeber
Editor: Richard Alacron
Stylist: Diane Contreras
Location: Griffith Park
DOP: Adam Frisch
Commissioner: Emily Tedrake
30. April 2010 - 9:58 am
Someone has got to make this poor girl something reasonable soon.
30. April 2010 - 10:22 am
I don’t think we can blame the directors any more – someone is giving approval / commissioning this rubbish. Horrible grade. Bad dancing. Completely aimless and dull.
30. April 2010 - 10:46 am
Agreed. But you know.. if a girl looks that awkward standing up you sit her down. That’s the point of a director. The real weak link is her styling in all her videos. Grade is unthinkably bad. All really bad.
30. April 2010 - 11:01 am
Everything Universal releases is rubbish, right? Who do they employ as A&R? The cleaners at the BRIT School?
30. April 2010 - 11:36 am
i reckon its a too many cooks situation. the dancers and the toy soldiers theme is nice, but it jarrs with her lazy lumberjack styling – she looks too natural / causal for the video to gel. The dance moves look choreographed, yet her execution drifts and feels more like a half hearted dance you’d see in front of a microphone. her moves arent big enough to keep our attention. Its like they wanted a really natural video, but then make it all surreal, but it kinda did neither. and, while we’re at it, why shoot in LA? what reason would make you want to fly out loads of people to LA for a forest, you could shoot that in the UK then spend some budget on actually making it good. I dont think this is the comissioner’s fault though, Universal put out some really good videos – looking at the Goulding track record, I get the sense she must have plenty of her own ‘ideas’
30. April 2010 - 12:20 pm
I’m beginning to also think the blame can’t always be put on the directors, stylists or commissioners – although they obviously deserve a whole HEAP of it! I agree with jean luc – perhaps some of the tragic, mismatched ideas stem from, or are at least endorsed by Goulding herself..? She doesn’t exactly strike me as the most charismatic, inventive or forthright of teenagers…
Overall, it’s such a clumsy, dull video that once again leaves no lasting impression of the artist, or any clear indication who she’s being marketed towards, or for.
The A&R is a frightmare..!
30. April 2010 - 12:51 pm
As a director it’s your own fault. You have to stand by your guts on this stuff and if it’s not right you say no. That’s why there should be some control brought back to the director. The good ones won’t let it be a too many cooks situation. We don’t get paid enough to come out with a pile of shit for the reel. A smart enough director can befriend an artist well enough to gain their trust and if they’re still playing up it’s the directors responsibilty to say no. If a label doesn’t like it you politely say there’s your measely weeks wage back it’s not worth having my name attached to this crap.
30. April 2010 - 1:01 pm
I hear ya loud and proud L…
But I dare say there are a great many directors out there – and whose work crops up on this site – that don’t have such burning creative integrity, or any real aspirations for their work. It’s a pay cheque at the end of the day, and one that’s easiest to get if they just stay quiet and attempt to make the most out of wildly contradictory record company/video commissioner/video representative/artist/artist management/production company needs and demands. Sad but true.
The mark of a great director is definitely one that marches to his or her own drummer – as much as they can of course.
Ha! Nice link back to the rubbish motif in that video..!
30. April 2010 - 7:44 pm
That’s a strange old video, to be sure, sounds like a indie Laura Marling kind of thing but gets a quirky glossy surreal treatment that Nima totally nailed with L.E.S.Artistes but which can go wrong sometimes. Bold definitely. For Imagineer, I don’t think directors can ever work for just a paycheck these days, there just isn’t enough money for the kind of creative team you’d normally have to support your ideas. If you march to the beat of your own drum and the label don’t like it you’re not hired again. If you play safe, do a good job, don’t make a fuss, you’ll probably work again, but you’re never going to be happy with the work. The limitations, restrictions, budgets and everything else demand so many compromises these days when something good gets through we rightly applaud it, but I think some of the comments here are too harsh on the near misses, or the decent efforts.
30. April 2010 - 9:11 pm
Completely well-rounded argument Sally – I do agree with a lot of what you say.
However, I did think that this website was here to celebrate the very best of the best – the modern cream of the crop – and that the directors and production companies behind them completely stand behind the finished product and are proud to celebrate their latest work. So…therefore that does lead you to presume that those videos that frequently come under fire here for being dull or safe or crass or derivative or whatever are fully endorsed by the director and company behind them.
After all, if you’re not happy with your video because you’ve been swayed by so much compromise, then maybe you should ask your production company not to shout about it from the rooftops on Promo News, and unnecessarily subject yourself to the hyper-critical eye of your video contemporaries in what is essentially an industry website..? Chalk it up to experience and put the next one up..?
1. May 2010 - 12:19 am
although I feel this discussion has ran its course, i do wonder whether the music labels have tipped the scales a little too much. Constantly driving down budgets, you consequently get pitches that are sent to so many directors, the appalling average success rate – means that the fact that you even win a job, results in feeling supremely lucky even to be behind a camera. With no balls to ensure you can have your own opinion, because if you start being difficult and fighting for the video, there is a queue of directors lined up behind you with their pitches still in limbo, sitting by the telephone with the vaseline.
The artists themselves are getting huge advances, as big as they ever were, especially for major signings like ms Goulding, resulting in a kind of imbalance where the artist expects to be treated with reverence – its ‘their big day’ attitude, where they have to have an opinon. thinking they are mariah carey just because they have a record deal. yet the directors feel they have to lick every boot in london, just to get a look in. It means the artist can demand pretty much whatever they want, the commissioner becomes a one way street of information, and the director pretty much does what he’s told.
3. May 2010 - 8:05 am
y r sum of u bein so rude?
3. May 2010 - 9:28 am
To start with Gina’s question- Being rude? This video is an insult and fire should be fought with fire.
When I saw her in the smokey forest I thought she was trying to find the couple form the Courteeners video for a bit of a menage a trois…
Whoever wins the election they should ban backing dancers. Lazy boring and pointless. Apart from all that the video feels like it was made for some other track. There is no sense of them being connected.
Yes she is not a jazz-hands happy clappy girl but that can be made to work- Just not with this ridiculous idea.
Commisioner Tedrake- what were you thinking?…
As for the director… I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and presume they knew what was being asked for and delivered it.
That bit at the end where they daringly tore down the fourth wall and revealed that the crew, wow… haven’t seen that in about ten years…
3. May 2010 - 9:33 pm
Shameful piece of rubbish. She can’t move. She looks like she just came out of day camp. Dancers look ridiculous. Location is nothing special. Shite grade. Same set of shots over and over and over again…and someone flew to LA for this?
Are labels flying to the US to actually do something different and unattainable in the UK, or are the local LA hotels offering free rooms and all-you-can-drink specials?
Didn’t draw pictures go bust?
18. May 2010 - 8:46 pm
That was crap! I had no idea what was she trying to do in the video. 1stly, she defntly can’t sing as the whole song was flat and blunt and 2ndly, she cant dance, she cant even cordinate movement….well atleast she can move those hands up and down. i think she is young and she can do better than that….the video is not funky, crazy or relaxing…it’s just depressing…i felt it was the end of the world….
bless this girl and find a proper managers.