Esben & The Witch’s Marching Song by David Procter and Peter King
Friday, 20. August 2010 - 12:26 pm
For Esben & The Witch’s reverberant Marching Song, David Procter and Peter King’s simple but effective idea of moving shadows across the faces of the band as they sing, with progressively more brutal make-up being added, pushes home stark emotion of the track.
Esben & The Witch
Marching Song (Matador)
Director: David Procter/Peter King
Production Company: Agenda Collective
1st AD: Edoardo Trowse
DP: David Procter
Production Design: Sam Waters/Ben Lack
Make-up: Gina Blondell
Post: Peter King
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20. August 2010 - 2:08 pm
I’ve been checking out PromoNews for quite a while but until now I have never felt the need to pass comment publicly. After seeing this I felt it was my duty to point out that this is quite clearly a rip-off off of the ‘Scaramanga Six – Walking Through Houses’ promo that was made a couple of years back and I would be amazed if this was just pure coincidence. Here is the link to the ORIGINAL video – I’ll leave you all to make your own minds up.
22. August 2010 - 12:47 pm
thats unbelievable. what a rip off. This version was done much nicer, but they were probably the same budget, its amazing as an example of how much technology has improved over the last few years/better DOP’s – but lazier directors it seems.
23. August 2010 - 2:27 pm
It is a strong idea. Seems to be slightly unfair that they are being shot down for making an effective and broody video, especially when there are videos masquerading as original that are clearly trait and weak. I think it is a coincidence, one that has probably mortified the director. There is a Ferry Gouw video out there that is even similar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLR1HF-pkv4
Maybe the obscurity of the other acts will allow this video to prevail, but let it be said that a lot of videos today are as far more brazen about poncing ideas (even from unknown director’s showreels) than this effort.
23. August 2010 - 5:26 pm
strickly commercial – this is no-coincidence. look at the evidence – the way its shots totally different people, lipsyncing, looking straight into camera, the cut every 3 seconds, the plain backdrop, the slowly getting more beaten up. everything about this video is copied.
Its not unfair to find fault if the director has just stolen an idea outright. and just because it doesnt get 1,000,000 views, doesnt make it any less stealing. Taking inspiration is one thing, copying and taking all the credit is another. And for the record, that video you mentioned is nothing like this one, youre just trying to deflect criticism because its an unoriginal setup.
23. August 2010 - 5:31 pm
fair enough ;..( still think it is harsh that they be hung out to dry that hard… god knows what they were thinking…wasn’t a true deflection, more a friendly “good effort, but you were beat to the post”…
23. August 2010 - 9:50 pm
Hello chaps, thanks for the comments. The concept was brought to David and myself by the band along with these images http://osocio.org/message/act_until_women_and_children_are_safe/ from a campaign in 2007, before Scaramanga Six made their video I believe. Neither David, the band or myself had seen the Scaramanga Six video. The Band wanted to realise this advertising campaign as a music video, which is as you saw. David and myself actually moved the idea away from a white background, like the still imagery as we didn’t believe it was atmospheric enough (thank god or it would have been even more similar). The result is the video that you have watched. I would guess that the references that we drew upon were the same as the references for the scaramanga six video, hence the similarity. If I had known that this video had existed I would never have gone with it.
24. August 2010 - 1:00 pm
Hi there, I’ve just read this discussion and thought I’d clarify things.
I’m the director of The Scaramanga Six video in question. It was actually featured on this site a couple of years ago but the band are still at a relatively low profile so I can imagine how it could have slipped through the net with a lot of people.
I’ve been directing promos for quite some time now and have worked on a lot more high profile videos with bigger budgets than The Scaramanga Six video. I’m actually in this band (it’s how I got into music video in the first place) and we wanted to make something striking and simple. We had a budget of zero and shot it in a small office room which can probably explain some of the differences in production values to the Esben and the Witch video.
I’ve spoken to Peter about this and know that it is very much a coincidence that the concepts to these two videos are so similar. I really don’t think any director or band for that matter would knowingly attach their name to a plagarised concept. Peter is also right in that concepts are often taken or influenced by other images and campaigns that already exist. I think I remember seeing a similar advertising campaign to the one Peter pointed out but for a rail or bus company in the north about abuse towards drivers. I think it demonstrates that each promo should be viewed on it’s own merits and judged on whether the imagery combines with the direction of the band or artist. For me, the Esben and the Witch video works really well in creating an edgy atmosphere to accompany the music and the really nice lens flaring and in-camera work adds another level to the piece.
The similarity of the concepts do throw up some interesting discussion on who actually ‘owns’ an idea but on the whole I think we all take influence on what is around us and therefore no idea is totally new. We should just be asking ourselves ‘did I enjoy that video – yes or no’ and if it is yes then the job is done!