The Spindle director’s debut music video pays tribute to a modern TV classic. She explains how it happened, and why it needed to be as faithful to the original as possible. On-set photography by Amaka Lin. 

Bonnie MacRae was stepping into uncharted territory with her video for singer-songwriter Chloe Slater's song Harriet. Firstly, she had not made a pop promo before, for anyone. And secondly, this was going to be a homage - and not just referencing that work. She was aiming for, in many ways, a complete copy. And the pressure was on, as the original was something that many people know - and seriously love.

The brief was to recreate scenes from Normal People, the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's acclaimed novel, ostensibly to highlight the often-noted resemblance between Chloe Slater and Daisy Edgar-Jones, the female lead actor in the show. But such is the emotional pull that the drama has upon MacRae (and many others) she became determined to go 'all in' - to an extent that the likeness between the show and the Harriet video is considerable. At times even uncanny.  

This is a departure for MacRae, an up-and-coming director from Dundee who has been building her reputation with work in its own distinctive style. She signed with London-based production company Spindle earlier this year, having made her mark with two short films that tackle important topics with an appealing irreverence: Mind Yersel', about suicide, has been used by the NHS for training healthcare professionals; All Up There, about the condition of endometriosis, won a YDA Award and has been recently developed into an awareness campaign for the charity Endometriosis UK.

Her latest short, Happy Birthday Daniel, co-produced by Spindle, is a tongue-in-cheek character comedy (it stars Lizzie Davidson of BBC's Such Brave Girls and Rhea Norwood of Netflix's Heartstopper) that's just starting its festival run. And a TV project also in development is further evidence of MacRae's status as an exciting breakthrough talent.

But when Promonews spoke to her, the Harriet video had just been released - and not surprisingly, our conversation was all about that. 

I wanted it to be exact to the point that you’d have to do a double-take.

PROMONEWS: Bonnie, how did this project start for you?  

BONNIE MACRAE: I was initially asked to pitch on the video about a month before the shoot, I’d known of Chloe’s music and had seen her come up across my Instagram feed a few times but this was both our first instance of working together – and my first ever music video.

When did the idea emerge to re-create scenes from Normal People?

BM: That was brought to the table as part of the initial brief. In the comments section of nearly every social media post of Chloe’s, you’ll find people comparing her to Daisy Edgar Jones. I think for Chloe, it almost started out as a bit of a joke, and then combined with her love for Normal People, it felt like a really creative and original way to address the resemblance.

I think for Chloe, it almost started out as a bit of a joke.

It then became a collaboration between us both, figuring out what scenes to draw inspiration from, how we would land that balance between humour and something a little bit deeper, relating it back to the lyrics of the song, getting to the root of why Chloe penned it in the first place and channelling that into the visuals. 

[But] It’s one thing saying you can recreate something and [another thing] actually being able to do it; that was a little mini-stress I realised after winning the job. I decided right from that point that if we were going to make this, it should be as precise as possible, otherwise it could fall a bit flat. And then that’s when we started to work really specifically.

Why did you pick those particular scenes from the show?

BM: With the very first brief, Chloe sent across a few scenes that she really wanted to include, which just so happened to be the same ones that stuck out so vividly in my mind. There’s obviously so many to choose from, but I wanted to make sure we were recreating the ones that felt the most visually iconic.

For example, I knew I wanted to recreate Connell’s bedroom with that recognisable wallpaper and duvet as on first glance, I think even those who aren’t huge fans of the show will see it and can put two and two together and identify it as Normal People. The same goes for those grey school uniforms, and that long French braid in Marianne’s hair – instantly recognisable snippets of the show that also felt in alignment with the song and its lyrics.

Have you attempted anything like this before?

BM: Never. This was a completely different production experience to anything I’ve worked on before. The original show is shot in a way that doesn’t creatively come naturally to me. It’s framed in a way that I perhaps wouldn’t have shot it, so it was fascinating to have to almost mould my own work around someone else's in that way.

Usually when you take inspiration from something you don’t take it quite so literally. It was a new experience having to brief our HODs to so rigorously match every single detail as closely as possible. It was also daunting because it is my first music video, and this is a world I really want to be in, so I put a bit of pressure on myself to do it well. We worked hard in pre-production to find specific props and wardrobe items and similar locations, but you never really know until the camera rolls and you look at the monitor for the first time, if it’s actually going to pay off. I’m so glad to say that I think it did!

It was fascinating to have to almost mould my own work around someone else's.

What were the biggest challenges in making it happen?

BM: The main challenge was that we had a small budget and one day to shoot four of the show’s most iconic scenes all over South London. But that to me was also the best part. It felt like a real achievement by the end of the day to see what we had managed to do and I also think being restricted both time and money-wise naturally makes you all the more creative.

One of the other main challenges was recreating our locations, specifically our interior sets – Connell’s bedroom and the pool setup for instance. We shot in this massive house that 1. Had a pool that really felt similar to that of the original show but 2. Didn’t have any rooms that were boxy and contained like we needed.

It meant we had to build a tiny bedroom within a bedroom and our amazing production designer Lucie Brooks Butler and her team really smashed it in such a small space of time. Lucie came up with the smart idea of bringing in a tall wardrobe and wrapping half of it in our wallpaper to try and emulate that original bedroom composition.

I also really wanted to be as specific as possible. I wanted it to be exact to the point that you’d have to double-take to figure out if you were watching the music video or the real thing. Specificity was really the main working practice across all departments – we set out to find the exact same bedroom wallpaper, the same school tie, the exact replica of Connell’s chain, the same GAA ticket stubs pasted to his bedroom walls.

What aspects of the re-creation are you happiest with?

BM: I’m really delighted with the supermarket scene. We shot in this small Polish shop on Streatham High Street that ended up feeling very similar to the show, and Chloe is actually wearing the exact dress Daisy wears which is a nice easter egg too.

Our brilliant 1st AD, Dom Asbridge, would be holding up my iPad next to the monitor so that we could watch the show play out alongside what we were shooting. I got super specific with both Chloe and Gus in even the smallest of movements – if Marianne takes her earphones out and that lasts three seconds, let’s make sure we take the same amount of time ourselves. If she raises her right arm at a certain angle to grab a jar off the shelf, let’s try and have Chloe reach that same position.

I’m also really proud of how we recreated the bedroom scene. It was honestly very weird putting both Chloe and Gus into position and seeing the show come to life in front of us all. We even got particular in the tiny art details around the room that no one will probably ever notice or think twice about. For example, we managed to source the exact same vintage plate that sits on the side of Connell’s desk – you can actually barely see it in frame in the show or the music video but it’s very satisfying for me knowing that little details like that made it in there.

Being restricted both time and money-wise naturally makes you all the more creative.

I also really love our field scenes when they’re in their school uniforms – to me that set up is Normal People and to watch that play back in the edit for the first time and see how close we got was really fun. Who knew a little field in Croydon could masquerade itself as rural Sligo?

What’s the primary purpose of doing this – humour, or something deeper? Or is it just to highlight Chloe’s rather uncanny likeness to Daisy?

BM: I think it’s a bit of both. Addressing the uncanny likeness I think demands a bit of humour. This is a homage to the show and while we worked really hard to get that replication right, we also aren’t trying to take it too seriously.

I think it’s such a smart idea from Chloe in using the show as a vessel to form this world around ‘Harriet’. So many (including myself) are also still so obsessed with Normal People, even though it came out a good few years ago now, to me it still feels so relevant.

Why do you think Normal People resonates so much?

The show came out as such a crazy time - at the very start of lockdown when everything was a bit scary and unknown. I binged it almost all in one go - 1. Because it felt nice to have something to escape into and distract myself from and 2. The show offered up this totally immersive world that I’d never experienced before.

I also think that to take an amazing novel like Normal People and to then adapt it so successfully is maybe quite rare. The way the show is shot literally feels like Sally Rooney’s writing. It’s really visceral and I think that makes it so relatable and true to real life in a way most TV fails to do.

If you had the chance to do another Chloe/Daisy comparison video, which of Daisy’s other TV shows or movies would you pick? 

BM: We actually joked about this on set. Maybe my new thing is directing lookalike music videos… I haven’t actually seen it but I know Daisy was in Twisters. So I’d like to see how we’d fancy our chances of replicating a devastating tornado on a similar budget in a day in the same field in Croydon. 

• Bonnie MacRae is based at Spindle and represented for music videos by Claire Stubbs at Mouthpiece.