Producer

Henry Napier-Brown

It's been a long time coming. Samuel Taylor directed three videos for London fourpiece Superfood in the spring and summer of 2018&nbsp;- which unfortunately coincided with the band's&nbsp;break-up last year.Consequently it has proved to be a tricky business getting these three videos released for the director who has also directed notable videos for Bloody Knees, Magic Gang, Dirty Danger and Crows in the last year or so. But over twelve months later, this fantastic trilogy for the tracks Where's The Bass Amp, Natural Supersoul and Double Dutch is finally out.Sam Taylor tells us&nbsp;all about how he made these superbly uplifting, low-budget videos, that bring to life and visualise&nbsp;the defining impulse behind Superfood's&nbsp;music: it just makes you want to dance. &nbsp;&nbsp;SAMUEL TAYLOR:<blockquote>It all just kind of clicked, that&nbsp;it should literally be what the album feels like, which is wanting to dance.</blockquote>Essentially I came to Superfood pretty late. I met them and became mates with them before I'd heard their music. And having met them and then listened to their music, it was very clear: their music is exactly them.[Their last album Bambino&nbsp;came out in late 2017] I challenge people to listen to it and not want to move and dance to it. It's the most fun album you'll ever listen to.We would meet up and hang out, and I kept on saying, "We need to do something."&nbsp;And then I was listening to it one day,&nbsp;walking down to catch the Tube, and I saw a businessman, with a suit,&nbsp;briefcase and headphones.&nbsp;He was bobbing his head and walking down the street. And kind of doing this little jump off the kerb. And I was just like, "Wait, is he listening to this album as well?"&nbsp;He's moving in the same kind of way, and he must be dancing to this album.And it all just kind of clicked -&nbsp;a moment of like, "Oh, it should be dance." It should literally be what the album feels like, which is wanting to dance. So we picked the three that they wanted to do videos for. And I just wrote three very different stories, that all have this kind of link.&nbsp;I'm a big fan of that you can have dance, trying to not necessarily make it feel too real. In the sort of way that they would do it in a musical, like Singin' in the Rain, sort of chatting, but then the music kind of comes in, and then they start dancing. And I really like that sort of old school musical way of doing things.So we just applied that to all three, and kind of went for this approach. And also tried to get a nice range of ages, and range of sort of different places in society.Video: Where's The&nbsp;Bass Amp?[vidtoken data:0]Synopsis: A strait-laced London businessman finds it hard to keep himself from dancing as he makes his way around the City, while listening to Superfood...&nbsp;ST: With Bass Amp, Henry [Napier-Brown, the producer] got a street permit, and we went down to Liverpool Street first thing in the morning, with a load of rolls of 16mm film, with Jordan Buck (the DoP), and, few other mates – and Ally Green, the choreographer, and director in her own right, who's amazing.[imgtoken data:1]And we just kind of went down first thing in the morning with the guy, and just got him to listen to the track. And pretty much he just walked up and down the street.&nbsp;He hadn't really heard the track up to this point.&nbsp;And he had his own complete style. And Ally and I, we were just shouting out things to him as he was walking down the street. It was entirely improvised on the day. We just made it up as we went along essentially.<blockquote>Security got pretty lairy with us for shooting outside the NatWest</blockquote>It was all actually shot hand-held, because you couldn't put anything down. Security&nbsp;got pretty lairy with us when we were shooting outside Nat West building. So we just kind of carried on shooting. It was a day of bumping into businessmen, and trying to make mischief, essentially. It was fun.&nbsp;Video:&nbsp;Double Dutch[vidtoken data:1]Synopsis: The lovers on a park bench, overlooking London. A homage on the Hollywood musical, rather like a London version of the La La Land.&nbsp;ST: Double Dutch&nbsp;and Bass Amp were shot back-to-back, with basically the same team. We shot&nbsp;Double Dutch the day after Bass Amp.The location was this little gem of a view of London that Henry found out of nowhere. It's like a small park,&nbsp;up near Greenwich. It's kind of a bit hidden, but you get this viewpoint, where you can just see the entirety of London.<blockquote>We were absolutely blessed with that&nbsp;sunset</blockquote>I think we did two days recceing, driving around, trying to find the right place with a fantastic view. Obviously so many of them have been done before, like Hampstead Heath. We were trying to find something that hadn't really been shot before, and this was the last one we visited. We just walked up, and we were like: "Yeah, I mean this is definitely it."[imgtoken data:2]We got there reasonably early in the morning: just me, Ally, and the two dancers at first. We sat down on the benches, and worked out the thing in the day, so we had a rough idea of what we were doing. We did a bit of rehearsal, but basically we just sat there from 10am til sunset, and worked out the dance.This was in&nbsp;about April last year, and we were absolutely blessed with that sunset in that video. We had no idea it was coming; it was raining in the morning, and the weather was very up and down. It actually snowed about twenty minutes after we did the sunset take. Then we waited for snow to go, and then we put the spotlight on and did the night take.[imgtoken data:3]It was a really weird one, because I'm so used to talking during the shoot. If I'm operating the camera - which is quite often -&nbsp;I'm constantly trying to excite people, and be really involved in the process of creating the kind of movement of the scenes. But with this one&nbsp;I just sat by a monitor, and was just watching this amazing performance play out.Video:&nbsp;Natural Supersoul[vidtoken data:2]Synopsis: The little girl who visits the park playground with her mum, and is a bit ostracised from&nbsp;the others, but it all works out in the end...That one was done a lot later.&nbsp;We basically ran out of money after the first two – we spent it all on shooting on film. It always just seemed like the band weren't going to put them out any time soon, so we took our time with it a bit.&nbsp;I was like, "We don't have enough money to do another one on film, so how do we go about doing this third one?" In the end, it became&nbsp;a combination of iPhone 8 and&nbsp;Super 8mm. Which is quite a weird mixture.[imgtoken data:4]&nbsp;We wanted to start with the mom walking the young girl into the playground, as a sort of touchstone, to the beginning of the story, and jumping from an adult world to the girl's world.&nbsp;So we did that with the change from phone footage to film. Format was the thing that's led that, a little bit.But it meant we had the advantage of being able to&nbsp;to run around with such a small bit of kit. We could work with the kids a lot quicker, and&nbsp;it was much easier than having a big bit of kit.&nbsp;I shot all of that, and Ally essentially directed a lot of it with me as we went.&nbsp;We just played games with them, and managed to get little moments.&nbsp;And then I just ran around with an 8mm camera, and grabbed all the other kind of more fantastical bits.[imgtoken data:5]Shooting that way is essentially&nbsp;trying to get out the way of the story, a little bit. You&nbsp;do that as much as possible, and that one felt very much like that was what we had to do: try to&nbsp;allow these kids be as fun as possible without stepping in the way too much.I suppose I'm not afraid of being quite cheesy when I want to. This is cheesy, but it's so paint by numbers, sort of, that it's actually quite an enjoyable process to see it play out a little bit. Then when it happens, it's kind of genuine enough. You're not turned off by it.• Samuel Taylor is represented by Agile Films*This feature is a Promonews and Agile Films co-production&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Samuel Taylor

Tommy Banham

Agile Films

Jordan Buck

Gary Long

Milo Brown

Matt Alsop

Hamza Twomey

Alexandra Green

Elle Lotherington

Daniel Hawkins

Kuldip Singh-Barmi

Bradley Salter

Emma-Louise Stansall

Alternative

Superfood Trilogy: 'Where's The Bass Amp?', 'Double Dutch' and ''Natural Supersoul' by Samuel Taylor

Bastille&#39;s Dan Smith is racked in existential angst on a couch amid a sea of half-naked bodies, in Crooked Cynics&#39; video for Those Nights.And the real emotion of the piece comes partly from the constantly moving camera, executing a swooping and swirling choreography that disorientates the viewer - and seems to accentuate&nbsp;Smith&#39;s misery.&nbsp;

Crooked Cynics

Globe Productions

Will Nichols

Tom Oxenham

Bryony James

Tristan Chenais

Cam Smith

Studio Lune

Rhona Ezuma

Brooke Lee

Hannah Ashby Ward

Smoke & Mirrors

Sandstorm Films

Virgin EMI

Bastille 'Those Nights' by Crooked Cynics

Bastille-'Those-Nights'-by-Crooked-Cynics

Samuel Taylor delivers a gripping black comedy&nbsp;for the British psych-rock outfit Crows' thunderous Wednesday's Child, where a group of young people come together in a big house, to build the perfect community, but descend into chaos.At first it's all sweetness and light and mutual trust. But then the community's team spirit starts to fragment, the activity and sport develops a more competitive edge. Then things get completely out of hand...Just as the song references the Salem witch trials, Taylor has channelled a few major literary works, from The Crucible to Lord of the Flies, and directs a large cast with aplomb, to bring us this timely satire on the fragility of civilization.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Eleri Evans

Luke Goodrich

Bradley Stearn

Joe Ramsden

Annabell Maguire

Anya Magee

Miriana Savino

Thomas Mangham

Balley Records

Cinelab Film and Digital

Jake Whitehouse

The Mill

Rock

Crows 'Wednesday's Child' by Samuel Taylor

Crows-'Wednesday'a-Child'-by-Samuel-Taylor

James Barnes brings us the first of four videos for Scarlxrd, whose fearsome style combines trap with heavy metal. It&#39;s not easy listening, but the video for Living Legend presents him enjoying the apparent trappings of success.Previously masked, the Wolverhampton rapper reveals his full identity in this new campaign. But he&#39;s still mad as hell.

James Barnes

Stefan Demetriou

Bud Gallimore

Bradley Steam

Sanjay Mistry

Brooke Lee Davies

Anthony Bairstow

Alex Gregory

Sam Flynn

Island Records

Scarlxrd 'Living Legend' by James Barnes

Scarlxrd-'Living-Legend'-by-James-Barnes

Fanny Hoetzeneder&rsquo;s splendid promo for Adelphi Music Factory captures the rhythm, passion and joy at the heart of this fusion of gospel and house music through a constantly repeating&nbsp;sequence.We join a boy as he runs from his home, pounding past footballing mates through the streets and into the local Baptist church. He&#39;s running late for choir rehearsals,&nbsp;the Reverend glancing at his watch as the boy takes his seat and starts drumming.As the scenario repeats, scenes layer upon each other in an ever growing spiral of drumming, running and preaching. It&#39;s marvellous, and&nbsp;Fanny Hoetzeneder has&nbsp;created a video as upliftingly joyful as the song.&nbsp;Filmed on location in Sheffield over a weekend, the video for Javelin (Calling Out Your Name) features&nbsp;Rev. Daniel Anang and his teenage son Jeryhuda, in the roles of the Reverend and the running drummer respectively.&nbsp;Janine Dyer is the lead singer,&nbsp;and other singers and cast were drawn&nbsp;from the Cemetery Road Baptist Church, the New Testament Church, and Sheffield&rsquo;s Community Choir.&nbsp;

Fanny Hoetzeneder

Knucklehead

Ore Okonedo

Josh Northover

Jack Wilkinson

Nick Coleman

Jessica Oxley

Chris Sarginson

Laura Little

Charlie Von Rotberg

Tim Smith

Emily Ann Sonnet

Ministry of Sound

Weapons Music

Dance

House

Gospel

Adelphi Music Factory 'Javelin (Calling Out Your Name)' by Fanny Hoetzeneder

Adelphi-Music-Factory-'Javelin-(calling-Out-Your-Name)'-by-Fanny-Hoetzeneder

Samuel Taylor delivers an adrenalin-fuelled white-knuckle performance video for Bloody Knees, capturing&nbsp;the experience of one of the band&#39;s high energy, high intensity,&nbsp;seriously sweaty live shows, and puting his own spin on things in the process.&nbsp; Taylor worked closely with DoP Daniel Hawkins on the Spinning project. As well as sharing camera operating, it also involved, appropriately,&nbsp;Taylor and Hawkins&nbsp;building their own 360 spinning camera rig,&nbsp;and then executing some unconventional camera moves. It smacks you around the eyeballs in a most satisfying fashion.

Ria Hanish-Oakes

Hayley Williams

Bailey Marks

Peter Bishop

Bloody Knees 'Spinning' by Samuel Taylor

Bloody-Knees-'Spinning'-by-Samuel-Taylor

Jake Jelicich has responded to&nbsp;Australian rock outfit DMA's take on vintage Britrock (and the ringing endorsement of Liam Gallagher) with a video with a real classic feel, exhibiting the director's qualities as DoP as well as director.Jelicich&nbsp;has placed the band among a group of&nbsp;mysterious black-clad figures positioned around architecturally striking locations in London (Anthony Gormley-style). Despite the setting, this is far from ominous. The monochrome-tinted video itself has a very tranquil feel to it, as the viewer drifts from one concrete-heavy panorama to another,&nbsp;accompanied by the lead singer's soothing vocals.This marks a visual departure for the band, who have commented: "We really liked Jake's previous videos and wanted to give him full creative control for Do I Need You Now?. He captured the mood of the song perfectly, and it was nice to just stand still for once."

Jake Jelicich

Partizan Darkroom

Mayling Wong

Joe Browne

Tristn Bejawn

Bame Models

Nevs

Mouthpiece

DMA's 'Do I Need You Now?' by Jake Jelicich

DMA's - Do I Need You Now?

Moss Kena steps out of the shadows in Rianne White&#39;s&nbsp;video for You Don&#39;t Know, and an entertaining study of what happens when the rules of attraction come into play.&nbsp;It&#39;s a&nbsp;hazy and seductive exploration of lust, jealousy, isolation and curiosity, executed with panache&nbsp;by White.

Rianne White

Evelin van Rei

Barney Batchelor

Chris Stakey

Leo Naessens

Zoe Klinck

Natalia Rogalska

Jean-phillippe Blunt

Electric Theatre Collective

OB Management

Elizabeth Doonan

Sony Music

Moss Kena 'You Don't Know' by Rianne White

Moss-Kena-'You-Don't-Know'-by-Rianne-White

Two Penny Blue&#39;s Lament is about coming to terms with Death, a theme interpreted by Dan Hawkins as a disconnected relationship between singer Tommy Gathers and a young woman who is a mysterious and seductive presence throughout the video.At one point we see her wrapped in a shroud &ndash; the only indication of the fact they have been tragically separated &ndash; and Hawkins uses a variety of simple but nicely shot set-ups like this to express the intensity of their relationship - and keeps the viewer in thrall throughout the five and a half minute song.

Dan Hawkins

Hey Honey

Rob Gerrard

David Pimm

Tristan Bejawn

Natasha Kutrovacz

Gemma Pickerill

Chrissy Hamler

Tanya Stephenson

Convivium

Two Penny Blue 'Lament' by Dan Hawkins

Two-Penny-Blue-'Lament'-by-Dan-Hawkins

Oliver Jennings and Nines reunite for I See You Shining - a line lifted from cult flick Paid In Full, and a bold declaration of appreciation that inspired this hugely entertaining video.Starting off the day with a bowl full of heathy greens, Nines proceeds to whip a pot in the middle of a snow-stormed kitchen and later levitate in between the blocks on his estate. A really audacious&nbsp;blend of the gritty and the dreamy.

Oliver Jennings

Tom Wynbourne

Ed Hubert

Rich Savage

Alex Gibbon

Liz El-kadhi

Kiera Liberati

1920

Claire Stubbs @ Mouthpiece

Caroline Simionescu-marin

Xl Records

Hip Hop

Nines  'I See You Shining' by Oliver Jennings  

Samuel Taylor&#39;s hugely powerful video for Dirty Danger is a rare thing indeed. This close collaboration between the director and the artist shows in a few minutes a palpable reality of life now for many black teenagers in London, where gang culture is rife. It&#39;s a white-knuckle thriller that feels utterly authentic. And the message hits you like a hammer.&nbsp;Two boys play basketball on a court in a&nbsp;Hackney estate. But just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time makes them targets. Taylor&#39;s direction turns this into a gripping chase sequence through the estate, and also brilliantly extrapolates not only the danger the boys face,&nbsp;but also an agonising dilemma that comes at the end of their run for their lives.This is a really impressive work from Samuel Taylor, now signed to Agile Films for music videos. He and Dirty Danger developed the concept together and spent weeks on the casting, to get it just right, and they were rewarded by superb performances from their two main actors, Ishmel Bridgmen and&nbsp;Josiah Mutupa. The result is heartbreaking, but should be seen as a message to power to do something about this situation.The last word, rightly, is Dirty Danger&#39;s, with a message that also comes at the end of Molly Dineen&#39;s remarkable new documentary Being Blacker (now on BBC iPlayer).&nbsp;&quot;I&#39;m sick and tired of hearing another black boy has been killed on the streets. Don&#39;t digest what they feed you. That&#39;s your brother, not your enemy.&quot;

Alex Holberton

Leah Revivo

James Wicks

Vlad Barin

CHEAT

Ishmel Bridgmen

Josiah Mutupa

Dirty Danger 'Run' by Samuel Taylor

Oliver Jennings video for One Way has&nbsp;Suspect, Skepta and Jesse James Solomon each taking the wheel in a studio-set action thriller, taking care of business and running the gauntlet with the law.Jennings&#39; long time collaboration with DoP Ed Hubert once again brings a punchy and hallucinatory style to the video. The track is taken from Suspect&rsquo;s debut album, which is due out on Rinse later this year.

Anthony Mchugh

Charlie Jenkins

John Moule

Rinse FM

Charlie Rizek

Suspect ft Skepta, Jesse James Solomon 'One Way' by Oliver Jennings

Samuel Taylor gets together with The Marshall Darlings to capture The Magic Gang at band practice for Getting Along -&nbsp;the first single from their&nbsp;upcoming album - interrupted by graphic cutaways&nbsp;to match the track&#39;s&nbsp;jagged, punchy rhythm.While the performance is intimate yet powerful, and emphasises their catchy songwriting, the&nbsp;cutaways represent&nbsp;the frustration in the lyrics -&nbsp;rendered on 16mm by DoP&nbsp;Oliver Ford.

Jack Hobbs

Chris Malin

Oliver Ford

Sam Riley

Darren Ladbury 

Salvador Gomez-Lopez

Elena Horn

Sam Conway

Jack Kendall

Toby Tomkins

Warner Music

The Marshall Darlings

The Magic Gang 'Getting Along' by Samuel Taylor & The Marshall Darlings

The-Magic-Gang-'Getting-Along'-by-Samuel-Taylor

Samuel Taylor has directed a brilliantly engaging shoestring epic for the raucous swagger of Bloody Knees&#39; Maybe It&#39;s Easy.Essentially it&#39;s a wrestling version of&nbsp;Rocky, chronicling an&nbsp;unlikely road to triumph. But although the beards are fake, the light comedy of the first act makes way for a thrilling&nbsp;finale that looks impressively real. Well, as real as wrestling gets...It was prepped and shot over four days in which the band trained in a bodybuilding gym in full wrestling makeup, took to donning spandex with fake beards to run across London Bridge at 4am, topped off with a 12 hour day of&nbsp;bone-crunching&nbsp;bodyslams and knee drops.Its testament to Taylor&#39;s close relationship with the band, and his ability to tell a story,&nbsp;that this has&nbsp;a heart and energy that well exceeds it&#39;s budget.

Hey Honey Films

Honey Cairns

Joel Honeywell

James Malamatinas

Francesca Zucchini

Ben Skyrme

Rebecca Hallen

Clarissa Livock

Gina Parr

Bloody Knees 'Maybe It's Easy' by Samuel Taylor

Bloody Knees - Maybe It's Easy

A young man undertakes a surreal journey that takes him into a magical wood where time turns backwards and then into deep water, in Daniel Hawkins absorbing and well-crafted video for Two Penny Blue.&nbsp;Hawkins establishes the mood with the first shot of the man falling through space and the confident combination of nature and visual tricks is maintained throughout, as his gruelling experience reflects his state of loss and longing.

Henry Napier-Brown

Producer

Videos featuring Henry Napier-Brown

2019 (5)

2018 (8)

2017 (2)

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