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Producer

Laura Serra Estorch

<h3>Part of the Circus Maximus film that accompanies the new Travis Scott album, it's also&nbsp;one of the most spectacular music videos of the year. Laura Serra Estorch, executive producer at CANADA in Barcelona, explains why recreating the Catalonian tradition of the Castellers for Sirens was "four weeks inside a production hurricane."</h3>It is just one part of a much bigger project, one that involved some of the biggest (and notorious)&nbsp;names in international film - including Gaspar Noé, Nicolas Winding Refn and Harmony Korine. But the part of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AmjlRjMKsY&amp;t=1s" target="_blank">Circus Maximus</a> - Travis Scott's 75-minute film accompanying his new album UTOPIA - that is devoted to his song Sirens is, by any stretch, a towering achievement.&nbsp;[vidtoken data:0]In fact one can justifiably say: quite literally a towering achievement. It's not that 'a cast of thousands' usually means exactly that, but in this case, it did take in the region of two thousand extras to bring Scott's vision for Sirens to life. And that vision was to create a human tower, reaching up to the sky.Produced by CANADA in Barcelona, executive produced by Laura Serra Estorch and directed by Scott, the video recreates a remarkable tradition of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castell" target="_blank">Castellers</a>, that originates in the Catalonian region of Spain - where teams of hundreds of people combine to build human towers, and compete against other teams to see who can go highest.[imgtoken data:1]Above: Laura Serra Estorch<blockquote>I’d dare say it’s the biggest shoot we’ve ever done at CANADA.</blockquote>As it&nbsp;takes many people - usually built around a whole community, including different generations&nbsp;- to create one of these towers, the video begins with hundreds of people running through the streets of Barcelona, before an even bigger group of people gather&nbsp;in a darkened space to begin the building process - with Travis Scott himself at the heart of it, as Castellers climb to create ever-higher levels, towards a light at the top of the space.We spoke to Laura Serra Estorch, executive producer at CANADA, about&nbsp;making the Sirens video and discovered how her own personal experience of the Castellers gave her a head start in&nbsp;a hugely&nbsp;intense period of pre-production.[imgtoken data:2]&nbsp;PROMONEWS: How did the project start for you?LAURA SERRA ESTORCH: We were approached by Kathleen Heffernan, one of Circus Maximus’s executive producers, asking if we could make Travis’s idea for Sirens&nbsp;happen in a very short amount of time. I said 'yes'. And after that, it was four weeks inside a production hurricane.Did the original concept come from Travis, or was this a collaboration between him and CANADA?It came directly from Travis. He had a very clear idea of what he wanted in the video since the very first email.&nbsp;We received a written script for the entire Circus Maximus film, and our chapter specifically was quite detailed.&nbsp;He knew about human towers and about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1HWyUIZ5kk" target="_blank">the Tarragona contest in particular</a>, which is a contest that’s held once every two years, where all the Castellers teams gather together.It happens in a stadium filled with over 15,000 people, every team wearing their own colour and several human towers being built simultaneously. It’s visually spectacular.&nbsp;Travis wanted to recreate it within a&nbsp;utopian&nbsp;world.[imgtoken data:3]The Castells is a remarkable tradition in Catalonia, that started originally in Tarragona. Is there a personal connection to this tradition?I used to be part of the Vilafranca team when I was 10. I didn’t last many years, as many people there do, but I was there long enough to understand the culture, to share their passion, and to be able to connect with them 25 years later to help make this project happen. It has been quite an emotional journey for me.&nbsp;Were Travis and his team aware of your personal connection to the Castellers when they originally approached you about the project? I don't think they knew. They seemed very happy and relieved when I told them I had this connection and would do our best to make it happen.&nbsp;I heard they had a couple of "nos" before contacting us![imgtoken data:4]Where and when did you shoot the video? How many extras did you have?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It was shot in Spain in early July over three shooting days.&nbsp;The first day was the biggest one in Tarragona, inside the Tarraco Arena, where the original Castellers contest is held. We had over 1,200 people involved, including castellers, extras and crew. I’d dare say it’s the biggest shoot day we’ve ever done at CANADA.&nbsp;The second day was in a Barcelona neighbourhood called Ciutat Meridiana. That’s where we had hundreds of people running through streets and over rooftops. Over 600 in total.&nbsp;On the last day, we shot in an apartment and a studio to cover all the corridors and interior shots. We had around 200 extras involved.&nbsp;<blockquote>The tower was the centrepiece of the video... and it is not something that can be repeated over and over.</blockquote>Did you work with an existing Casteller team or club – or more than one?We mostly worked with Castellers de Vilafranca, which is one of the main teams in Catalunya, both for the complexity of their towers but also because of the amount of people they gather in the team. They are the ones who built the big tower in the video and the ones who taught Travis the basics for him to be able to be in one.We also had another four teams -&nbsp;Xiquets de Tarragona, Xiquets del Serrallo, Nois de la Torre and Castellers de Mediona - who were all crucial for Vilafranca to build a bigger tower on the day. The closeness, patience and hard work of all of them made it possible.[imgtoken data:5]What were the big challenges in filming the making of the tower? Did you need to shoot it more than once?&nbsp;The biggest challenge was that the tower was the centrepiece of the video, and that is something that only lasts about 4-5 minutes from start to finish. And because of its difficulty, it is not something that can be repeated over and over until you get the right shot. It’s really a one-off.&nbsp;Hence the multiple camera teams, cranes and drones are located at every angle we could possibly imagine.&nbsp;We were lucky enough to be able to get two of them, though not a hundred per cent completed. You can imagine the tension around them, not only in the castellers but the entire crew.&nbsp;Then the “gralles” started to play, and it became a magic moment.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:6]How many camera teams did you have shooting simultaneously on the video? We had three camera units working simultaneously on the first day with the castellers so we could ensure that we got all the necessary coverage in the very little time we had with the towers—and two camera units on days 2 and 3. &nbsp; Overall, it was a large crew for a music video, with over 200 people on day 1. We're incredibly grateful to every single one of them as it was a very tough day, even crazy at some points, but we managed to succeed as a team. And how many cranes and drones did you have surrounding the tower at any one time? We had two cranes, a Scorpio 45 and an E-Scorpion 45, a drone surrounding the tower, plus a third camera unit at the top of the stands.[imgtoken data:7]Travis appears to be part of the tower - at different levels. Were you able to do this for real? How much training did he need to become part of the team?Not 100% real of course, as being part of a 9-floor tower may take months, if not years of training. But I’d say we were able to do it more real and accurate than we first expected.&nbsp;We had planned for Travis to start at a lower ground first, having castellers climb on top of him, and then once he felt comfortable, maybe having him climb on top of a casteller.&nbsp;But when we came on set, he said he was happy to climb over someone straight away, and we went for it. He did a smaller tower that we combined into the big one; it made the VFX work much less complex than it could have been![imgtoken data:8]I’ve read that building human towers is not particularly dangerous – but it certainly looks it! Did you have any tower collapses – and any injuries?It’s funny you say that because every time I talk to someone about castellers I keep repeating this same sentence, ‘It’s not as dangerous as it looks!’Of course, it is not a joke, but when you see a collapse from the outside, it feels way more spectacular than it feels from the inside. There is some sort of cushioning in the way the towers fall that, most of the time, prevents people from serious injuries.&nbsp;We, fortunately, did not have any collapses nor injuries on the day; it all unfolded very smoothly on that front. During the build-up of the tower, the team’s coach is purely looking after its steadiness and making sure all is progressing safely.&nbsp;I was honestly so nervous that I can’t really remember how, but then I realised we managed to get very beautiful shots.&nbsp;• Laura Serra Estorch&nbsp;is executive producer at CANADA in Barcelona. More on CANADA <a href="https://canadacanada.com/" target="_blank">here</a>. &nbsp;

CANADA

CANADA's Laura Serra Estorch on making Travis Scott's Sirens video with a cast of thousands. "Travis had a very clear idea of what he wanted."

Travis Scott - SIRENS

Travis Scott taps in teo the spirit and enterprise of community in the remarkable video for Sirens, directed by Scott and produced by Laura Serra Estorch at CANADA in Barcelona.The video features hundreds, if not thousands of extras, many drawn from the Casteller clubs in Catalonia, that form the basis of the Casteller tradition in the region, creating incredible human towers, as featured in the video. And hundreds of crew - a colossal production. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Travis Scott

Christy Alcaraz Moyer

Callum Harrison

Alba Barneda

Dani Molina

Javi Soto

Tim Lorentzén

Anna Colomer Nogué

Carlos Font Clos

Violeta Comella

Hardstyle

Andrea Trenado

Jason Chen

Hector Julian

Joel Pérez

Pepe Gay De Liébana

Alberto Ojeda

Damian Halpern

Marcus Hatch

Merrell Hollis

Cinelab Film and Digital

Travis Scott 'Sirens' by Travis Scott

Rosalía and Travis Scott join forces in Nicolás Méndez of CANADA's video for TKN.&nbsp;Sung in&nbsp;Spanish and rapped in English, the track's hook references the Sicilian law of silence: "No new friends or new wounds".&nbsp;Surrounded by gaggle of children - sometimes anarchic, sometimes dancing, sometimes snoozing -&nbsp;Rosalía is very much the boss matriarch&nbsp;of the concept, protecting the kids as they stick close and hang on her every word. Scott can only watch on as the group tear across Los Angeles... before they get sleepy.&nbsp;It's a simple concept but as ever Méndez makes it special with the meticulous composition of each one of a rapidfire sequence of shots. DoP&nbsp;Stuart Winecoff utilises lots of daylight and practical lights, keeping things authentic and real-world. The performances are top-notch, and the cast of kids thrive in the no-holds-barred, dance-filled concept.[imgtoken data:1]

Oscar Romagosa

Lisa Margulis

Cristina Trenas

Elizabeth Minzes

Stuart Winecoff

Brielle Hubert

Stephen Predisik

Ferran Rial

Samantha Burkhart

Chloe & Chenelle Delgadillo

Chloe Delgadillo

Charm La'Donna

Jesus Guerrero

Rasheeda Raines

Sarah-May Levy

Nicolás Méndez

The Director's Bureau

latin trap

reggaeton

ROSALÍA & Travis Scott 'TKN' by Nicolás Méndez aka CANADA 

ROSALÍA & Travis Scott - TKN (Official Video)

Lope Serrano of CANADA directs Dua Lipa in a gobsmacking colour-coded production number for the Grammy-winning singer’s new single&nbsp;Physical.The video is a sizzling dance routine through a chromatic set, which sees Dua Lipa and her love-partner weave the tension of their affair through different abstract landscapes, while a multi-coloured crew of dancers fired by choreography by Charm La'Donna swirl majestically&nbsp;around them.Working once again with UKMVA-winning production designer Anna Colomer Nogué, Serrano has created a technicolor wonderland - and in classic CANADA fashion mixes in some animation with the live action and choreography - itself a combination of contemporary and classical dance styles - which all works together&nbsp;to bring the track’s powerful energy to life.

Karen Saurí

Julia Carrasco

Niklas Johansson

Luis Casacuberta

Lorenzo Posocco

Adrian Bernal

Laura Vandall

Lisa Eldridge

Anna Cofone

Rubén Mármol

Lane Casting

Marc Morató

Metropolitana

Mathematic

Eighty4

Caroline Clayton

Hands 

Kane Horn

Dua Lipa 'Physical' by CANADA

Dua Lipa - Physical (Official Video)

A modern Joan of Arc dons her armour to undertake a daunting mission in&nbsp;one of the most hostile and challenging environments known to man - the teenage houseparty. And what could be a more noble cause than rescuing your useless drunken brother from infamy and ridicule?&nbsp;CANADA bring their trademark flair, imagination, style and wit to the video for Beck&#39;s Up All Night - their&nbsp;first by the Spanish directing duo since <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/11/27/tame-impala-less-i-know-better-canada" target="_blank">their great Tame Impala video</a> last year.

United States

Mónica Blas

Daniel Fernández Abelló

Nico Mendez

Kevin Kloecker

Indie

Alternative

Beck 'Up All Night' by CANADA

Beck - Up All Night

American musician Bill Baird has his work cut out for him in this&nbsp;tongue-in-cheek video&nbsp;directed by CANADA-family member&nbsp;Humans, in which he plays a&nbsp;hotel maid tasked with cleaning up the remains after a night of sex, drugs and rock n&#39; roll.&nbsp;With beautifully detailed art direction by Jose Tirado, the singer discovers the level&nbsp;of hedonistic&nbsp;pursuit&nbsp;by picking through the unusual&nbsp;decor, including&nbsp;candy and drugs strewn along the floor,&nbsp;goldfish swimming around in the sink... and a bit of a shocking&nbsp;discovery waiting for him in the bathtub.&nbsp;

Humans

Maria Carboni

Pepe Pares

Fran Rios

Lluís Ferrer

Carles Roman

Jose Tirado

Anna Puig

Ed Chessman

Final Cut

Oisín O’Driscoll

The Mill

Laura Harris

Blanca Ballesté

Marta Bobić

Bill Baird 'Your Dark Sunglasses Won't Make You Lou Reed' by Humans

Bill-Baird-'Your-Dark-Sunglasses-Won't-Make-You-Lou-Reed'-by-Humans

An absolute bobby-dazzler of a video for Tame Impala by CANADA. Sexy, funny, surreal, and very beautiful.&nbsp;And there&#39;s a gorilla called Trevor...[imgtoken data:1]

Australia

Chema Linares

Rita SabatÉ

Arnau Valls

Pau Castejón

Anna Colomer

Carolina Galiana

Ana Cano

Les Filles Föllen

Álvaro Posadas

Sim Sala Bim

La Metropolitana

Angel Sound Studio

Cecilia Duarte

Glen Goetze

Universal Music Australia

Indie, Alternative

Tame Impala 'The Less I Know The Better' by CANADA

Director Marc Oller has directed this seven-minute, double music video for two Madrid&nbsp;lo-fi garage bands, with&nbsp;The&nbsp;Parrots&#39; rockin&#39; out to&nbsp;All My Loving,&nbsp;followed by&nbsp;Hinds&#39; woozy, swaggering tune,&nbsp;Davey Crockett.The video oozes that&nbsp;easy, sexy and youthful trademark CANADA look, following&nbsp;a rambunctious group of friends as they spend a night on the town and head back home in the early morning to play some more tunes.&nbsp;

Spain

Marc Oller

Miki Díaz

Oriol Barcelona

Vicki Viñas

Ainoha Gormaz

Anne Roig

Garage

Rock

The Parrots & Hinds 'Davey Crockett + All My Loving' by Marc Oller

HINDS ♥ THE PARROTS | Davey Crockett + All My Loving (double official music video)

Battles, math-rock&#39;s greatest exponents, are back with The Yabba, and back with CANADA - this time as a production company, with&nbsp;Roger Guàrdia directing. And this is a very precise, almost geometric reflection of the track, slowly revealing its power and beauty, just as the song does.Just like <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2011/05/10/battles-ice-cream-canada" target="_blank">Ice Cream</a>, their previous marvellous&nbsp;collaboration, The Yabba presents an orchestrated series of stylised vignettes.&nbsp;This time, the visuals are even more&nbsp;closely&nbsp;aligned to the music,&nbsp;growing&nbsp;in scale, as the track&nbsp;builds its momentum. The theme is rotation - everything, everyone spins around, endlessly.But&nbsp;Battles are always there, performing. They remain firmly at the centre of everything. Wherever they are, they keep on playing.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Roger Guàrdia

Txesma Lasa

Daniel F. Abelló

Ana Colomer

Carlos Font

Rik Green

Warp

Ivan Lopez

Experimental Rock

Battles 'The Yabba' by Roger Guàrdia

Foxes just-released Body Talk is accompanied by a&nbsp;video by Spanish director Virgili Jubero, with a cool retro-80s feel. At a neon-lit garage and&nbsp;car-wash, Foxes hooks up with a&nbsp;back-up dancing crew, performing a choreography to lift her spirits. Encouraging others to just dance through the hard times, the stylish video is a fittingly bittersweet proposition and a good&nbsp;fit for the&nbsp;melancholic pop song.&nbsp;

Virgili Jubero

Maria Vives

Takuro Takeuchi

Laura Velasco

Natalia Ferviu

Tuixén Benet

Elizabeth Doonan

Sony Music

Foxes 'Body Talk' by Virgili Jubero

Foxes - Body Talk (Official Video)

Australian artist Josef Salvat established his persona in his previous clip&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/02/19/josef-salvat-hustler-casper-balslev" target="_blank">Hustler</a>&nbsp;as a flighty&nbsp;ne&#39;er-do-well who&#39;s not to be trusted. Now in this excellent video for Till I Found You by&nbsp;Darío Peña, the enigmatic bad-boy emerges at the beginning as the survivor of&nbsp;a street corner knife-fight. And then he seems to be yearning for&nbsp;redemption.The video, which is peppered with Christian symbols of salvation throughout, follows&nbsp;Salvat, haunted by his violent&nbsp;past, leaving the city by motorbike for the relative safety of the countryside. But things aren&#39;t quite what they seem - and the unseen subject of the song starts to cast a big shadow...&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Darío Peña

Laura Clayton

Miquel Prohens

Ana Gale

Vinyet Escobar

Maria Combalia

Elisenda Amorós

Eskenaziencursiva

Josef Salvat 'Till I Found You' by Darío Peña

Josef Salvat - Till I Found You

The video for Nothing But Thieves track Itch&nbsp;by Roger Guàrdia illustrates the feeling of a disenchanted youth, a girl consumed with teen angst,&nbsp;and too morose to engage with the beautiful things around her.The band also feature in this nocturnal vision of American suburbia, with a rocking&nbsp;performance. But there really is no pleasing some people.&nbsp;

Iván Triviño Martínez

Dani Moon

Nothing But Thieves 'Itch' by Roger Guàrdia

Nothing But Thieves - Itch

After their video for Handsome,&nbsp;The Vaccines venture once again&nbsp;into that retro,&nbsp;B-movie aesthetic&nbsp;for their latest, Pen$acola-directed video for Dream Lover.&nbsp;&nbsp;It sees our heroes in an&nbsp;80&#39;s sci-fi flick-inspired&nbsp;video, where the Vaccines&nbsp;matching outfits are spacesuits, their weapons are lazer guns&nbsp;and their challenge: reaching&nbsp;the ever-mystical Dream Lover. Unfortunately for them, it&nbsp;is heavily guarded&nbsp;by motion-sensor lazers, gas-chambers, girls with beams shooting out of their eyes, and creepiest of all,&nbsp;a giant robotic eye. Will they make it?

Pensacola

Dani Fernández Abelló

Kenneth Santos

Juli Carné

Renato Camargo

Hugo Fernández

The Vaccines 'Dream Lover' by Pen$acola

The Vaccines - Dream Lover

Gerson Aguerri&#39;s zany and action-packed video for The Vaccines&#39;&nbsp;Handsome &ndash;&nbsp;the first single off of The Vaccines&#39;s latest album &ndash; presents us with a riotous pastiche of Far Eastern (mainly Japanese)&nbsp;pop culture, complete with supernatural monsters, vigorous martial-arts training and matching bomber jackets.&nbsp;The band paired up with Gerson&nbsp;in a warehouse in Brooklyn, New York to shoot the video with a classic&nbsp;kung-fu flavour in which, the Vaccines&nbsp;seek to restore justice by taking down part-human part-lizard&nbsp;gangster and his henchmen on the mean streets of Hong Kong...&nbsp;

Juan Miguel Azpiroz

Amy Howard

Brenda Abbandanolo

Pensacola Studio / Anchor Light

Sydney Buchan

Jessica Lauretti

Gerson Aguerri

Indie Rock

The Vaccines 'Handsome' by Gerson Aguerri

The Vaccines - Handsome

Following the videos for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2014/01/17/paloma-faith-cant-rely-you-paul-gore" target="_blank">Can&#39;t Rely On You</a> and <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2014/05/02/paloma-faith-only-love-can-hurt-paul-gore" target="_blank">Only Love Can Hurt Like This</a>,&nbsp;Paul Gore delivers his third beautifully-crafted&nbsp;promo for Paloma Faith in the form of this performance piece with added dramatic narrative for Trouble With My Baby.Set in an intimate bar, the drama unfolds from the point of view of a man in the audience - played by Frederick Schmidt. Who has a very creative imagination...

Laura Serra Estorch

Producer

1 interview featuring Laura Serra Estorch

17 videos featuring Laura Serra Estorch

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