Production Company

Onesix7 Productions

James Lees takes young French artist Elisa Jo into the depths of wintry England for her first music video, for the song Defeated, and thanks to the help of a few friends was able to achieve a true sense of gritty British cinema due to shooting on 35mm with some of the last film stock being produced by Fuji&hellip;James Lees on making the video for Elisa Jo&rsquo;s Undefeated&ldquo;For her first music promo proper, Elisa Jo and her label wanted a performance video with a distinctive British feel. After listening to the track I felt the video should echo the melancholy and desolation of the lyrics and most of all, the honesty. No tricks, no twists, just Elisa and the emotion of her song.&ldquo;Regarding choosing the locations I&rsquo;ve always felt the flat unending landscapes and classic British suburban estates of near where I grew up in the Midlands are very cinematic and a perfect reflection of real Britain. So we went and shot the whole thing in and around Peterborough. The landscapes and portraits we were looking to capture just lent themselves to film so perfectly it made me really push to shoot on 35mm. Luckily this became a reality with the generosity of Fuji and the incredible support of Chris Youlton at Arri.&ldquo;Working with Ula Pontikos to capture everything in it&rsquo;s raw, untouched simplicity was a total joy. After two years of not shooting on film I&rsquo;m desperate to keep using it again just as it seems to be dying &ndash; Fuji have ceased production of film stock and Technicolour is due to close it&rsquo;s lab next month. Hopefully the continuation of Kodak and the i-dailies lab will mean we still have the opportunity to make this aesthetic choice for some time to come!&rdquo;

France

James Lees

Ula Pontikos

Wanda Productions

Celine Roubaud

Melodie Roulaud

Tom Bott

Darren Baldwin

Aubrey Woodiwiss

The Mill

Coffee & TV

Shawn Manning-Dalby

Angela Davies

Chris Kane

Marcus Autelli

Rupert Power

Marie Kliszowski

Indie

Elisa Jo ‘Defeated’ by James Lees

Elisa Jo 'Defeated' Dir: James Lees

James Lees' video for Bloc Party's Kettling is likely to stir memories and probably mixed emotions in a good many viewers. It's a thrilling recreation of that classic playground favourite, now generally outlawed as being too dangerous: British Bulldogs. 
Filmed with a group of kids from a south-east London school James captures all the excitement, aggression and fear that's associated with this downsized form of warfare - and, of course, the violence, and ensuing injuries... 
"I liked how the band were very keen to not be too on the nose with the video for 'Kettling' - which obviously conjures images of last year's riots and the previous student riots," James explains. "So with this concept we tried to draw parallels whilst creating something that worked in its own right.
"I remember playing British Bulldog in my school playground and it was great reliving it as I researched the rules - stuff like having to grab onto someone for long enough to shout "British Bulldog 1, 2, 3!". I wanted to keep the kids young in the video but obviously this brought a lot of filming restrictions. We only had a few hours to film everything and kids at that age are prone to wandering concentration, so it was a real case of keeping the energy up and making sure they were always engaged and enjoying themselves. 
"I love filming with kids, if you work with them in the right way you can get them to forget the cameras and reality of what is happening so much more easily than you can with adults. There is a total and utter belief and conviction in the task you have given them and it just becomes a case of ensuring you snatch the best moments.
"Particular thanks should go to my fantastic production team, headed by Abi Hodson and Melodie Roulaud who pulled everything together in under a week and helped secure such an awesome cast of kids. Thanks to Nathan Perry-Greene at Cut &amp; Run for an amazing job and the many hours of watching slow mo and countless tweaks I insisted on! Finally big thanks to John Moule, the label and the band for making our life easier by being so cool."

Onesix7 Productions

Production Company

Videos featuring Onesix7 Productions

2013 (1)

2012 (1)

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