Director of Photography

Richard Mott

Caswell Coggins has been missing from music videos for a while to concentrate on documentary work, and things like this - the new trailer for the forthcoming second season of BBC cop show Luther, starring Idris Elba.
Idris as Luther un-destroys his office, and returns to a state of relative serenity, all to the strains of the great Nina Simone singing Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (so its actually quite like a video really...). Sixty seconds that intrigues you that maybe this show could be worthy of one of the stars of The Wire.

Caswell Coggins

Charles Gillett

Sascha Marden

Ben Ansell

Rushes

Simone Grattarola

Luther trailer by Caswell Coggins

Ron Scalpello's dramatic and moving film for Mason &amp; Roisin Murphy's Boadicea portrays the tale of a young woman at the end of her tether due to the pressures of modern living. 
"Mason wanted to make a promo that conveyed all the spirit and resolve of a modern day Boadicea," says Ron. "We focussed on a single mother trying to bring up her family in tough times and how the pressures of everyday life can generate aggressive responses. We did not want to hold back and concern ourselves with the do's and don't of what a promo should do but try and make something genuinely affecting and surprising. 
"We cast two brilliant actors. Jennie Jacques (Shank, Desperate Romantics) took the lead role as she has an amazing power to convey deep world weary sadness and strong resolve. Jason Maza (Shifty) plays her wayward boyfriend struggling to cope. It works like a film as we follow our depressed heroine into her dark imagination.
"Shot in one day on the Alexa and Canon 5D in East London, with the new Olympic building over-looking us, we managed to tell a beautiful story with strong central performances. Somewhere between social realism and David Lynch fantasy, we hope the promo strikes a chord and surprises and shock as many people as possible."

Ron Scalpello

Tom Farley

Rogue Films

Marie Lanna

Mason's Boadicea (feat. Roisin Murphy) by Ron Scalpello

Mason's-Boadicea-(feat.-Roisin-Murphy)-by-Ron-Scalpello

A stellar lineup of British hiphop and grime aristocracy - Giggs, Pro Green, Tinie Tempah, Devlin, Example and Chipmunk - each hold the floor in turn in Adam Powell's stylish video for Tinchy's Game Over. And the guy with his name at the top doesn't even appear until over halfway through.
Which just demonstrates how assured this is. Focussed entirely on the performers, it's understated but powerful, and superbly crafted: great work from DoP Richard Mott, and a great edit by Adam Powell himself. It also says everything about the vibrancy of British urban music. In that respect it feels like it could be a landmark work.

Adam Powell

Black Dog Films

Julia Frost

Nick Ferguson

Tinchy Stryder’s Game Over by Adam Powell

Shot at Cooped Hall in Epping and Bethnal Green, Nabil Elderkin delivers this 'sepia to colour' classily shot (by Richard Mott) performance promo from K'naan for new single Take A Minute, with some nice animated touches.

Watch: <a href="http://rsafilms.wiredrive.com//l/p/presentation=f735af69b553c9e803b10fc59febcd8c" target="_blank">Quicktime Movie</a>

Nabil

Rob Mercer

Little Minx

Tom White

Caroline Story

K’naan’s Take A Minute by Nabil Elderkin

Eyebrows will be raising, brows furrowing and teenage girls' mouths shaping into pouts (all possibly at the same time) as Tinchy dumps his pop-friendly hip-hop for something rather tougher. It's a brave move.
Adam Powell rises to the challenge and continues to grow his reputation as 'the urban guy' with this slick but gritty performance video. Looks great, as you'd expect, and is built to last.

James H

Aubrey Woodiwiss

Simon Poontip

Tinchy Stryder’s Gangsta? by Adam Powell

Tinchy-Stryder’s-Gangsta?-by-Adam-Powell

Example (aka Elliot John Gleave) has a beautiful girlfriend - but he's still not quite sure.... 
James Copeman illustrates Example's situation in the electropoppy Kickstarts - produced by Sub Focus, already championed by Zane Lowe and Radio 1 - and its universal application through intuitive use of split screen and quick edits. Lovely stuff.

James Copeman

Alex He

Anna Rhodes

Will Barnes

CJ Hassay

Example’s Kickstarts by James Copeman

Mat Kirkby&#39;s quirky fun clip for this new Julian Perretta single perfectly captures the bouncy nature of the song, centred around the use of the long forgotten kazoo. Captured cleanly and precisely by Richard Mott. Poptastic.

Mat Kirkby

Margo Mars

Michelle Corney

James Hackett

Katie MacGregor

Julian Perretta’s Wonder Why by Mat Kirkby

Lee Lennox has teamed up with his brother Wayne to form a directing partnership, which they have very sensibly called the Lennox Brothers.
Lee says, "My brother has aways had an input on set, he's been on all of my shoots either as a 1st Ad or just for his immense creative energy. It's always been my aim to work with him for as long as i can remember... It was just a matter of time before we joined up to make the Lennox Brothers. On set it's like having two brains, but one mind - like 6 foot Siamese twins. We think the same thoughts and speak the same comments... which is not surprising as we both emerged from the same nutsack."
You get the picture. And the first product of this partnership is this vid for Belgian band Ghinzu - a strangely alluring performance piece which sees the band assailed by impish black-painted fembots intent on ruining their world - like comely bikini-wearing gremlins.
Wayne choreographed the girls. "Being the choreographer was a strange affair," he says. "Faced with four dancers in a rehearsal studio prior to the shoot I threw on my best mankini and took to the floor with a pirouette and a bum spin..."

Lennox Brothers on making the video for Ghinzu's Take It Easy
"We wanted the video to seem like an art installation, a studio space which begins slightly pretentious, yet ends up with destruction and mayhem; completely strange.
"There is no reason for the girls arrival, we wanted the aesthetic to be random and meaningless, yet hold enough attention to make people want to know what the hell is going on.
"The band wanted to replicate their album cover in the video; almost like its their rehearsal studio. So we wanted the space to be lit quite natural, and used the studio's fixed flourescent lights to our advantage. It meant spending less time on lighting the studio which gave Richard Mott (DoP) a huge grin. It meant we could spend more time shooting, which these days is an rare thing.
"Seeing the girls painted black in tiny bikinis was both a dream and a nightmare. They looked super hot, yet really strange and alien-like. It was so confusing - now we know what Capt James T Kirk must have felt like."

Between The Eyes

Lennox Brothers

Rhun Francis

Ben Pugh & Rory Aitkin

David Petch

James Rose

Ben Rogers

Lee Lennox

John Moule

Ghinzu’s Take It Easy by the Lennox Brothers

Talented tunesmith Gwilym Gold and his band get a James Copeman special - warm, aged film look, embellished with James's stylish animated flourishes. The lad does great titles.
The Mill's Aubrey Woodiwiss's warm grade should get a shout-out too, because this wasn't shot on film at all.

Meanwhile, James has also shot Razorlight, featuring some typically unbridled rock postering by Johnny Borrell, gorgeous model Rebecca playing his posh totty muse, and more of James's titles - this time in chalk.
And great photography by Richard Mott - this one was shot on 16mm - and fine edit by Darren Baldwin. All in all, a proper old-fashioned pop vid.

Megan Ayers

Caspar Campbell

Karin Peterson, Cara Randall, Vicki Russell

Ed Line

Glassworks

Phil Lee

Splice

Golden Silvers’ Arrows Of Eros and Razorlight’s Burberry Blue Eyes by James Copeman

A believable characterisation of modern young femalehood (and an enigmatic ending) gives Caswell's video for Nick Harrison's second single an edge - with a atmospheric look courtesy of Richard Mott's photography.
Caswell's also been working on an interesting new line in dance promos. It's the next new thing...

<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/nickharrison.jpg" rel="lightbox" title="Nick Harrison's Something Special by Caswell Coggins">
</a>

Crossroads Films

Kwok Yau

Darren Baldwin

Emily Tedrake

Nick Harrison’s Something Special by Caswell Coggins

Caswell Coggins has directed five videos for The Feeling and his latest, for Join With Us, is probably the best of the lot. It's certainly the most interesting in terms of how it was made - and potentially most significant.
The band are a set of quintessentially English gentlemen, wearing natty Edwardian suits, acting up in an English park through rain and shine - until they discover a hidden funfair from a more modern era in a secret garden - and then break out their instruments for a climactic rock-out.
The band look relaxed - it's probably the best, most appropriate vehicle they've ever had - and with a song with a killer chorus that has already been exposed via a car commercial it's going to be a big success. Certainly you wouldn't guess, without prior knowledge, that it was subject to a very particular, and on the face of it highly unlikely set of restrictions. But the fact is the video is the result of a special challenge to shoot, edit and deliver the video within 24 hours.
On the morning of July 16th, London's Capital Radio breakfast show hosts Johnny Vaughan and Denise van Outen sent The Feeling on their way to the location in West London; exactly a day later the video was complete, and was delivered to Capital and Sky TV, where it was broadcast for the first time.
Last Sunday (Aug 3rd) the story of that 24 hours making the video was told on Channel 4's T4. But it's doubtful that the show dwelled on the most significant element of this project. Despite the involvement of Capital Radio and its owners GCap and several broadcasters, the most interesting (and lucrative) contribution came from Intel Computers, who sponsored it.
That sponsorship meant Caswell Coggins and his team at Crossroads Films had the budget to achieve something remotely watchable under those restrictions. They may have been lucky with the weather, but the most important fact was the budget was in the region of £80K. They brought in the funfair to the location at Osterley Park in West London. There was enough money for the essential pre-production, which made the "24 hour challenge" achievable.
But it also brought a challenge in itself. "We had to devise a system that would involve Intel's technology as an integral part of the technology used in the transfer and edit process," reveals Caswell. "The only way to achieve the video would be to shoot on a HD format in order to be able to transfer scenes as we shot - an editor was on set to be able to piece the video together as we went. Nevertheless I wanted to have a very cinematic look for the video so Richard Mott, my DoP, recommended the Red camera, with Cook 35mm prime lenses to achieve that look."
The production indeed devised a system, with the help of camera supplier Sonic Films, to transfer footage from the Red camera using Intel technology (the usual transfer system for Red footage is Mac-based). Editor Owen Oppenheimer was therefore able to cut the video as they went - with the help of an animatic made in pre-production.
Caswell was similarly obliged to shoot the board. "Barry Wasserman [1st AD on the shoot] asked if we could afford to lose any shots. I told him that would just leave holes in the video," he recalls. "But we decided to shoot the whole thing on a Steadicam which turned out to be a very good move."
He adds that the whole English gentleman concept had come from the band's love of the Beatles films - and the Monkees - with their inherent sense of fun. "On the day, they were brilliant," says Caswell. And the band even allowed him to do a sound edit on the track, so the guitar break near the end is lengthened.
When the shoot wrapped at 10pm, Owen and Caswell completed the edit until the early hours. Then they headed back into central London, to Rushes, where colourist Simone Grattarola executed a mastergrade on the edited video.
Simone has worked on each of Caswell Coggins' videos for The Feeling and he has revealed that, apart from having to start work at 4am, it was probably the easiest of the lot - due to the level of preparation and Richard Mott's gorgeous cinematography.
The video was actually completed at around 6.30am - a full hour before it was due to be delivered at Capital. Mission impossible was accomplished - and Caswell is aware he may be setting some kind of unholy precedent in the process. But he stresses the obvious point that the sheer quality of the clip - that wonderful film quality that Richard Mott's photography achieved for example - was because it was a video that was properly resourced.
"What a pleasure to have a sizeable crew," says Caswell. "What a difference it makes." So any future 'challenges' sponsored by major corporations are hugely welcome.
Ideas on a postcard...

Owen Oppenheimer

Carmen Montanez

The Feeling’s Join With Us by Caswell Coggins

Huse has done something like this before. That was great, and this is pretty damn good too: one straightforward live performance, documenting a very tight band in a single take.
In fact, in this case, a single shot. Good work, Richard Mott who hand-held the whole thing. Not even a Steadicam, for chrissakes.
So never mind that are Joe and his pals are less Arctic Monkeys, more Razorlight.

Huse Monfaradi

Tim Francis

Dan Curwin

Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jongs’ Lucio Starts Fires by Huse

Tim Mattia had an amazing 2007. He was recruited to shoot bands playing live for a NME DVD covermount at the start of the year and barely had a day off after that, shooting live show after live show all year long.
He has also applied his live performance directing nous to videos - most notably for <a href="http://www.bikinifilms.co.uk/public/newwork/mv/reel/bc_wgam/" _blank="">Biffy Clyro</a> - and he recently went to Nashville to shoot a riotous performance for Cage The Elephant, another hard-rockin' bunch of sons-of-preachers from Kentucky (who happen to now reside in East London). 
Frankly you can almost taste the sweat and lick the excitement. And the seen-it-all-before scorn of the old boozers is a wonderful thing.

Richard Mott

Director of Photography

13 videos featuring Richard Mott

2011 (2)

2010 (4)

2009 (3)

2008 (4)

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