Director

WIZ reunites with longtime collaborator Will Young for the first part of a short film, heralding the singer's latest project, an album&nbsp;of cover versions. And once again, director and artist explore interesting&nbsp;dramatic territory for Young's intriguing take on Bat For Lashes' Daniel.Young plays an ageing theatre actor -&nbsp;a character in sad decline, desperately clinging to his dignity.&nbsp;As he has demonstrated in various other videos down the years, directed by&nbsp;WIZ and others, the singer demonstrates a real capacity to inhabit a role and&nbsp;express&nbsp;vulnerability, and here he plays this flawed character&nbsp;with real pathos."The Daniel&nbsp;video is the first of two to be derived from&nbsp;Just Like That,&nbsp;a short film featuring Will," explains WIZ - aka Andrew Whiston. "The theme is addiction - addiction to performance. How there’s no escaping it, despite all the damage it may bring. It always pulls you back, as seemingly the only fulfilment lies in the ephemeral thrill of the stage. Also, it was shot By Robbie Ryan, which is pretty insane!"With muted cinematography and in-camera effects by Ryan - the DoP renowned for his work with Ken Loach and Andrea Arnold -&nbsp;WIZ keeps focussed on Young's&nbsp;characterisation&nbsp;throughout, prefaced by narrative context. It's on a smaller scale than the epic cinematic drama they created together for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZpWnuzVlxk" target="_blank">All Time Love</a>&nbsp;some years ago,&nbsp;but arguably this is WIZ and Will Young's most courageous collaboration yet.[imgtoken data:1][imgtoken data:2]

United Kingdom

Cait Lyn Adamson

My Accomplice

Richard Grewe

Alisa Tritenko

Chris Kelly

Robbie Ryan

Mia Castles

Rory Power

Charlie Hippisley

Stevi Jelbart

Tracy Ejuetami

Jacques Simon

Trim Editing

Richard Fearon

Alexa Haywood at Free Agent UK

Cooking Vinyl

Cinelab Film and Digital

Will Young 'Daniel' by WIZ

Will-Young-'Daniel-'-by-Wiz

Legendary music video director WIZ returns with a characteristically dramatic and&nbsp;enigmatic 'musicfilm' for alt-rock duo Sons Of Raphael.The band, comprised of brothers Loral and Ronnel Raphael, deliver a new take on old school psych-rock with their track&nbsp;Revolution, and&nbsp;WIZ puts the pair squarely at the centre of near-operatic psychological mini-melodrama.&nbsp;It begins with a battered and bruised&nbsp;Loral crawling painfully up steps,&nbsp;Ronnel comes to his aid, they make their way through a brutalist urban landscape. WIZ creates a dreamlike, almost absurdist drama from the economical use of the pair in an intriguing&nbsp;location, which appears to exist somewhere between reality and pure theatre.As with his other recent work&nbsp;like his video for Mika's San Remo, DoP Catherine Derry is an excellent interlocutor of WIZ's vision, the cinematography is both intimate and epic.&nbsp;

Rosie Brear

Dan Gibling

Catherine Derry

Leena Mistry

Ieva Petravičiūté

Olivia Norris

Ed Hanbury

George K

Black Kite Studios

Jack Shillingford

Alexander Wills

Rock

Alternative

Sons Of Raphael 'Revolution' by WIZ

Sons of Raphael | Revolution (Official Video)

Mika's San Remo is all upbeat sparking&nbsp;froth, about a Italian seaside town that was a popular destination for the beautiful people in the age of La Dolce Vita. But WIZ's video explores the flipside of that era, when homosexuality was illegal, and freedom of expression invited ruin.WIZ uses brilliant technique and economy of shots to tell the story of a man who is caught between desire and fear -&nbsp;and features an excellent&nbsp;performance from Mika himself in the main role.The use of a radio interview is crucial in establishing the scenario before we even here a note of the song. But when we do hear it, it becomes far more evocative and poignant as we already have some insight into Mika's character.&nbsp;&nbsp;WIZ has achieved this apparent alchemy before - transforming pop stars you may dismiss as being one-dimensional as intriguing, even heroic&nbsp;figures. But it does not make it any less remarkable when he does it. And this is a remarkable video - beautifully shot by Catherine Derry. It has a heart as big as San Remo itself.&nbsp;

Rob Jelley

Bonnie Anthony

Imogen Harrison

Hello Captain, Croatia

Dominik Bunjevac

Tatyana Alexandra

Tamara Mennell

Mika 'San Remo' by WIZ 

Mika-'San-Remo-'-by-Wiz-

WIZ teams up yet again with Kasabian for a jailhouse rock of sorts.No, there&#39;s nothing wrong with your speakers - that&#39;s just WIZ toying with you for gritty, lo-fi effect. It&#39;s a raucous, rowdy black and white performance video from Kasabian that takes place in a dilapidated squat that&#39;s soon to become luxury apartments. A not-so-subtle, but certainly welcome, swipe at the former Mayor of London and the ruthless gentrifying efforts of developers in the city.

Jamie Clark

Elise Butt

Sony Music

Daniel Landin

Jack Meredith

Jonathan Spencer

Lucie Red

Alexandra Day

Bebe Newson

Simone Grattarola

Time Based Arts

Indie Rock

Kasabian 'Bless This Acid House' by WIZ

Kasabian - Bless This Acid House (Official Video)

WIZ has thrown&nbsp;a curveball with his new Kasabian video - he&#39;s made a comedy.So we asked WIZ what&nbsp;persuaded him, a director&nbsp;whose work is so cinematic, and usually so serious-minded, to riff freely on One Flew Over The Cuckoo&#39;s Nest, channel the Marx Brothers, and add Noel Fielding and Stephen Graham to the mix for You&#39;re In Love With a Psycho. On-set photography by Ali Tollervey[vidtoken data:0]Did the song completely determine the approach? In other words was One Flew Over The Cuckoo&#39;s Nest in the brief?&nbsp;Serge&rsquo;s British sensibility instinct was for something darkly funny, which was a nice coincidence as I&rsquo;ve recently rediscovered the subversive genius of Spike Milligan.Hearing the song instantly gave the sensation of &lsquo;alter ego&rsquo;, and initially it was going to be an actual marriage between Tom and Serge. But between us it developed via &lsquo;Cuckoo&rsquo;s Nest&rsquo; and &lsquo;Duck Soup&rsquo; into a freedom fantasy, albeit with the harsh reality of Stephen Graham&rsquo;s character remaining by the end mentally imprisoned. Yet the intention was for the journey to be empowering. We laugh with and not at the patients, we as an audience should have an insight to this pain.[imgtoken data:1]<blockquote>&quot;Serge&rsquo;s instinct was for something darkly funny, and coincidentally I&rsquo;ve rediscovered the genius of Spike Milligan.&quot;</blockquote>How did you feel about going more comedic/lighthearted than usual?&nbsp;It was a real challenge, right out of the comfort zone. Let&#39;s face it, I&rsquo;m not famous for my comedy directing - at least not intentionally - but I&rsquo;ve always understood that the great directors are actually comedic. Look closely, Stanley Kubrick is a comedy director. And more than anything, Chris Cunningham&rsquo;s skill is pure comedy.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;How important was having worked with Kasabian previously in the execution?&nbsp;Hugely. Respect and trust and a shared shorthand - and this includes Sony as well - allow for great creative and accurate freedom. You can get under the skin and take the calculated risks that allow resonant work.[imgtoken data:2]<blockquote>&quot;The intention was for the journey to be empowering.&quot;</blockquote>When did Noel Fielding and Stephen Graham come on board?The idea to cast Noel came immediately &ndash; perhaps not surprising, as I know them both, see them together all the time. It was actually Dan Miller at Sony who sagely suggested the might of Stephen Graham to play Tom&rsquo;s &lsquo;Mr Hyde&rsquo;.Has your recent experience working in theatre impacted on the making of Psycho?Very much. In fact most of the other cast including the mesmerizing Emmie Spencer playing the matron character, are drawn from the theatre where I work. As well the inspiration for referencing Duck Soup&nbsp;in the first place comes from the improv mirror game that every actor knows. And also with theatre the primary communitive importance of physicality is very applicable to screen comedy.[imgtoken data:3]<blockquote>&quot;I&rsquo;m not famed for my comedy directing - at least not intentionally - but I&rsquo;ve always understood that the great directors are actually comedic.&quot;</blockquote>DoP Adam Suschitzky and myself had a rule: if we start thinking about atmosphere and texture, then we&rsquo;ve lost it: keep the camera still, with a wide lens, and let the physical performance rule.&nbsp;

WIZ on Kasabian's 'Psycho': "It was out of the comfort zone"

Kasabian--'You're-In-Love-With-A-Psycho-'-by-Wiz

Kasabian 'You're In Love With A Psycho' by WIZ

Playfully toying with the idea of alter-egos and affectionately illustrating the idiosyncratic relationship at the heart of the band, WIZ is back with another epic video for Kasabian. And, yes, one of those alter-egos is Noel Fielding.It&#39;s also something of a departure for a director renowned for placing pop stars in serious roles in big cinematic scenarios, Kasabian included. The film references are all present and correct, but&nbsp;You&#39;re In Love With A Psycho is seriously comic, even cartoonish.&nbsp;Featuring appearances from Stephen Graham as well as Noel Fielding, this take on One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest is scurrilously tongue-in-cheek, and full of sight gags. It even includes a touch of the Marx Brothers, with Kasabian&#39;s Serge Pizzorno and Fielding engaging in their version of the famous mirror scene from Duck Soup.The band contribute wholheartedly to an ensemble that sees a gang of patients clamouring&nbsp;for the affections of their nurse - a more alluring version of OFOTCN&#39;s evil Nurse Cratchit &ndash;&nbsp;before breaking out in a suitably demented dance routine. Great stuff.[imgtoken data:1]&nbsp;

Cecily Barber

Mavreen Brown

Adam Suschitzky

Nathan Mann

Susie Couthard

Noel Fielding, Stephen Graham

Mike O'Keefe

Nelson Oliver

Stephen Graham

WIZ and Will Young have been making music videos together for almost a decade, coming up with exceptional, often&nbsp;surprising work. But now the video for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/10/21/will-young-brave-man-wiz" target="_blank">Brave Man</a> is arguably Young&#39;s most talked-about video ever. We talked to WIZ about how he distilled the courage of a young transsexual&#39;s journey from one gender to another, into a naked walk through the streets of Brighton. On-set photos by Ali Tollervey.[vidtoken data:0]&nbsp;How did the idea for the video come about? Were you wary about proposing an idea to Will Young in which he is not a central character?For good or ill,&nbsp;I have a David and Goliath complex. Every day I walk past a LGBT suicide memorial. Every day I walk past the ocean and reminded of the aching Who lyric: &quot;The beach is a place where a man can feel, he&#39;s the only soul in the world that&#39;s real.&quot; I have a transgender friend who I&rsquo;ve watched successfully navigate their transitioning journey, which I found incredibly inspiring and humbling.&nbsp;&nbsp;Last year I wrote a short film with these and other feelings in mind.&nbsp;Will came to me wanting to make a transgender-themed video, I showed him the script which he loved, and then he improved it. Also of course he brought to the table his emotive song Brave Man.&nbsp;By the way, isn&#39;t Will Young one of our truly great British soul voices?[imgtoken data:1]<blockquote>&quot;I have a transgender friend who I&rsquo;ve watched successfully navigate their transitioning journey, which I found incredibly inspiring and humbling.&quot;</blockquote>Initially Will didn&rsquo;t want to be in it as he felt his presence would distract, but I insisted knowing that between us (and this comes from mutual trust)&nbsp;we could pitch a performance that was sincere, informed the narrative but without overpowering it.Also it&rsquo;s important to say that along with Will, his management and Island Records committed 100% to the concept. &lsquo;Fuck the Daily Mail!&rsquo; was one of the conversations. As I&rsquo;ve said before to my mind Will in his own way is as provocative and important artist as a Lady Gaga or a Nick Cave.How did you cast your main character &ndash; did you cast from the transgender community?We all understood from the beginning that this project needed to be conducted with utmost authenticity and integrity, so there was no question of not using real locations and not casting a trans actor. And this would have been impossible without the authority and collaboration of Fox Fisher, a highly respected trans activist and filmmaker.&nbsp;As soon as Finn the lead guy walked into the casting I knew we were blessed and our aim was true. His inscrutability and inner grace personified the character.[imgtoken data:2]<blockquote>&quot;As soon as Finn -&nbsp;the lead guy - walked into the casting I knew we were blessed and our aim was true. His inscrutability and inner grace personified the character.&quot;</blockquote>You shot the video in the middle of Brighton. When did you shoot it, and how did you overcome the challenges that came with shooting the idea? And did you have any difficult moments?The biggest challenge is it&rsquo;s a work of fiction, expressing very real experiences and engaging real people. We wanted to show the defiance of a character as he is met by vulgarity and brutality, resolving with a catharsis. And achieving this unflinchingly yet with sensitivity and without sensationalism was a great responsibility.&nbsp;Will, Fox, producer Scott O&rsquo;Donnell, excellent commissioner Tamara Brooks, the actor Finn and myself, shared many rigorous meetings discussing the issues at length.Regarding the actual shoot, initially for realism I wanted to shoot on a weekend. The brilliant 1st AD Dan Gibling strongly persuaded me against and we went for a Thursday. However we didn&rsquo;t know that it was a Fresher&rsquo;s night, so it was just as heaving and inebriated as any Saturday. Thankfully our robust security helped life from getting to dangerously close to art. Having said that, overall Brighton was very generous and accommodating, something I think pertinently we would have struggled with in London or other cities.The idea of exposing of oneself and then having to face what that brings &ndash; embodies the idea of being Brave. Is there any other message that you&rsquo;d like people to draw from it?It&#39;s often unhelpful to spell out one&#39;s intentions for a film, as the meaning resides in the viewer and how they react &ndash; as well as the risk of reducing complex issues to sound bites. But we&rsquo;re encouraged with the way the film has modestly stimulated further debate, which along with showing a human story was one of our aims.[imgtoken data:3]You&rsquo;ve recently been working as a theatre director (and won a prize). Is that the first time you&rsquo;ve worked in live theatre, and did that experience have an impact on how you approached this video?Well, maybe I thought it was time to do some real directing. And it was terrifying as it was exhilarating. No producer to wipe your bottom, no camera or editing to hide behind. But ultimately the principles are the same: a cast, a story and you. And perversely I plan to adapt one of my all time favourite movies (clue: it deals with gangsters and gender fluidity) into a play for the Soho Theatre.

Walking naked in Brighton: WIZ on making Will Young's Brave Man video

Will Young - Brave Man

Will Young 'Brave Man' by WIZ

Following up the artful symbolism of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/04/21/will-young-river-wiz">Like A River</a>, WIZ&#39;s&nbsp;video for Will Young&#39;s Brave Man follows a young man as he calmly sets out on a outstanding act of bold defiance. He takes his clothes off in a pub, and walks naked through an English&nbsp;seaside town - his courage magnified by the fact he is a transgender individual.As he walks naked and vulnerable through Brighton&#39;s dark and windy streets, he is targeted by&nbsp;snarky girls&nbsp;and chipshop bullies.&nbsp;The video works by displaying this extraordinary act in a real, almost low-key environment.&nbsp;All the better to draw the viewer in to reflect upon&nbsp;the huge&nbsp;uphill battle of trans people - among the most discriminated minorites in society &ndash;&nbsp;who are demanding acceptance for who they are.The narrative is punctuated occasionally by the mournful presence of Will Young. He has less screen time than in any of his previous videos, but Brave Man may prove to be his most influential, in drawing <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/20/brave-man-video-trans-transgender-jack-monroe" target="_blank">media&nbsp;attention</a> to an important&nbsp;issue. Look out for&nbsp;Will Young and WIZ&nbsp;talking about the video on Channel Four News, very soon.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]&nbsp;

Scott O'Donnell

Screaming Target Films

Rohan Scully

Ula Pontikos

Thomas Nicholson

Luke Lloyd

Stefan Lissner

Katie MacGregor

Lisa Jones

Tom Russell

Preditors

Chris Aliano

Michael Averley, Thiago Dantas

Finn Colyer

Tamara Brooks

Island

Paul Percival

Fox Fisher

In the second half of our extensive interview with WIZ,&nbsp;on the event of his return to music videos for Will Young&#39;s Like A River, he talks about his breakthrough as a director with the 18 minute long classic &#39;music film&#39;&nbsp;<a href="http://vimeopro.com/whiskeyindiazulu/flowers-and-criminals/video/121127187" target="_blank">Weekender,</a> about his relationship with legendary Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski, and about what the future holds... (Above:&nbsp;WIZ,&nbsp;right,&nbsp;with DoP&nbsp;Daniel Landin, on Therapy? shoot in Sept 1995 Photo: Simone White)Promo News:&nbsp;What were things like in 1992 when you made Weekender? How did you manage to turn it into an 18 minute short?WIZ: I was blessed to be very young in the epicenter of the Acid House revolution. What that means is, you are permanently, at a tender age, getting&nbsp;a really deep and profound glimpse of the possibilities of youth, of change, of the future, of possibility. In a way that never leaves you.So as a filmmaker I had a real deep need to convey my little story, my experience of this extraordinary underground movement that was spreading unstoppably across the country. I was zealous with a mission. And when you&rsquo;re motivated like that, it can be very a very powerful force and it&#39;s very contagious. I was fortunate to be introduced to Flowered Up, the band who made the song Weekender.&nbsp;It was 12 minutes long, and they had a visionary record label boss, Jeff Barrett. He said &lsquo;we&rsquo;re not gonna do a cutdown of this song, we&rsquo;re gonna release it as 12 minutes long. We&rsquo;re not gonna compromise and likewise with the video we&rsquo;re gonna do something similar.&rsquo;[imgtoken data:1]So, I said &lsquo;This is wonderful, you&rsquo;ve come to the right place. This is a story I&#39;ve wanted to tell, and the song Weekender is such a cinematic piece in itself and really lends itself to a longform video&rsquo;. So we created this film and by the end it was 18 minutes long. At the time it was hugely - it&#39;s not me saying this - other people say that it was hugely innovative and groundbreaking and very influential.&nbsp;Danny Boyle will be the first to say it was a huge influence on Trainspotting.<blockquote>&quot;I think what gives Weekender its longevity is that it isn&rsquo;t just a celebration of that time. It&#39;s actually holding a mirror up to it and questioning it.&quot;</blockquote>It was a very exciting time but I think what gives Weekender its longevity is that it isn&rsquo;t just a celebration of that time. It&#39;s actually holding a mirror up to it and questioning it. That&#39;s a very important aspect to it. There&#39;s great thrills, there&#39;s a great journey to experience but its investigative. There&rsquo;s some substance and some layers to it which could resonate to every generation really.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:2]Lee Whitlock (left) and Anna Haigh in Weekender, 1992PN: On your Vimeo page you reveal that you were handpicked to train under Krzysztof Kieślowski. How and when did that come about, and how would you describe the experience? And what was the most important thing you learned from him?WIZ:&nbsp;In &lsquo;94 there was a thing in Screen International inviting directors to apply for this summer course in Amsterdam, a masterclass to be given by Krzysztof Kieślowski. To qualify you have to have had directed a feature film, which I hadn&rsquo;t done. But I was a massive fan - not least his Decalogue series - and he had released Three Colours: Blue and&nbsp;Three Colours: White at that point. So anyway I wrote and sent this very impassioned letter,&nbsp;along with Weekender and some other work, and crossed my fingers and kind of forgot about it.Then a few months later, I got a&nbsp;letter saying Krzysztof Kieślowski was inviting me to&nbsp;be part of the summer course. And as I&#39;m sure you can imagine it was an extraordinary, seminal experience for me. And since then, he&rsquo;s always with me. Without sounding romantic or pretentious, we actually really bonded and he taught me many things &ndash; not least the importance of vodka in the creative process. But as well, the biggest thing he taught me was that the three most important things in filmmaking are: casting, casting and casting.[imgtoken data:3]WIZ (left)&nbsp;and Krzysztof KieślowskiBut as importantly, he had a real sensitivity and taught us how fundamental sensitivity is. He told me, when you&rsquo;re on set you want to have -&nbsp;if possible -&nbsp;nothing between you and what you&rsquo;re shooting, between you and your cast. The best place for you to be as a director is to be sitting below the lens. The top of your head should be touching the bottom of the lens. Forget monitors, forget about anything that gets in the way of you and what you&rsquo;re filming. You want to be there, seeing it as viscerally and as closely&hellip; you want to be able to smell what&#39;s going on.<blockquote>&quot;Kieślowski&nbsp;told me, when you&rsquo;re on set you want to have -&nbsp;if possible -&nbsp;nothing between you and what you&rsquo;re shooting, between you and your cast.&quot;</blockquote>Especially these days there&#39;s so much technology and accepted ways of shooting that gets in the way of that. I&rsquo;ve seen directors that might as well be in another country in their kind of relationship and closeness to what&rsquo;s being filmed.&nbsp;I think that shows in a lot of work that there&rsquo;s a lack of human presence. Which,&nbsp;of course, is what we want to see and feel when we go watch a film. We want to feel human presence. And that will never change.[imgtoken data:4]Chemical Brothers &#39;<a href="http://vimeopro.com/whiskeyindiazulu/flowers-and-criminals/video/91083785" target="_blank">Out Of Control</a>&#39; (1999)[imgtoken data:5]Kasabian &#39;<a href="http://vimeopro.com/whiskeyindiazulu/flowers-and-criminals/video/91922532" target="_blank">Empire</a>&#39; (2006)[imgtoken data:6]Disclosure&nbsp;&#39;<a href="http://vimeopro.com/whiskeyindiazulu/flowers-and-criminals/video/104956819" target="_blank">Voices&#39;</a> (2014)PN:&nbsp;Down the years in numerous videos you&rsquo;ve shown a fascination for stories of political upheaval &ndash; often with individuals facing up to dictatorship, in the midst of riot and revolution. &nbsp;What drove you to tell these stories?WIZ: Well certainly a big influence would be my formative experiences with authority at school. Those times stay with you, mark you. I was a witness and a victim of what I felt was grave injustice. So that affected me. But in parallel, my school days weren&rsquo;t all traumatic.&nbsp;I was lucky to have a great Art teacher and a great English teacher. I was exposed to&nbsp;the importance of telling stories and the importance of looking for the beauty in things. So that could be a reason why I&rsquo;m interested in those themes.I think, work is always about the individual standing up against the Goliath. It&#39;s always about challenging the accepted norms and that&#39;s a lot of what my work tends to be at its base. You could say that&rsquo;s what is the essence of being young, of youth culture, of finding one&rsquo;s identity.&nbsp;And a sense of humour is important as well. That&rsquo;s another powerful defence mechanism. To me, comedy directors are the real directors, they&rsquo;re the great directors. But&nbsp;I wouldn&rsquo;t pretend to have any of those great skills...<blockquote>&quot;I think, work is always about the individual standing up against the Goliath. It&#39;s always about challenging the accepted norms and that&#39;s a lot of what my work tends to be at its base.&quot;</blockquote>That&rsquo;s why Stanley Kubrick is one of the greats, because to my mind he&rsquo;s one of the greatest comedy directors, albeit with black humour but all his work has a comedic aspect underneath. It&#39;s a very rich vein running through all his work. Clockwork Orange, The Shining, obviously Dr Strangelove. There&#39;s a truly sublime sense of transporting dark humour, and that&#39;s what makes it so rich. Whereas perhaps certain very successful Hollywood directors are wonderfully technical and are brilliant filmmakers, but there&#39;s a lack of that extra dimension in their work which I think you need.[imgtoken data:7]WIZ and Rosario Dawson on set of Out Of Control video, Mexico City 1999PN: You&rsquo;re working on a number of other projects &ndash; can you tell us more about them?WIZ: Yes, I am developing feature film projects which I have been doing for ten to fifteen years. I had a handful of very close to greenlighting but for different reasons they haven&rsquo;t happened. There&rsquo;s two projects which are looking good. One is a contemporary erotic thriller with Ben Whishaw attached. The other is a political period drama.One thing I wanted to touch on, going back to your question about being away for a year, I just want to say that having re-entered the fray I am looking forward to making some more music films, not least with the Will Young project being a success, I am very excited to come back and work on projects. I did a lot of travelling last year on my own which is an experience I hadn&rsquo;t done in a long time. Its very special travelling on your own. You&rsquo;re exposed to things that you aren&rsquo;t when you&rsquo;re travelling with other people. Consequently I have a great hunger to start telling stories again.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:8]WIZ on set of HURTS shoot, April 2010 Photo: Ali Tollervey&nbsp;And another thing, going back to the question about my work and the current climate of pop music video and where it is creatively, perhaps it isn&rsquo;t the most exciting time right now. But I think there is a real undercurrent of frustration and disaffection and I do think that there will be some cultural shift, and that it will be political. I&rsquo;m looking forward to that, and I&rsquo;m excited about that. It&#39;s the calm before the storm.

 WIZ, Part 2: Past, Present & Future...

He&#39;s one of Britain&#39;s foremost music video directors with a career that intersects with the great movements of British music in the past two decades - from acid house to pop. With the influential&nbsp;Weekender in the early 90s, and then making videos for&nbsp;Oasis, Marilyn Manson, Manic Street Preachers, Chemical Brothers, Kasabian and many others, WIZ has been one of the great practitioners and advocates for music video as a popular artform.Recently he&#39;s been quiet on the music video front, not making a promo for over a year. But now he&#39;s back with his latest collaboration with Will Young, for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/04/21/will-young-river-wiz" target="_blank">Like A River</a>. It seemed like a good time to ask WIZ a few questions &ndash; about the&nbsp;past, present and future of his career in music film.&nbsp;It was an intriguing&nbsp;conversation &ndash; and we&#39;re presenting it in two parts.&nbsp;In the first half,&nbsp;he&nbsp;talks about&nbsp;his return to making pop promos with Will Young, and their version of the Theseus and the Minotaur myth - and also his &#39;frightening&#39; step away from being repped by a production company last year.&nbsp;PROMONEWS:&nbsp;You&rsquo;ve now made three videos with Will Young, who would seem to be an unlikely collaborator in some ways, but you work very well together. What&rsquo;s the key to your working relationship?WIZ: I actually think that within the context of pop music he is actually a very radical artist, and perhaps is more rock and&nbsp;roll, shall we say, than a lot of artists that appear to be, or have the profile of being rock and roll. He resisted the mould that he was being preened to fit into, and has always been his own man.From the beginning he came out with his sexuality &ndash; arguably a very dangerous thing to do, especially 10 years ago. In fact it was wise as well as brave, and established him as more than an ephemeral pop star. So for me, he&rsquo;s someone who I find very stimulating and very exciting to work with &ndash; as much as, say, Marilyn Manson. In his own way he&#39;s just as radical and iconoclastic. So that&#39;s where the attraction comes.[imgtoken data:1]Photo:&nbsp;Ali TollerveyAs for the key to our working relationship, it&#39;s largely to do with our mutual respect. I think great pop artists usually are great video artists. And great video artists in my experience, are artists who find directors that they feel a kinship with, and let that director do their thing. Rather than trying to micromanage it, which usually is counterproductive.&nbsp;Will is someone who has the self-confidence and self-awareness to enable a director to come in and interpret his song and interpret him, so there&#39;s a purity of vision and that&#39;s when you get great work.<blockquote>&quot;Will is someone who I find very stimulating and very exciting to work with &ndash; as much as, say, Marilyn Manson. In his own way he&#39;s just as radical and iconoclastic.&quot;</blockquote>Once you&#39;ve done that once, the next important thing in a working relationship is trust and a shared language which accumulates every time you do a project together. This most recent video that we&rsquo;ve done was one of the most rewarding - not easy, but&nbsp;smooth in terms of the pre production, the shooting and the post production. Because there was the shared language, there was great transparency, there was just a mutual trust. And the way everyone knew where we were and it made for - I&rsquo;d like to think - conditions for producing an interesting film.PN:&nbsp;So you think transparency is essential to producing good work?WIZ:&nbsp;Yes, absolutely. Of course it&#39;s not just Will. It stems from him, but also about the people around him, his management, feeling that the artist is excited and confident about the project, and then responding&nbsp;in kind to my producer. The next thing, of course, is the commissioner, and on this job, I have to say that Tamara [Brooks] was a commissioner who had a real sense of the vision of the piece. She had the foresight and the overview to allow that creative collaboration to unfold without hindering it.It was a joy to have those important relationships in the production all on the same page, all working towards the same goal. And of course then there&#39;s a ripple effect with your crew and the cast.&nbsp;This shoot&nbsp;was one of the most positive and hardworking shoots I&#39;ve done for a long time. Everyone was so locked into what we were doing, the focus was razor-sharp and we achieved a lot.These are obvious things, but believe me, they&rsquo;re not always there, and they&#39;re so important. Particularly these days when the budgets are smaller so you have less time to shoot, less pre-production run up time. So it&#39;s really important that the time you do have is used very effectively and efficiently...[imgtoken data:2]Photo:&nbsp;Ali TollerveyThere&#39;s many reasons why the record industry has changed beyond recognition over the last 15 years &ndash; some good, some not good. Consequently budgets are shrinking, and that&#39;s how it is. But what is a great shame is the reduction in pre-production time, run-up time. That is something that I do despair about, it&#39;s one thing not having much money but it doesn&rsquo;t equate with not having any time. There&rsquo;s a finite point that you can squeeze production, so you know, the more everyone knows what they&rsquo;re doing the better the work&rsquo;s gonna be under the circumstances.PN: What was the reason for recreating the Theseus and the Minotaur myth? What did you (and Will) want to bring to it that was different than previous interpretations?WIZ: Good question. You don&rsquo;t have to be a Jungian or a Freudian professor to see a metaphor in that story, it being a confrontation of one&rsquo;s dark side &ndash; the id. Of course it&#39;s a timeless theme in art as well as human psychology, and equally, to go back to your first question, if we&rsquo;re talking about rock n&#39; roll themes, it&#39;s&nbsp;the notion of &lsquo;walking with the beast&rsquo;, and the creative muse that the beast or the devil may be.&nbsp;To me, if you&rsquo;re an artist it&#39;s not just about, y&rsquo;know, taking drugs and turning it up loud. That can be part of it, but it&#39;s also about challenging the norm. It&#39;s about confronting the dark side, and that is something which we largely avoid doing.<blockquote>&quot;Budgets are shrinking, and that&#39;s how it is. But what is a great shame is the reduction in pre-production time, run-up time. That is something that I do despair about.&quot;</blockquote>With this music film, I heard the song &ndash; a wonderful song &ndash; which has this incredible tension and melancholy. The lyrics evoke a sense of facing a reality, facing an uncomfortable truth, and Theseus and Minotaur myth came to mind. It seemed to be a great foundation for the idea, and Will really responded to that.&nbsp;It appealed to both of us, because it&#39;s a really timeless and enduring story, and it was a challenge to give our contemporary spin on it. In the original story he slays the beast, but in our film there&#39;s a level of ambiguity of whether Will&rsquo;s character slays the beast, or if he embraces the dark side. That was our take on it.PN: It&#39;s your first&nbsp;video in a while. Apart from budgets generally getting smaller, does making the videos you want to make become more difficult than &lsquo;back in the day&rsquo;? Are there fewer artists open to big ideas?&nbsp;WIZ: Yes, it is my first video in a while. Last year, for the first time in my humble career, I decided to take a step back from music videos and chose to not be at a production company for the first time ever. I wanted to break that umbilical cord. Initially it was very frightening to step out of that comfort zone, but I had come to a point in my career where I really needed to take a step away and go on some journeys myself. It&rsquo;s very hard to do that when you&rsquo;re getting tracks landing on your desk every day, because there&#39;s always a great project to do.<blockquote>&quot;If you&rsquo;re an artist it&#39;s not just about taking drugs and turning it up loud. It&#39;s also about challenging the norm.&quot;</blockquote>So the only way I could stop that happening was to literally cut myself off. As I say, initially it was quite frightening but after a while it was very liberating. For the first time in 15-20 years my mind entered a new creative zone, without thinking &lsquo;Oh, this would be a great video to do&rsquo;, or &lsquo;Oh, that would be a great project&rsquo;. To see the bigger picture I needed to step away. So that&#39;s another reason why it&#39;s so great to come back and have a great experience with this project. That&#39;s really renewed my faith in our industry and music video. Of course it&#39;s possible to do great work, if you want to. It is more challenging with smaller budgets, but sometimes, to a degree, that can be really good.[imgtoken data:3]Photo:&nbsp;Ali TollerveyAs far as artists being interested in big ideas, I think, there&#39;s definitely a climate, a will to do &lsquo;&rsquo;big ideas&rsquo;&rsquo; that is less. But I try to be optimistic and positive in that things will change. Experience tells us that things to come around and something will come along that will open things up again and there will be a thirst to do more creative work. Of course there is creative work being done but&hellip; it ultimately stems from music.<blockquote>&quot;In the original story he slays the beast, but in our film there&#39;s a level of ambiguity of whether Will&rsquo;s character slays the beast or if he embraces the dark side.&quot;</blockquote>Culture is so different I don&#39;t think pop music is the principal, fundamental expression of young people anymore. There&#39;s other things now that didn&#39;t exist ten years ago, such as, obviously, social media. People have so much more opportunity to express themselves online and on social media than 10-20 years ago, so young people&#39;s energy and excitement is not just on pop music anymore. Before, pop stars would go for identity, emotion and style, but there&rsquo;s so many other places to go for that now. Probably that&#39;s why, in the last year or so, there&rsquo;s been a lot of talk about a lack of charisma in our pop stars and maybe that&#39;s because the demand for originals and real idols is not as strong. And there&#39;s a parallel with our politicians&hellip;Equally in the same breath, I&rsquo;d say music is unique in its role in people&rsquo;s lives and that will never be replaced. Its a profound aspect of peoples lives, that will always touch us in a way that nothing else does.PN:&nbsp;Your subject matter has included sex, drugs, rock n roll (obviously) and revolution. Does the new Will Young video, exploring a classic myth,&nbsp;mark a new area of interest for you?WIZ:&nbsp;The minotaur myth is completely about sex, drugs and rock n roll, and revolting against the established order of things. So it feels very natural. Creatively and aesthetically what was really exciting was to really strip it down to this very minimal art direction and filmmaking&hellip; there&rsquo;s nothing extravagant or baroque or ostentatious about it. It&#39;s really stripped down to its bare minimum ingredients. But as I say, to me it&#39;s very much a next stage in a very natural progression of my work.&nbsp;

WIZ: "Being an artist is about confronting the dark side" 

Will-Young-'Like-A-River'-by-Wiz

WIZ is back with this&nbsp;dark,&nbsp;beautiful&nbsp;interpretation of&nbsp;Will Young&#39;s Like A River, from his upcoming album 85% Proof.As with their previous collaborations, WIZ engages the serious aspect of Will&#39;s persona (this is more than a world away from the singer&#39;s previous video for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/04/08/will-young-love-revolution-chino-moya" target="_blank">Love Revolution</a>) to tell an ambitious, dramatic, extravagantly visual&nbsp;story - regardless of the resources.Through shadows and light - this is shot by Daniel Landin &ndash; it&#39;s a direct retelling of a classic of Greek mythology. Will is Theseus, heading into the Labyrinth to do battle with the Minotaur...

Casper Campbell

Derrick Peters

Felix Pickles

Jason Martin

Ruth Crawford

Tom Lindsay

The Mill

Kayleigh Macdonald, Dan Kreeger

Brad Wood, Milo Paterson, Chris Scott, Gavin Marler

Shaun Niles, Emily Wood

Island Records

Will Young 'Like A River' by WIZ

Emeli Sandé wrote Clown about her feelings when she was just entering the music business, trying to get signed, and dealing with music business people for the first time. She wanted the video for Clown to reflect that &ndash; and, fresh from his video for Robbie Williams&rsquo; Different, WIZ has reimagined that specific experience into a classic (in fact, ancient) scenario. He turns Emeli into a heroine faced with a situation that requires moral courage.The video takes place on the floor of a debating chamber &ndash; like the Roman Senate &ndash;&nbsp;with Emeli surrounded by men in vaguely fascistic military uniform, urging her to sign a document that will give her something in exchange for something else. Typically, WIZ draws out the political and romantic aspect of the situation, and as with the Robbie video he seems to have found much visual inspiration from British cinema of the 1940s.Its emotional, thanks to Emeli Sandé&rsquo;s excellent performance as someone caught on the horns of a dilemma. She says: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about how I felt when I was trying to get signed, I was going for all these meetings and people were looking at me like &lsquo;What do we do with you&rsquo;? It&rsquo;s about not allowing yourself to be judged by others or to be taken for an idiot. I feel the video reflects that.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Academy Films

Lou Whiston

Richard Stewart

Annie Gregson

Owen Oppenheimer

Prime Focus

Sue Pocklington

James Hackett

Liz Kessler

The Quarry

Emily Irvine

Emeli Sandé 'Clown' by WIZ

<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/?attachment_id=57165" rel="attachment wp-att-57165"><img src="http://www.promonews.tv/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Robbie-Williams-Different-by-WIZ.jpg" alt="" title="Robbie Williams &#039;Different&#039; by WIZ" width="640" class="alignright size-full wp-image-57165" /></a><a href="http://www.promonews.tv/?attachment_id=57166" rel="attachment wp-att-57166"><img src="http://www.promonews.tv/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Robbie-Williams-Different-by-WIZ2.jpg" alt="" title="Robbie Williams &#039;Different&#039; by WIZ" width="640" class="alignright size-full wp-image-57166" /></a><a href="http://www.promonews.tv/?attachment_id=57167" rel="attachment wp-att-57167"><img src="http://www.promonews.tv/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Robbie-Williams-Different-by-WIZ3.jpg" alt="" title="Robbie Williams &#039;Different&#039; by WIZ" width="640" class="alignright size-full wp-image-57167" /></a>It's taken a long time for these two huge figures from the history of the British pop video to work together. It was worth the wait. An absolutely blinding collaboration between Robbie Williams and WIZ for Different.

Warning: it may make you cry. 

Robbie Williams
Different (Island Records)
Director: WIZ
Production Company: <a href="http://www.academy-plus.com/" target="_blank">A+</a> 
Exec Producer: Liz Kessler
Producer: Leanne Stott
PM: Medb Riordan
DoP: Richard Stewart
Art Director: Ruth Crawford
Editor: Julia Knight @ TRIM
TK: Simone Grattarola @ Rushes
Commissioner: Carrie Sutton
Watch: <a href="http://www.academy-plus.com/projects/robbie-williams-different" target="_blank">here</a>

<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/2012/12/06/robbie-williams-different-by-wiz/robbie-williams-wiz-different-shoot-three-mills-studio-london-by-ali-tollervey-oct12-uk-copy/" rel="attachment wp-att-57217"><img src="http://www.promonews.tv/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Robbie-Williams-WIZ-Different-shoot-Three-Mills-studio-London-by-Ali-Tollervey-Oct12-UK-copy.jpg" alt="" title="Robbie-Williams-WIZ-Different-shoot-Three-Mills-studio-London-by-Ali-Tollervey-Oct&#039;12-UK copy" width="640" class="alignright size-full wp-image-57217" /></a>

Leanne Stott

Medb Riordan

Julia Knight @ Trim

Carrie Sutton

Robbie Williams 'Different' by WIZ

of his new video for Robbie Williams, WIZ travels to Malta to investigate the fleshly pleasures to be enjoyed down the streets of Valetta, with the guidance of local performer Ira Melkonyan, and some evocative vintage footage. WIZ was there with Dark Horses, who were invited to perform in Malta, and record in a studio on Strait Street - what used to be the harbour town's notorious red light district – known as The Gut by British sailors looking for action on-shore... WIZ mixes the guitars of the band's Anna Minor, from their debut album Black Music, with voiceover recollections from a Maltese transvestite who used to work the strip, and the sounds of the world’s oldest profession.Strait Street Director: WIZ Music: Dark Horses 'Anna Minor' Producer: Andrew Whiston Production Company: A+ Cast: Ira Melkonyan, Lisa Elle, Bobby Waterson, Stephen Ingham, Andy Bang, Harry Bohay-Nowell DoP: Ali Tollervey Editor &amp; Sound Design: Leila Sarraf Research: Emma Mattei, Sandra Banthorpe Camera Operators: Adrian Abela, Bettina Hutsheck, Martin Bonnici TK: Tom Russell @ Prime Focus Watch: <a href="http://www.nowness.com/day/2012/11/25/2613" target="_blank">Nowness</a>

Andrew Whiston

Ira Melkonyan, Lisa Elle, Bob

Ali Tollervey

'Strait Street' featuring Dark Horses by WIZ

Heat and lust, rebellion and romance, as WIZ bestows some intense film magic on a very catchy song, with the help of a typically crack team.

Phil Tidy

Factory Films

David Johnson

Magnetic Man feat Katy B’s Perfect Stranger by WIZ

The collaboration between Oasis and WIZ has had its ups and downs lately. So thank the Lord the video for Falling Down has now successfully emerged unscathed. Because it&#39;s a genuine, proper WIZ music film.Not surprisingly considering the subject matter its attracting a lot of attention: the sex-and-drugs shenanigans of a royal family member among the &#39;lower orders&#39; - a contemporary Princess Margaret if you like - who joins the actual Windsor clan on the balcony at Buck House at the end.Hats off to New York Magazine&#39;s <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/02/new_royal-baiting_oasis_video.html">Vulture</a> blog which hails the Falling Down video as a throwback to the ambitious sweep of the &#39;golden age&#39; of videos, and says &quot;like all great music videos, it successfully draws a conceptual outline while leaving the viewer to paint his or her own conclusions.&quot;Which is to say: it&#39;s sensual, it&#39;s psychological, it&#39;s political. And it&#39;s goddamn great music video-making. No-one does it quite like WIZ.[imgtoken data:1]&nbsp;

Ben Cooper

Oasis’s Falling Down by WIZ

Very good to see WIZ back in action. And his first video in absolutely ages is also unusual for him.
There's the budget, of course, clearly a fraction of what he's used to. But also, making a video for the determinedly anonymous Clinic means there's no pop star being made unimpeachably cool by one of his extraordinary scenarios.
But his portrait of a girl preparing for a very English ritual is, of course, in his own highly distinctive fashion.
Unmistakably a Musicfilm by WIZ.

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