King Krule 'A Lizard State' by Jamie-James Medina
Luke Tierney - 10th Jan 2014
Book-ended by an Alfred Hitchcock presentation, Jamie-James Medina plays with 90 degree camera angles in this hugely-watchable promo for King Krule's A Lizard State.
Deliciously and authentically retro, Medina's simple living room set-up, Tim Sidell's photography and Archy Marshall's (King Krule) driven performance keep the viewer transfixed...
Jamie-James Medina talks to Luke Tierney about making the video for King Krule's A Lizard State
LT: Having previously worked with King Krule, was it always the plan to work together again?
J-JM: I guess so, for me it definitely was. If I'm not filming Archy and King Krule, I might be taking photos and working with his label, so I love being involved. I just knew it would be fun cutting to A Lizard State. I always wanted to do that video.
With the possibility some young people, fans of King Krule, won't know too much about Alfred Hitchcock, were you worried the cultural reference could be lost?
Nah, I don't think we worried about that at all. Archy and I are Hitchcock fans and thats all we thought about. There were two Hitchcock biopics in 2012 and he's still a huge part entertainment and culture. Vertigo replaced Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time in BFI's list of the best movies. And musically, King Krule's references reach way back sometimes, so I just have to assume that people get it.
Where and how did you come across such fascinating footage?
The Alfred Hitchcock Presents series is so great. I watch that show all the time when I travel. Cinema looked down on TV back then and there is this suggestion that Hitchcock was kinda slumming it with a television show, but every episode is brilliant. And his intros are just so good. You could take any intro from any episode to set up a music video and it would work. And I love that format of intro and outros for shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone, so I wanted to work with that idea.
Did you recreate the illusion effect?
We did, we built the set from scratch to match the original footage. And the set had to move from upright, with the camera tilted, to laying flat to get the dolly shots.
Your portrayal of King Krule is not that of a gawky teenager, very different from your previous portrayal in 'The Noose of Jah City', was that your aim?
I didn't really think about that - he just grew up naturally. And the suits are a part of his live show, so maybe Archy was thinking about that.
Having photographed stars such as Lady Gaga, Jay Z, and Kanye West, do you feel that being a professional photographer affects you as a director?
A little bit, yeah - just in my personal experience. I've worked as an editorial photographer for 10 years and you're searching for THE SHOT. A great moment or a great portrait. But with video, a narrative has to unfold and build over time and move through acts and that's something I learned on the job. So many photographers are moving from still images into film (out of necessity), but it's such a different medium. And for me photography is a very singular act - I take the photo. But film is so collaborative and I'm still trying to figure that part of it out.
• Check out Luke Tierney's blog, Word Is Cheap, or his Twitter @wordischeap, for more thoughts on his favourite music videos
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Luke Tierney - 10th Jan 2014
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Credits
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Production/Creative
- Director
- Jamie-James Medina
- Producer
- Audrey Davenport
- Production Company
- F
- Executive Producer
- Sasha Nixon
Camera
- Director of Photography
- Tim Sidell
Art
- Art Director
- Stuart Mackay
Editorial
- Editor
- Spencer Campbell
- Editing company
- FC
Grading
- Colourist
- Nat Jencks
- Colour grade company
- FC
VFX
- Post Producer
- Viet-An Nguyen
Commission
- Commissioner
- Phil Lee
- Label
- XR
Luke Tierney - 10th Jan 2014