Ever since his fine video for The Maccabees' Young Lions some time ago, Peter Szewczyk has been periodically coming up with low-budget post-heavy gems.

His latest for Numbers And Letters' Tell Me was developed with the band's lead singer Katie Hasty, about a guy looking for spiritual fulfillment out in the desert – and making a remarkable discovery. But then getting rather more than he bargained for...

PETER SZEWCZYK:

"During the long hours of post production on my short film Our Lady Of Lourdes, this track was on heavy rotation in my studio. I offered my services to the artist in the way of a music video, if I ever managed to find some down time. Well, nearly a year later, that time came, so I pitched a few ideas, all terribly somber and dramatic. The lead singer, Katie Hasty, has a strong background in writing, however, so she came up with some ideas of her own. She was keen to tell an abstracted story about a bloke trying to "find himself" in the desert. I was happy to develop her concepts, as they were very funny and colourful, so long as I managed to squeeze in a few wish-list items. I really wanted to shoot in the desert and I wanted to sprinkle in some surreal elements. 

"Since my background is in cinematography, I was looking forward to getting behind the camera again, and the Mojave desert provided an unprecedented canvas to shoot against. One thing I was not prepared for, however, was how fast the colours of the rocks change. They would go from yellow to red to green to gold, in just a few hours. Thankfully I shot the whole thing in Canon Raw format, so we were able to balance things out in the grade. Then I went home, and did a few weeks of post on nights and weekends. 

"The whole video cost about £250 to make, since all we really paid for was food, transport, and a lens hire. Katie and I shared producing responsibilities, and I did all the post myself. The crew was so small that they all fit into a Prius. 

"All in all, we are quite happy with how things turned out. The story might leave a few people scratching their heads, but that's the fun bit of music videos. They are all a bit bonkers!"