Following the videos for New York Morning and My Sad Captains, Mark Thomas at SoupCo in Manchester has completed the third in a marvellous series of observational docs being made for the latest Elbow album The Take Off and Landing of Everything.

This time, for Real Life, the subject is outdoor swimmer Vivienne Rickman-Poole, and follows her as she continues on her remarkable quest to swim every lake in Snowdonia... 

MARK THOMAS:

"I came across Viv, the swimmer, through her own documentation of her swimming - using a GoPro to film time lapsed stills of her swims. Really inspiring imagery that drew a parallel with my thoughts and feelings on what it’s like to be in that underwater world.

"It was that sense of escape and solitude that resonated with the track, and the drop for me was a real highlight, the swimming becoming our performance element, the dance.

"Shooting was a joy - our DoP, Percy went above and beyond the call of duty, stripping down to his smalls for some impromptu shots, and even trekking Snowdon for the sake of some lush landscapes. The hope is, while we can't recreate the feeling of being in that setting, we've hinted at what it's like in that world, and maybe even tempted a few people to give it a go."