Arlo Parks 'Weightless' (Director's Cut) by Marc Oller
Rob Ulitski - 2nd Mar 2023
The Director's Cut of Marc Oller's video for Arlo Parks' Weightless arrives, and adds weight to the symbolism around a story of a couple falling out of love.
Oller employs powerful visual metaphors to tell the tale, which are given free rein in this version: Arlo in a car with no driver, a house breaking apart, cars crashing, and perhaps most powerfully of all, a wild horse having escaped from its captor, running free in the city.
Within these scenes, Parks herself comes across strongly, performing the song which is the first release from her forthcoming album, My Soft Machine - the anticipated follow-up to her Brit and Mercury Prize-winning debut Collapsed In Sunbeams.
Shot in Serbia last December, Oller says that ‘’we followed the brief of how a lover gets tethered to the idea of someone, either to how good it felt at the beginning or how close things are to looking up, whilst also wanting to present Arlo in a way that her fans had not seen before." He adds that this presented various challenges on the shoot, particularly due to bad weather affecting the production.
"We had to recreate the exact same room we were shooting in an apartment, then wreck it with a bulldozer," he says. "The construction team was outstanding."
So was the horse, called Asa - who is a magnificent presence in the video, captured wonderfully by DoP Zach Spiger and his team. "Asa was a great actress - we all fell in love with her and she actually made our lives easy," says Oller. "Unfortunately, it was raining heavily and the shoot was constantly interrupted by the storm. This tightened our schedule and we had to sacrifice many shots that we had planned on shooting."
Shot on film, which also presented challenges in terms of finding the right kit for "an old school kind of shoot", Oller adds that he was supported by both familiar and new collaborators to achieve his goals.
"They were all amazingly talented and invested in the project," he declares. "Zack Spiger is an old collaborator - we shot a short film back in the day when I lived in Tokyo; Vicki Viñas is one of my longest time collaborators and she’s an outstanding art director and has the best taste; Alberto Ojeda is one of the best steadicam operators in Spain; and Ana Cano is my oldest collaborator and my ‘go-to’ for hair and makeup.
"And I loved working with our new Head of Music Videos at CANADA, Callum Harrison, who always challenged me to keep pushing the boundaries of creativity and was a great support."
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Rob Ulitski - 2nd Mar 2023
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Credits
Production/Creative
- Director
- Marc Oller
- Producer
- Sara Renteria
- Producer
- Anna Bacardit
- Producer
- Débora Zhang
- Production Company
- C
- Service Company
- Cyber Few Good Men
- Service Co Exec Producer
- Vuk Marjanovic
- Head of Music Video
- Callum Harrison
- Cyber Few Good Men Line Producer
- Branka Ilić
- Production Manager
- Aleksandar Vidovic & Аnja Petrović
- 1st AD
- David Jovanovic
- Location Scout
- Nemanja Stojanović & Srdjan Radojković
Camera
- Director of Photography
- Zack Spiger
- Steadicam
- Alberto Ojeda
- Steady Assistant
- Manu Rodriguez
- 1st AC
- Romain Malavoy
- 2nd AC
- Nenad Ristic
- Video Assist
- Nemanja Oravec & Milos Ristić & Nikola Čojčić
Lighting/Grip
- Gaffer
- Dragan Sapic
- Best Boy
- Aleksandar Davidović
- Sparks
- Jovan Todorović
Art
- Art Director
- Vicki Viñas
Wardrobe
- Stylist (Artist)
- Lewis Munday
- Stylist (Cast)
- Natalia Vega
- Make-up (Artist)
- Emilie Louizides
- Make-up (Cast)
- Ana Cano
Casting
- Casting
- LC
Editorial
- Editor
- Fouad Gaber
- Post Production
- Álvaro Posadas @CANADA
- Post Production Assistant
- Marta Castillo @CANADA
- Post Production Coordinators
- Javier Botella & Marina M. Campomanes
Grading
- Colourist
- William Kjarval
Other credits
Graphic Design
Judit Musachs
BTS
Sophie Williams
Transport Coordinator
Božidar Marinković
Safety Coordinator
Milan Djole Alavanja
Stunt Coordinator
Slaviša Ivanović
Stunt
Marko Joksimović
Precision driver
Marko Vasiljević
Horse
Asa
Key Grip
Emir Bihorac
Grip
Nikola Savić
SFX Coordinator
Stanislav Stanko Knežević
Local Art Director
Nikola Nikolć
Props Buyer
Dragan Mladenović
Set Dressers
Boban Mladenović & Dragan Milovanović & Zlatan Milovanović
Local Stylist
Petra Leskovac Vučković
Wardrobe Assistant
Milica Jevdjić
Suppliers Vision Team
Sapa Light, Puccini Catering, Cinevent, Geseme, Cinelab Romania
Rob Ulitski - 2nd Mar 2023