Directing duo Deadhorses nail the buzzed-up energy and madness of a wild house party, with a viscerally lo-fi, pre-social media aesthetic, for Manchester-based house crew Mason Collective's collab with Bipolar Sunshine.

Working together with Blend Films for the first time and filming on a collection of vintage mini-DV tape cameras - including malfunctioning ones - and then augmented with kinetic editing and FX, Deadhorses - James Topley and Ivo Beckett - have created an unhinged thrill ride through the unrelenting action of a brilliant night out. 

As we move breathlessly with the lead characters through scenes from street to house, taking in numerous loved-up participants, the nostalgic, early home-digi sensibility, and unstoppable momentum is a great accompaniment to People In Love, an old school dance tune with a big heart, boasting a chugging bass line, decadent synth-work and sly garage influences. Perfect for a banging house party video dripping in Y2K influences. 

We grew up watching and loving TV shows like Skins and wanted to hark back to that era...

"We wanted to take people back in time to an old school house party session, before social media and Spotify, when MTV ruled and all you needed for a solid session was a four pack of cans, 10 B&H, a brick Nokia and a well-fed Tamagotchi!" say Deadhorses.

"We grew up watching and loving TV shows like Skins and wanted to hark back to that era and for the film to feel rooted in the experience of the characters, based in an (undefined) recent past. We filmed the video across a number of mini-DV tape cameras - some half-broken, some with dodgy tapes - which provided the heavy analogue tone to the look and also gave us an enormous range of textures to play with.

"Some of the cameras were so old we had abstract glitches, pixelation and our brilliant DoP Jed used these curveballs to his advantage and captured some really insane, off-the-wall shots, lit with a bright, sparky, gel-pen colour palette. We loved these in-camera effects and leaned into them when it came to the edit, enhancing them with a heavy VFX, quick cutting approach to bring a visceral rushing sense of momentum. Some of the tapes were recorded over previous footage and this contributed to the authenticity and feeling as if it was a home-movie.

"The film follows our hero characters throughout the night showing them all at the meet up and driving through residential roads to the house party, 6 people squashed into a four seater, etc. For the house party itself, as well as the dancing and general madness of the main room we wanted to focus on the side rooms and peripheral spaces where the shit really goes down and the memories are made. So we had one of the characters locked in the bathroom after hotboxing it and another passing out way too early and becoming tagged with a sharpie covered in crap by their mates.

"It was also great to get Mason Collective guys in the video as well. They came down for the main party scene filling in as the DJs, playing tunes to all the revellers and bringing the energy and vibes in buckets, we to the room and the video as a whole. We really all did it for the love of the scene and it was great to have everyone on the set exchanging their nostalgic memories of raving.

"Overall, it was such a fun, energising experience and we think this experience we had filming it shines through the final product. Finally we’d like to thank everyone who worked on this, cast and crew, everyone at Blend, Sam and Polly at OB42, Cat at Defected. Everyone smashed it out the park and made it so much fun to make."