Jake Dypka directs his second video for acoustic duo Memorial, and another life-affirming essay of ordinary folk in Britain. 

In 2021, for Memorial's cover of Fontaine DC's A Hero's Death, Dypka documented the holidaymakers at Butlin's resort in Skegness, on the East coast of England. Now for Corduroy, Dypka's subject is the South Wales town of Port Talbot - home to the famous steelworks - and its residents.

Even more so than for A Hero's Death, Dypka and his small crew, including DoP Spike Morris, are unobtrusive observers of the everyday in a local working class community, creating wonderfully evocative portraits of the individuals and also capturing the almost unique surroundings: a town hemmed in by sea and hills, where the steelworks and the M4 motorway flyover are nearly always visible.

"Continuing the theme from our last promo, I wanted to combine a loose documentary approach with very pared-back photography - a combination of control and happenstance," says Dypka. "The aim was to see what I could do with the most minimal tools at my disposal: a camera, a place, and just reacting to what I found on the day.

"Unlike last time, I wanted to keep my distance and observe my subjects rather than engineer the situation, which I felt would better reflect the emotional experience of the song.

"The idea for Port Talbot came about from trying to find somewhere that had strong visual contrasts to reflect the emotional contrasts I felt while listening to the music. At first, I thought it was a happy song about having good times in the sun until I spent more time with it. Later, I thought the song was wearing a mask - happy on the surface with something darker lurking beneath. What Memorial did so well was to move seamlessly between joy and sorrow, and that was at the heart of what I was trying to do with the video."

The director adds that budget constraints meant that shooting on film was not an option. "So right from the beginning it was about getting the most organic feel from digital," he says. "Being just me Spike and Joe (producer) we knew it needed to be small and workable to the conditions.

"In the end it was between Alexa Mini and RED Komodo. I probably would have preferred the former but Spike pushed for the RED and he was right to do so. We used Zeiss Superspeeds which we both knew would be spot on for it."