James Blake 'Thrown Around' by The Reids
Rob Ulitski - 26th June 2024
James Blake has a Hellish day trying to make content for a jaded social media audience in the mesmerising promo for Thrown Around, directed by The Reids.
Opening with a snappy conversation with a social media guru, who tells the artist he needs to up his content game to stay relevant, we see Blake venture out onto the street to record a half-hearted TikTok video - until his phone gets nicked by a bike-riding assailant.
From there, things go from bad to worse, and we get to experience this from a hypnotic Snorricam-style rig built by DoP Fraser Mitchell. Elevated by trippy effects and a heavy dose of surrealism, it's a standout visual that also showcases Blake's acting chops, and a surprising facility for comedy. Someone get this man in touch with Netflix right away.
And remarkably, the whole project was turned around in less than a week, as Will and Ed Reid explain.
"Thrown Around was by far the maddest project we’ve shot to date - from idea sign off to wrap in 6 days, this one was a beast to wrangle and so much fun," say the brother directing team, who have just signed to Anonymous Content. "We will be proud of this one for a while.
"It wouldn’t have been possible to do it without James himself being so up for it. He gave us incredible amounts of time, energy and humour - you really see that on camera.
"Also, utilising a new camera rig - the 3rd Person Snorri - as a narrative device was a really special experience - it feels so hard to shoot something in a way that feels different and fresh these days and we pushed hard to do that here which is perhaps what we’re most proud of."
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Rob Ulitski - 26th June 2024
Credits
Production/Creative
- Director
- The Reids
- Producer
- Will Preston-George
- Producer
- Rory Mills
- Creative Director
- Crowns & Owls
- Production Company
- TC
- Production Manager
- Dan Preston-George
- PA / Driver
- James Lamb
- Creative Agency
- Lows
Camera
- Director of Photography
- The Reids
- Director of Photography
- Fraser Mitchell
- Sound Recordist
- Rhys Adams
Art
- Props Manager
- Hayley Pither
Wardrobe
- Prosthetics
- Kelly White
Casting
- Lead actor
- Archie Madekwe
Editorial
- Editor
- The Reids
- Sound Design
- Ben Brannan
- Sound Design
- Timo Sailia
Grading
- Colourist
- Rich Patter
VFX
- VFX
- Mike Raymond
- VFX
- Faith Irmak
Agent
- Director's Representation
- AC
Rob Ulitski - 26th June 2024