Bill Bleakley directs the second in a trilogy of interconnected clips for Australian blues band The Teskey Brothers, following some of the same characters from the first video, whilst introducing a few more - including a teenager with aspirations to be a rodeo rider.Take My Heart follows the Oceans Of Emotion video in weaving between the stories of real-life couples - including rodeo legend Lance Anderson and his wife - creating a cinematic sensibility in the process, so it feels as much like drama as documentary.Bleakley adds young Noah Dingle to the narrative - who travels to meet and learn how to become a rodeo rider from Lance. And throughout we also have the parallel story of the Teskey Brothers themselves, travelling across country, performing in unlikely small town ventues - a scout hall and the middle of an ice hockey rink, surrounded by a cheering crowd .“It was a nice challenge to make a three part narrative clip – I’m not used to splitting narrative arcs over a few episodes," Bleakley explains. "Each of the videos had to work as a standalone clip, but also had to add weight to the series so it was tricky to get right.”“Lance is already Noah’s teacher, so we continued to use a documentary approach: try and capture real life rather than recreate it.”It's a real tapestry, and the director and his team - including DoP Adric Watson and editor Paul Rowe - have done a fantastic job with this. And one more to come. We wait in anticipation for the third and final chapter.
Rob Ulitski - 4th Apr 2023