How do we hurt the ones we love? Davis Silis at Bullion directs this visceral and passionate new music video 'A Friend' by South London duo Formation.
From the director:
The song’s lyrics evoke a lot of questions about the nature of friendship, of loneliness, of relationships, and this video just became an extension of those questions. What are the boundaries of friendship and love? Is there a difference? How do we hurt those we love and why do we so often push them away when we need them the most?
So, the idea was to take a familiar trope, the violence of an all-out movie brawl, and use it as a device to pose those questions. The video itself doesn’t provide answers — not because there aren’t any, but because the answers are so deeply personal to those who ask.
Working with fight coordinator Kevin McCurdy, we created one long fight sequence that unfolds on a Victoria Line train in London with actor Isaac Money and Formation’s singer Will Ritson himself, who deserves huge credit for pulling this off despite dislocating his shoulder during one of the very first setups on the day.
Davis Sillis, director: "We think of cocoons as a source of comfort and protection. Where we can isolate ourselves from the dangers of the outside world. But I wanted to explore another side of what can happen when we isolate ourselves so much, we become capable of doing the unimaginable. Using classic fairytale tropes, the idea was to create a video that felt like a visual antithesis to the music, densely packed with metaphor."
Mali Music has shared a sweet new video for "Contradiction," one of his contributions to the ChiRaq The Movie soundtrack.
Directed by Davis Silis, the warm video shines a spotlight on the Georgia singer and his collaborator Jhene Aiko. The pair sway gently with a glowing dance club's pretty crowd while singing about the ups and downs of love. As well as creating a reminder of everyone lost in violence not just in Chicago, but all over the world.
David Silis, director: "The insurmountable loss Chicago has experienced over the years for many people only came into perspective when compared to America’s losses in Iraq, a war more publicised, and certainly longer-running than any other.
I grew up not far from Chicago, so when this project came around, working with the supremely talented Mali Music, Jhené Aiko, and the team behind Spike Lee’s film ‘Chi-Raq’, the soundtrack on which ‘Contradiction’ features, it felt quite personal. Especially when only a few weeks after we finished filming, my own hometown suffered a mass shooting.
What we wanted to create was a video that reinforced the story of ‘Chi-Raq,’ but also had its own message. Both a celebration of community, and a lament of its destruction. Or in other words, a contradiction. That while life does go on, we shall never forget those who were lost."
The narrative impulse behind ‘Calling Me’ was immediate. A story familiar to us all. There’s a vulnerability we all face growing up. Grappling with who you are. Who you want to become. You’re driven by instinct as much as reacting to what’s going on around you. What others think of you. And that’s the battle we’ve all had to fight.
The Kooks "Down" is like the thinking hipster's version of "Blurred Lines" — catchy and sexy, even if there's no nudity here. Instead director Davis Silis keeps you constantly off-kilter with a mix of shadow and other forms of play.
