Keith Schofield is a young and very creative U.S. filmmaker who’s directed an impressive list of commercials and music videos, including Heaven Can Wait, from Charlotte Gainsbourg’s recently released album IRM (a record written and produced by Beck).
Heaven Can Wait (Charlotte Gainsbourg feat. Beck)
Schofield’s “outside the box” concepts and his choice for retro and pop aesthetics have put him in Esquire’s The Best and Brightest of 2009 selection. Having been called “the most transgressive video maker working today” by the magazine, the director won a Gold Lion at Cannes Lions 2009 and a Silver at the 2009 British Television Advertising Awards for his SFW XXX video for Diesel’s 30th anniversary celebration. The viral video for Diesel mixes oldschool porn videos and almost child-like animation, which works as a hilarious form of censorship.
SFW XXX (Diesel)
Besides Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck, Schofield has directed videos for artists like Lenny Kravitz, Justice, CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy), Death Cab for Cutie, Ladyhawke, Ting Tings, The Notwist and Supergrass – whose video Bad Blood resulted in a Best Rock Video award at the 2008 UK Music Video Awards. Schofield has also directed commercials for big companies such as Virgin Mobile, Belgacom, Samsung and McDonalds.
We’ve the had the opportunity of interviewing the director; check out the interview (below) and learn more about the filmmaker’s work, references, and his current project – a video for David Guetta featuring Kid Cudi.
Made-Up Disease: Why did you choose to make your video treatments available on your website?
Keith Schofield: I learned how to write treatments by reading other director’s treatments; and so I figured the decent thing to do would be to return the favor.
MUD: The treatments are great, by the way – I wish the one for One With the Freaks (The Notwist video) was there too.
K. S.: I never wrote a treatment for that video; it was basically a spec.
One With The Freaks (The Notwist)
MUD: What about the rejected treatments? Doesn’t it bother you to have a reminder of ideas that could have turned into awesome videos?
K. S.: No. I have a lot of rejected treatments that I haven’t posted; that I’d like to do someday. These are ones I retired. In some instances, other videos came out that coincidentally have a similar concept.
MUD: Do you intend to keep working exclusively with commercials and music videos, or do you have feature film projects?
K. S.: Yeah, I’d love to do a feature. I’ve got an agent and am reading scripts. It’s a long process.
MUD: Do you see the Internet as the most important platform for music videos, or is there still enough space for them on television?
K. S.: No, I think the Internet will remain the way most people see videos. Within 10 years, Internet and TV will blur even more. And then I think we’re going to have a million little music video channels that play videos like Internet radio stations.
MUD: You always seem to find space to add interesting elements to commercials. Would you still do commercials if you were not allowed to do so? In case a client had an extremely traditional point of view or target audience…
K. S.: Yeah, probably. It’s happened. There’s nothing wrong with it; not everything can have my stamp on it.
MUD: You’ve recently posted a picture of Miami on Twitter, and you mentioned a new project. Could you tell us something about this Miami gig?
K. S.: I’m doing a music video for David Guetta featuring Kid Cudi. This one is X-rated! But it’s supposed to be funny.
MUD: How does the approach for a music video typically work? Do record labels contact you, or are artists more often the ones who get in touch with you?
K. S.: Typical process – label hires commissioner, commissioner sends track to my Executive Producer, I write on the track, which then gets sent to to the commissioner who sends it to the artist.
MUD: I can’t avoid thinking of David Lynch when I see the Heaven Can Wait video (Charlotte Gainsbourg featuring Beck). Like Lynch, you develop dysfunctional, even bizarre characters – an astronaut with a pancake head, a man having a bath with fruit pebbles… There is a feeling of absurdity, an uncanniness. How did Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg react to your concept?
K. S.: Charlotte thought it would be fun. Thankfully, I just had to give them a sense of what it would feel like, rather than describe every little scene.
MUD: Do you find it hard to “sell” your unique ideas?
K. S.: It’s getting easier as time goes on! But yeah, it’s still hard. I’ve written so many treatments this year that got rejected one way or another.
MUD: Let Love Rule (Lenny Kravitz + Justice) is an awesome video. Who are the people featured on the never-ending credits?
K. S.: Most were friends and family of the crew members. The rest were fake names created with this website: http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm
Let Love Rule (Lenny Kravitz and Justice)
MUD: Were you, in a way, making fun of the film industry’s tendency of assembling a gigantic crew (e.g.: more than 20 animatronic technicians)?
K. S.: Not necessarily. It was more that we needed the credits to last 3 minutes or so; and that certain gaps had to appear at certain times.
MUD: Did any video catch your attention recently?
K. S.: I really liked DJ Trexx’s A Union of Peace Love and Bass.
MUD: You’ve worked with a variety of artists who explore different genres – such as rock, alternative rock, electronic music, rap, hip-hop… Do you need to relate to the songs or to the artists’ work when you shoot a music video?
K. S.: Nah, not really.
MUD: Would you say you are fascinated with retro aesthetics?
K. S.: Yes!
MUD: Let Love Rule reminds me of an 80s, early 90s film, and of course, there is the SFW XXX video for Diesel, as well as Polaroid and video game references.
K. S.: Yeah, I definitely like that stuff. Nostalgia, childhood memories, kitsch, etc.
MUD: Thank you for telling the story of the worst Atari game ever – it’s a very interesting one! Good for Spielberg – he got a pretty impressive deal, especially as the cartridges couldn’t even be sold! (from Wintergreen’s When I Wake Up video)
K. S.: Totally!
Elephants (Samsung commercial)
