Tennyson – Iron

I like to think of the architecture of a scene in terms of polarities: in this case the intensity and rigidity of the beat-making process vs. the infectious danceability of the end result. Luke talked with me about his lyrics: a dream on loop that he couldn’t wake up from. I had some initial inspirations involving him jogging at dawn to locations in his dream, placing an icon of a labyrinth—a symbol of him both knowing he was in the dream while also being trapped within it. Eventually, I asked Larry Kelly, my perennial question Key Grip, “What can you do that costs almost nothing that’s visually spectacular?” He said, “I can teach anyone to weld in less than an hour.” With the song being called “Iron” I knew we’d found the right path. We filmed the welding in his workshop—achieving the production dream of maximum value for minimum cost, as we could even bend the metal for the classical labyrinth on location. The final pieces came together when we found our dancer, Sekou Boisclair. He’s a naturally graceful, fluid dancer, so I directed him into an opposing architecture wherein he was controlled and limited by the machine of the welding and music-maze making, pushing his movements into angular extremes.

Red Epic
3x Arri tungsten Kit & hazer (workshop)
3x 1x1 LED panels (outdoor)