You always live again

19th November 2013

Title of film: M.I.A., Y.A.L.A.

Director: Daniel Sannwald

There's only one director who could have made this film: Daniel Sannwald. His liquid effects, his beautiful saturated colour mixes, the perfectly timed visuals …. He's upped the stakes for performance videos. We catch up with the director on making magic with M.I.A.

It doesn’t look as if it was a breeze to make. Was it?

The video was a very fast turn around. We only got the track two or three days before we shot the video… So we had very little time in pre-production and I was very happy that I had Somesuch & Co behind me to produce the video so well. We shot everything in one day and most of the magic happened in the post-production and edit of the video.

What were the magical bits of the production and what were the challenges?

My favourite part is the light dot projection on Maya’s lips – I really think it looks dope how her lips and teeth are showing amongst all these crazy dots!

The challenge of the video was to find a mutual ground that everyone was happy with.

Did you collaborate closely with M.I.A throughout the production or did she trust and leave you to create what you wanted?

Maya and I worked on her album artwork before so we already had a good relationship. I know that she really loves my work so a big part of the video was based on trust. We collaborated closely on deciding the visual effects in the video.

Is it a coincidence that the colours mimic Kenzo’s colour palette or were they a hands-off client? So refreshing to see brands putting budget behind videos.

Maya and I are big Kenzo fans! However the fact that the colours of the video turned out the way they did is actually more about us trying to recreate the colours of the Matangi world that Maya created with her new record!

See 1.4 earlier interview with Daniel Sannwald

See another recent piece by Daniel Sannwald for Sephora in Related Content

Credits

Director Daniel Sannwald Executive Producer Tash Tan Producer Denna Cartamkhoob Production company Somesuch & Co First Assistant Director Thomas Grady Director of Photography Pau Castejon Focus Puller Fran Weston Camera Assistant Jesse Llande Digital Imaging Technician Matthew Hicks Gaffer Jonathan Spencer Spark Ed Smith Production Runner Raphael Runner Alex Lloyd Laser Specialist LCD Animator/Projections Leo Bridle Post Supervisor Andy Mclintock, Daniel Margolin at Studio Private Post Specialists Paul O’Brien at Framestore, David Smith at Studio Private Colourist Simon Bourne at Framestore, David Smith at Studio Private Additional Effects Peter Valkanoff Editors Jono Griffith at Hagon, Ashley Joiner at Studio Private Daniel Sannwald’s representation Lenny Harlin at Management Artists Executive Producer Eddy Moretti Executive Producer Shane Smith Executive Producer Suroosh Alvi Executive Producer Andrew Creighton Head of Video Danielle Bennison-Brown Associate Producer Dean Kissick Associate Producer James Lowrey Stylist Julia Sarr-Jamois Hair Tina Outen Make-up Lucia Pica Make-up Assistant Siobhan Manicurist Zarra Celik M.I.A. wears all clothing and jewellery KENZO

Tags: Somesuch & Co, Daniel Sannwald, M.I.A., YALO