Filming with Benefits
Catching up with film director, the brilliant John Kirkbride about the production of their latest music video for Benefits ‘What more do you want’ filmed here at The Auxiliary.
“You’ll have to be in after archery and out before the cadets….”
So it turns out most village/town/community halls in the Teesside area are pretty busy, even on Easter Saturday.
Enter. The Auxiliary.
At the end of March, Kingsley Chapman (of Benefits fame) got in touch with Andy Berriman & I to see if we’d collaborate on another music video following the release of Andy’s video for “Warhorse”. Unfortunately, Andy was unavailable due to prepping for another music video he was also shooting in The Auxiliary (watch this space).
After a bit of back and forth with Kingsley, we settled on a “grotesque” party scene and its subsequent aftermath. The key to the whole idea was finding the ideal location. Village halls were the initial plan as it leaned into the “party” theme. But it turns out booking a village hall that will be free long enough and believe you when you say you will tidy up, is quite tricky!
The Auxiliary had not really been on my radar as I knew Andy was in the middle of building a full TV studio/set in there and slowly filling the place with gear. Then I was reminded of the attic space upstairs. PERFECT.
It was as if someone listened to the video idea and handed us a bespoke location on a plate. Old fashioned, loads of charisma, effortlessly characteristic and the ability to trash the place. Big ticks all around! We honestly couldn’t have asked for a better space. Liam Slevin was an absolute hero in sorting it out for us and making sure we got the most out of the space. He was also happy for me to work till late and lock up myself. This was invaluable as I only had the band for a few hours (due to them playing Stockton Calling that night). It meant I could use the time with the band purely for filming and not have to worry about being out of the space or tidied up by a certain time.
Onto the shoot. In an attempt to keep the setup/takedown as streamlined as possible, I had only packed a few lights thinking I’d be fine. Two problems I immediately encountered, 1) I needed one more light for highlighting the table of food and, 2) in a big oversight on my part, I had forgotten coloured gels to warm up the panel lights I was using. After a mild freak out with Andy (who was downstairs painting) he jokingly said I should look for some carrier bags. Eureka! Two Sainsbury's bags for life, cut in half, did the trick! (Pictured). Back to the key light for the table. There were two pin spot lights attached to a support beam directly above the table. But I need it in front of the table. And whilst I’m sure I would have been fine to move them around, I just didn’t have the time. Enter Rachel Deakin and her awesome pop up projection screen. It worked perfectly as both a reflector and diffuser. Another handy thing about working in a space with adjoining artists’ studios.
We’d decided early on that Kingsley’s miming performance would be done in the aftermath of the party but we had three key moments we wanted to hit with the party scenes. A pie in the face for the first noisy part, a ‘champagne’ (or Nozeco) shower for the second part and the dreaded table flip for the third part. I had every faith in Cat Myers flipping the table and the band reacting appropriately. We knew we’d have plenty of destruction content to film once the table was over and with some frantic editing, it was just the initial table flip. If I miss that moment, we don’t have the ability to reset. No pressure then. We also decided to complicate matters by adding some confetti cannons for the final moment. Thankfully another hero in the form of John James Perangie stepped in to help.
Then I had to clean up. (LOLZ). This is the less exciting part of the story. I stood and looked at the mess before me (pictured) and thought “this is the point where a caretaker in a village hall would have looked at me with a mix of horror and rage”. Thankfully I was in The Auxiliary and had my own timeframe to clean up. So I stuck a bit of Kurt Vile on and got to it. 4 hours, (3 rounds of shovelling, 2 rounds of sweeping and 2 rounds of mopping) later… I was done (pictured).
Throughout the shoot and the edit I remember thinking to myself “this probably wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t got The Auxiliary”. And I can’t wait for its re-opening. I’ll certainly be back to stage another food fight. Or maybe just shoot some music videos that don’t require a 4 hour clean-up.
Text, video and BTS photos John Kirkbride.