Film School Week: Space Trekking With Mogwai

Legendary post rockers Mogwai are back in February with their new album Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. When it came to getting a film maker for their return single however, the process wasn't as complicated as it can sometimes be.

"I texted Stu the idea," says film maker Tom Scholefield on how he pitched his video to the Mogwai singer, "and he got back to me, saying I was mental and just to go for it."

The video, which premiered on the Guardian site last week, depicts two drunken friends on a mission to build a portal into another world. The idea, a homage to the fantasy worlds kids build for themselves, was inspired by Scholefield's own experience; "I always played with cardboard and made most of my toys out of cardboard," the director says.

The director's video making approach is quite different to that of your usual production company. "I tend to only work with artists I've met over the years through gigs and become friends with," he says.

"Normally because budgets are so low I tend to put in the extra effort because we're mates. More often than not the videos are labours of love that take forever to do. But that's what makes them special. I've rarely gone down the official route unless labels get in touch."

Scholefield's approach is to keep lots of projects, not just videos, on the go - so he can be more selective when choosing which music videos to work on. He says it is possible to make a living off music videos, but "for finacial reasons it means you need to make a tonne of them to survive, ie maybe working on stuff you don't like that much".

The Mogwai video is both psychedelic and realistic in its portrayal of two guys getting drunk ("Everyone was a bit wasted on the shoot", notes Scholefield). It also plays with lots of '80s imagery and references the retro film Weird Science - of which the video was "pretty much a homage".



Meanwhile, for anyone looking to get into the art of music videos, Scholefield reassures that you don't need to be flash with cash;

"To start off all you need is a laptop and a copy of final cut and after effects. When I started I barely had any gear!"

displaycopy.net