Mill Director | Melody Maker
Tell us about your career as a director so far
In my early twenties I immersed myself in film. Falling asleep to Wild at Heart became a nightly experience. I would wake up inspired to create. As part of an East London creative collective, wide-eyed and excited by everything, we were perhaps a little naive but honest in our art. I was yet to feel any of the financial pressure of real life, it was just about creating and chasing the satisfying surge of artistic exploration. My career has traversed many different paths: fashion, photography, creative direction, but all had the same foundations of being a director – making something that’s concept driven. After leaving the fashion industry to focus solely on directing I put myself through film school and shot 14 music videos in one year. These days I can be more selective with music videos and can focus on my passion of creating engaging campaigns and commercials.
Tell us a bit about Greentea Peng’s ‘Ghost Town’
This idea was to create a simple message with hopefully a lasting effect. The video shows Greentea Peng making her way out of her flat at the Aylesbury Estate for the very last time. When the breakdown of affordable housing is ever so prevalent, I thought it was important to explore the spectre of the housing crisis without attempting to oversimplify its complexities.
You previously directed a short film, BARNEY, how did you find directing such dark humour?
The original script of Barney was much lighter, but whilst reading the Greg character I kept imagining Nick Helm as I previously worked with him the year before and (I am sure he wouldn’t mind me saying) has a somewhat cynical sense of humour. This, mixed with my already dark comedic taste, sculpted a new mix of creeping despair and awkward amusement. Having a dose of humor injected throughout the film pulled the genre in different directions. The dark humour and dead-pan delivery was my way of lightening a subject so absurd like dog porn and the reality of how women are depicted through TV screens.
Below: A still from Gorgon City | Go Deep
Melody created this beautiful music video for the song ‘Go Deep’ by Gorgon City. Featuring two dancers seemingly underwater, and then in space, the video shows how far people will go for love.
Can you tell us about the promo you have just done for JGreyy? What were the challenges?
The opening line “Things will get worse before they get better” couldn’t have struck a more familiar chord. Never in our lifetimes have we experienced enforced economic inactivity. But just as there will be many negative things because of this pandemic, so will there be positive things to take away from it, too. Whilst modern life has been put on pause, mother earth has been left to flourish, from cleaner air to liberated wildlife. This concept “Return to Nature” whimsical explores lockdown to the extreme. How far could nature go if it were left alone? Working with Jgrrey, who I have now discovered is a multifaceted artist, managed to style, perform and shoot the enter video by herself on her Iphone. We hatched out a rough plan after a virtual recce of Jgrrey’s home and parts of Watford but we knew couldn’t limit ourselves to a shot-list. Wanting to be respectful of lockdown, we decided to shoot this over a period of 5 days, giving each scene 30 mins outside of the house.
The film is currently in post production and is dropping mid June.
You can check out more of Melody’s work on her Creator profile or her Instagram @melodymaker.
Mill Director Melody Maker
