Neil Dowling

GO by Nina Hynes. A music video.

A NEW LANDSCAPE

As the walls closed in and the seriousness of the Covid-19 crisis became apparent, as nurses, doctors, hospital porters, cleaners and supermarket checkout workers, became national heroes, I began to ask myself some questions. How can I make a meaningful difference in the current climate as a creative person? What can we as the Contented team do to make some kind of positive contribution in a rapidly changing world. I don’t have the answers but here’s what I have found helpful. 

MUSCLE MEMORY

Firstly, pandemic or no pandemic, creativity is like a muscle, it needs to be exercised in order to continue to work effectively. The longer it slacks off the harder it is to get it back up to speed. Secondly, see limitations as assets rather than liabilities. Use what’s available to you. My kids got so bored while being away from their friends that they were happy to join in creative exercises. We shot several scenes from their favourite tv shows with them in the lead roles. You’ll be amazed at how rich the possibilities are. 

RECONNECT

Despite my reclusive tendencies and the constant struggle to get away from the screens, I found lockdown to be a great time to be more active online and reach out to friends and acquaintances. Several years ago I used a track by the artist Nina Hynes on a tv commercial, and since that time we have been facebook contacts without really knowing each other. With a new album out and the prospect of a long lockdown looming, Nina put out a facebook call to filmmakers to ask if anyone might have the possibility to create some visuals to accompany the new songs. 

ANAMORPHIC

Meanwhile, I had finally received delivery of a new anamorphic lens that I had purchased from Atlas Lens Co. in L.A. and I was very keen to test it out. At first I thought of just going around the city shooting cityscapes, perhaps with a some people shots too, but I quickly realised that this would be a waste and it would take as much effort to do that as to make something simple but specific for someone else to make use of too, whether they had a budget or not. I listened to the album and one song, Go, stood out for me. I particularly liked the line in the chorus ‘Dancing in my head’. In visual terms I felt that it opened a door into an imaginative space and this would enable the character or characters in the video to do things out of the ordinary. The use of the new anamorphic lens, albeit playing down the anamorphic look, would be another tool to pull the story into a slightly surreal territory.

COLLABORATION

Then, I thought about Michael, a professional dancer from Paris now living in Oslo. As well as being the boyfriend of my kids’ French teacher, which is how we met, we had been on the same flight to Oslo from Barcelona in January and had a chance to talk as we headed from the airport back into town. One of the things we discussed was the idea of doing a short dance film. I got in touch after one of the kids’ Skype French classes recently and he agreed that we could do something so long as we maintained social distancing through the shoot. He also said that he could bring two of his dance students on board and contribute as a choreographer. The idea that we wanted to capture was to express, through movement, the feelings of frustration that people have had since the lockdown began. The sense of missing even the small things that we may have always taken for granted. The difficulty of readjusting to the new normal. And, of course, the fact that we have to keep our distance from other people, something that goes against our natural human instincts.

ENGAGE WITH THE MOMENT

So going back to my starting point what can we do to make a positive contribution as creators? Use your skills in service to something bigger – we have also produced a promo film, pro bono, for a national fundraising campaign, and keep creating. Look for ways to make sense of a changing world. Will a music video help the world to heal? Probably not, but possibly just a little. The point is engage creatively with the moment, especially when it’s as monumental and historical as the one we are in right now. It may resonate, it may help someone make sense of something in their life and perhaps even help them get through the day.