Director Reacts - Lewis Capaldi - 'Survive' In Bloom MV (with the director Charlie Sarsfield)

And I think this is actually a really good time to talk about probably the most stressful shoot that I've ever done. Oh nice segue bro. We're getting good at this but if you go to it's Lewis Capaldi. Survive. Survive yeah. Now this is a live video so the pace is going to change a bit but it's a it's kind of like a live yeah it's a live session not a music video. So this is a live session and this is the most stressful shoot you've done. Is that because it was live or is there more to it that we're going to learn in the video? I think uh we'll watch the video okay and then and then you'll see why it was stressful. Got it. Oh man oh I'm nervous press and play dude. It's quite a nice watch you'll have a nice time. All right. How long till it feels like the wounds finally starting to heal How long till it feels like I'm more than a spoke in a wheel Most nights I feel that I'm not enough I've had my share of Monday mornings when I can't get up But when hope is lost and I come undone I swear to God I'll survive If it kills me too I'm gonna get up and try I've still got something to give Though it hurts sometimes How far will you go to get back to the place you belong Most nights I feel that I'm not enough but I refuse to spend my best years So when hope is lost and I come undone I swear to God I'll survive If it kills me too I'm gonna get up and try If it's the last thing I do I've still got something to give Loud that and it that wasn't one take was it So we have we had like three cameras around the room only three Yeah on three different Sort of we had this which was a big crane going back and forth like a techno Pushing in through the door Uh, and then we had one on the left hand side and then another one just tucked around to the side um but They're all real flowers really So we planted 32 and a half thousand flowers in this room what So we basically like up by the window. We built like steel mesh sort of almost like fishing wire cages like I think you Use them to like sculpt grass Um, and then we basically would fill all the holes with like 19 chrysanthemums um But all the plants were two and a half hours late to arrive And then the big techno crane that I wanted wouldn't fit through the front door of the building So we had to send the we were shooting an hour and a half outside of london So the crane arrived we couldn't get through the door had to put it back on the truck get a smaller one driven to us so like we're talking about stress on shoots and then i'm I also did the Stills that were like the lead images for the project and Sort of billboards and used for all of his like live at hyde park and all of those things. So I was Trying to stay on top of what was going on in the video world while i'm running around taking photos of lewis around around this location So like it was it was a really mad mad day and then all the all the flowers got donated to Hospitals after so all of the boxes all the flowers were then boxed up and sent to hospitals So none of them were wasted before anyone but um, but yeah, it was it was like again this this was like a mad shoot and like obviously You go, right We're gonna fill a room with flowers and they're gonna perform in the middle That means no cameraman can be walking around the flowers because they'll trample the flowers but also it means that Once the band are in there the band are in there and it's not a cold room once you turn all the lights on that Are outside those windows? Oh, yeah you've got all the leads running under the flowers for all of the instruments and the mics so At one point one of the mics went down and you're going well, where the **** is that lead? Sorry, where where's that lead? Do you know what I mean? So so there's a lot of things that and like we had all these I wanted this moment where the lights outside the windows dimmed Down and we were gonna put loads of lights underneath the flowers And then all the light was gonna start emanating from underneath the flowers um instead of through the window, but we the There weren't enough we couldn't get enough distance on our power leads to make all the lights work. Damn So so then i'm having to change what i'm doing while we're there and while the band is setting up And then like, you know and like lewis is extremely busy he he's like touring he was touring at this time so it was like you know, he had a very allotted time window that we could shoot this in and every time every minute that went by was extremely sort of like Tough, you know Because this is your first time working with lewis. Is that right first time working with lewis? yeah, so lewis and dom are really good friends, so it kind of was but You know this this Video had taken many different forms. Like at one point we were going to shoot it on a fort off the coast of portsmouth Um, which is like a just a big sort of old wall of thought Um, and then essentially we landed on this and it felt like it it worked That it worked it worked. Do you know what I mean? And I I think like, you know And we also so the main The main camera is is an old camera called the Fx35 I think sony which basically is yes one of sony's first cinema cameras Um, but it's based off. Uh, uh, 35 mil camera so It's kind of the closest to film you can get in a digital camera. So but Sort of that's why quite a lot of the highlights We're not used to having a camera with such little dynamic range and so we were trying to this is the first time we Myself and courtney bought the camera and this was the first like proper job that we had it on so we were kind of like oh god, we're we're trying to work it out as we go and it's um, but like in reality it was yeah and like all all the all the crew brought their uh important others flowers home from set which I think You know soften the blow of getting home at past midnight after cleaning up 32 000 flowers That's incredible Yeah, so but I think like I think this again like I grew up my first kind of Uh step into directing was live music and rather than doing music videos, I used to do a lot of live sessions, so um, there's actually one after which I think is kind of I That alongside lewis I actually funnily Did work with lewis on when back at the beginning of his career when he was brit nominated for rising star And I had to do three live sessions in one day and it was lewis capaldi Mahalia and sam fender and and neither well lewis didn't remember me obviously because I Was you know, yeah, you were nobody Yeah, I was no one so so it was quite a nice moment for me doing this video for like his comeback single he obviously like had his health problems and took two years away and kind of came back and and this video was part of that sort of Comeback where he released the single played glastonbury and then this video came out and it was just nice to be involved Like i've been going to glastonbury since I was zero years old with my mother. So um To have to be a part of this moment was so lovely full circle Yeah, and and again uh, I think with my live sessions I kind of like to Bring something unique to it It's not just someone in a room performing which I have done because you have to but like with this one It was it was really important to like chrysanthemums the the sort of like spiritual meaning of the flower is like hope and sort of looking forward and and sort of having a more positive outlook on life and And with what lewis has gone through that's why this flower was chosen