Sam Brown

Sam Brown Interview

Sam Brown is a multi-award winning director who transcends various styles and genres of the moving image. He has worked with music names that we all know; from Foo Fighters to James Blunt to The Verve and produces quality videos which, in his words, “Bring out the best in the artist”. I couldn’t agree more; Sam seems to have a gift for capturing artists in a very personal and endearing way, with none of the glam & glitz that Hollywood-made MV’s tend to have the look of.

youtube : Foo Fighters - The Pretender

- Can you tell us about what you do and your relationship with Flynn productions?

S: My relationship with Flynn started with me making tea for them and answering the phone; things like that and it must have been around 8 years ago. Over time, I started editing scripts and would work for directors who would come to me with a seed of an idea. I would then try and create a script from their ideas. Two to three years after joining the company, I started to direct the types of videos that no-one else wanted to do on terrible budgets; stuff like really cheesy House tracks. I slowly worked my way up, making slightly bigger and bigger budget projects.

myspace video : The Verve - Love Is Noise

- Do you try to follow any particular concepts or try to adhere to any ‘rules’ when film-making?

S: As far as my work goes, I wouldn’t say that there are any particularly strong concepts. It’s not healthy to get stuck in one way of doing things and I think each artist you work with has to be approached differently. There are certain styles that I like, that may go on to influence my work, but I really try to make the effort to approach my work differently, treating each one with their own merits. Generally, I’m not so interested in post-production or pushing film in a technological way. I’m interested in getting the best performance out of the artist that you possibly can; that’s the strongest thing you can do for them.

myspace video : The Hours -- Love You More

- Recently, you have been making TV commercials as well. Is this something you want to explore more?

S: I have always been a music video (MV) director and that’s how I started, but I have a family now; I’ve got two children so it’s a lot harder to make a career out of purely MV’s. Especially in this country, where budgets are slipping and people don’t seem to be prepared to spend as much money on videos as they once were. In this country, the going fee for the director is 10% of the budget, so if the budget is dwindling then so will your income. So I have had to start making commercials and at first, I found it to be a real chore, but now I’m really enjoying it!

youtube : Nike Panna KO

For any young director, I think it’s important to balance decent commercials that pay well and that allows you to have money to expand your own ‘craft’ and take on new ideas and new bits of kit; and balance that with music videos that you want to make.

- You just mentioned that MV budgets are dwindling, can the same be said for TV Commercial budgets?

S: I haven’t noticed any dip in budgets for commercials at all. However, I’ve only been doing them seriously for about 3 years, so my experience is still limited. But I do know that at the high-end of commercials, an obscene amount of money is still being spent.

youtube : Nike Panna KO Pt2

- What are the important factors for an MV director to continue to be progressive in this field?

S: I think that MV’s permit the director to be progressive as they allow for complete creative control. They come to you with a track, they ask if you like it or not. You say yes, they then ask for an idea. You give it to them whole with no development and they either like it or they don’t. This then allows you to direct your won idea completely unfettered with no external input; just your personal idea manifested. It’s a very spontaneous artform, where you can get ideas out really quickly. So anything you are influenced by, like things from popular culture, will inevitably feature in your video and wouldn’t have had time yet to look outdated. TV commercials or feature films might lag from months to even years behind popular culture. The term, ‘Progressive’ can also be dangerous as it can lead to directors trying to use too many gimmicks or having to rely on technology with their camera tricks etc.

- Can you tell us about some of the artists you have worked with and/or any memorable projects you have worked on?

S: Some of my favourite stuff has been in the earlier days when I had no money and no time and in a way that’s the stuff I’m most proud of. Back in the day, I didn’t have as much money or help. One of my favourite videos was an MV I shot for a band called The Doves. It was one of the first videos that I felt it best represented me and what I was about. In a way, I look at it now and it makes me cringe slightly, as there are things that I would do differently now but I’m very proud of it as it was done on hardly any money.

youtube : The Doves - The Man Who Told Everything

Recently, there have been a few jobs that have technically, been very difficult where I feel that I have overcome extreme technical challenges to make them happen. One of them was for James Blunt; it didn’t feel like it was the most glamorous projects on paper and I wasn’t really feeling the music at that time. He had to jump from a 50ft tall precipice into the sea and on paper, it seemed like a simple video to shoot, but in reality, the technical challenge of it was very difficult. In the end, it was a very successful video and it did a lot for his career as well. More recently, there was an MV I did for a band called Get Cape Wear Cape Fly; it required hundreds of tubes of exploding powder in sequence to the music and was really difficult to choreograph.

vimeo : James Blunt - You are beautiful

We had to write all these mathematical programmes to make the tubes explode in a very tight sequence. I tall ended looking really good and I’m also very proud of that MV.

- Is there a particular genre of music that you prefer to make MV’s for?

S: I don’t think there is. I listen to all kinds of music and I do think that it’s very healthy to try and have on your portfolio a range of both commercial and underground music. What is interesting is that when I first got into this career, there was a lot of scope to do more electronic-based MV’s, for genres like House music and Garage. In the last few years, it’s gone round to bands again; bands like the White Stripes paved the way for a lot other bands coming through. But overall, I am happy to work with throw away pop to speed metal!

Website : www.flynnproductions.com

Written by Selph