The Band Explains: The Hallows - 'Element' (Video)

Enchanting alternative pop three-piece The Hallows speak to us about the ideas behind their ethereal and dreamy single and fairy tale inspired visuals for current single, 'Element'
'Element' is out now and taken from the band's upcoming album 'Of Time and Tides' out August 29th.

The Hallows Explain:
Where was the video filmed?
The video was filmed over multiple locations made available by friends and family - we also used our own home for some of the sequences (as well as locations in our home town of Newport Pagnell). We used a well known mural in the town as a backdrop for a sequence in one of the storylines and it would be immediately recognisable to anyone who lives in the local area.
The video was shot over the course of a year and often needed to be rescheduled due to bad weather... it taught us to avoid shooting outdoors as much as possible in the future... it was ironic that the video for a song called 'Element' was in the end so disrupted by the elements!

How does the video compliment the song?
We always felt that our song 'Element' had an ethereal and dreamy quality to its sound and this really lent itself to an atmospheric and story driven video. We debated lots of different concepts for the storyline but our early ideas seemed a little too abstract. We collectively (the band, Luke Robinson and Rebecca Handley) developed the idea gradually and eventually we settled on a subversive take of some well known fairytales. Luke did a great job of matching the pacing of the video to the arrangement of the song whilst also creating some beautiful pay-off sequences to conclude each story. Luke made it possible for us to make an incredibly low budget video that has much higher production value than we could have hoped for... the man is a wizard!

Any behind the scenes stories?
We came across quite a few challenges whilst making this video, many of which were the result of poor weather or sometimes poor planning on our part. Whilst we were shooting the night sequence of Cinderella (played by Victoria Stevenson) we were beset by gale force winds and intermittent rain that really played havoc with the shoot. Our all round trouble shooter Becky Handley had to wrestle with light boxes that were catching the wind, threatening an unintended "Mary Poppins" style cameo. We also tried to shoot the night sequence of the Red Riding Hood storyline on the longest day of the year, which meant our shooting was delayed by several hours... we felt pretty stupid about not having realised the date.

Our Bass player (Dave Pugh) had to undergo the most arduous of make-up sessions to transform him into the wolf for the Red Riding Hood storyline and he was in "Make-up" for around 3 hours to get it just right. This was torturous enough, however the real horror began when he had to peel all the latex off at the end of the shoot and nearly removed his entire face... footage of this harrowing event will be included as part of a video of outtakes that will be released in the near future. This blooper reel will also feature our handsome Prince Charming (played by Sarah's brother James Croft) doing some very disturbing shoe sniffing... you will never watch the original video in quite the same way again...

Tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
The theme is derived from some of the best known and well loved fairytales. We wanted to ensure that there were lots of clues for the viewer to pick up on helping them to identify the story being told prior to the ending reveal. It was also important that the video have a modern and slightly gritty feel to give it an intriguing twist. We hope that the imagery that we have used becomes more apparent on repeated viewing, as there are some very subtle clues hidden amongst the various scenes. There is even an unintended eater egg that links this first video to the video for our next single...

What is the message the video is trying to convey?
The idea for the overriding message is taken from the lyric in the song "seeing everything, as it really should be" - we wanted to hide the nature of the stories being told and then suddenly and dramatically bring them back to their fairytale roots with a payoff that is totally out of place in the real world. We want the song to convey a message that challenges people to look a little bit deeper and to not take things at face value, whilst also encouraging the listener to be hopeful and optimistic about seeing things from a different point of view. Ultimately this is a song that was written with a very special person in mind who has had a huge impact on Sarah's life and is ultimately a celebration of those people in our lives that are both inspirational and irreplaceable.

Interview feature by Karla Harris