The Band Explains: Geppetto & The Whales - 'Faust' (Video)
Geppetto & The Whales chat to us about the visuals for their latest single ‘Faust’.
Where was the video for 'Faust' filmed?
We shot the video at an old military base in the north of Antwerp. One of the most beautiful, relatively unknown nature reserves in this region.
How does the video connect with the song? (if at all)
In the video, we’ve combined our own interpretation of the lyrics with some memories from the childhood of the songwriter. We started with the face of the actor, in which there’s a certain distorted melancholy. The mood the video definitely should have, because the song exhales it. Soon we saw images of him limping through nature in an oversized suit. We then chose to show the resistance of a boy who feels maturity approaching. An ode to youthful freedom.
Any noteworthy behind the scenes stories?
We shot a big part of the video on a cold rainy afternoon, not the best conditions to make a video in which fire plays an important role. We shot all the fire shots in two minutes.
The water was freezing cold but the actor managed to stay in the water for half an hour. Luckily we had a stabilizer with us, otherwise all shots would have failed because of a shaky cameraman.
There is a shot in the video in which the actor dances on a dirty trap song. Sometimes improvisation leads you far away.
Could you tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
The main themes we had to play with where childhood against adulthood. Thanks to the great improvisational skills of our actor it was easy for us to set a certain playground for us to work in. We tried to work with almost nothing but natural lighting. So because we had only one shooting day we had to be sure of the locations to be perfect in the given light of day.
The opening scene (in the backseat of the car), is the only time we really tried to hint at some clear narrative. But by not showing the driver it’s never clear what it really means. The whole film could be a daydream.
Is there a message the video is trying to convey? / What do you hope people take away from watching the video?
It wasn’t our intention to tell a clear cut story in the hopes that people would understand the narrative. Most of all we wanted to portray the inner world of our protagonist, a young boy on the edge of becoming an adult and playfully balancing in between the eternal child and the formalities of becoming an adult. We see him trying to smoke and making phone calls, but also fighting an imaginary war in the forest and experiencing nature like some adults forgot to do (observing a spider web, dancing in the field, bathing in a lake,..).
If we were to put a message in this video it would be to remind yourself not to get caught up too much in your adult life, and to let the young kid break free again.