The Duo Explains: Bearcraft - 'Where the Sun Sets'
Paul Johnson of Say Goodnight Films and Dicky Moore of Bristol-based collective Bearcraft talk to us about collaborating together for Bearcraft’s haunting and cinematic music video, ‘Where the Sun Sets’.
Where was the video for ‘ ‘ filmed?
Paul Johnson, Say Goodnight Films: The video was shot in different parts of my house with my house-mate in Bethnal Green, East London.
How does the video connect with the song?
Bearcraft - My sister, Syd Moore, asked me to write the song after I was inspired by her novel, the Drowning Pool. So it's about that. I spoke with Say Goodnight films about the novel and the story behind the song so they could reference that in the video they made. The novel itself is about a real-life witch who lived in the 1800s where my sister and I grew up. My sister researched her story loads and found out a lot of the tragic truth behind her story, which wasn't, of course, in the sensationalised legend.
Paul Johnson -After a chat with Dicky, he explained to us that the song was inspired by a book written by his sister. We did some research on the story and how it was about a woman experiencing strange visions of a witch who happened to also be her namesake. So with the limitation of lockdown and just having myself, my house mate and my old VHS camera I thought we could do something related to the story and the main character having 2 sides to her, the witch and herself. We combined images and played with multi exposures that represented the two worlds coming together as if she was becoming possessed by her previous self.
Do you have any behind the scenes stories you could share with us?
Bearcraft - Say Goodnight films and I were discussing the concepts in the video when we were all suddenly forced into lockdown. I asked them "is it possible we can still make the video? How could we possibly make it without you being able to leave the house". And they're geniuses, they really are. They came up with an amazing concept which could be filmed in their house, outside it and on the roof, with their housemates. It really portrays the claustrophobic atmosphere that you can imagine the protagonist of the novel suffering, whilst being haunted by the ghost of the witch.
Paul Johnson - We shot this over a few days, each night we would do a couple of extra hours or wake up early to get that morning sunrise light. It was very fun to shoot, and I thoroughly enjoyed the limitation of one location, one camera and one actress. Often limitations allow for more creative ideas to flow, and it was definitely the case for this video.
Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
There is no real message to the video as such. We just wanted to do the song justice with visuals that represented the feeling the music gave us while listening to it. So there are some nice parts where we see the main character dancing too, because whether the character is a ghost or not, it is a great song to dance to!
Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
All in all, it was a pleasure to work with Dicky and this track, and it is a video that we are very proud of!
Interview by Karla Harris