Just signed to The Sweet Shop, Luci Schroder’s surreal film for Melbourne band Alpine is picking up awards on the festival circuit including just being named on the Young Director Award’s shortlist.

How did the concept for the music video Hands first come about and how did you evolve it into the narrative?

The concept started out from the idea of making out with your hand. What you might do when you’re alone thinking about someone. I’d actually written it into a short film idea, but thought it was just a pretty iconic thing and really emotional and would work for a clip. It manifested into a surreal narrative around a colony of girls, a little Lord of the Flies, meets a marshmallow, meets a zombie film, meets Sasha Grey’s little sister.

Were you drawing on early teenage memories?

Always and definitely.

Love the style of the shoot. What were the main challenges of the production?

The two biggest contenders really, time and budget, sourcing the location, meeting and finding all the girls, clothing them, feeding them. Keeping them happy. Also set dressing and having time to sleep. It was this weird, amazing chaos. But everyone was feeding off each other.

Did you work closely with the band on the film or did they give you creative freedom?

They gave me a lot of freedom and trust during the treatment and production process which was really good.

What led you to directing?

I’ve always loved making things, but it took me a while to work out that it was directing. I dreamt about being a painter since I was small, but I found it too solo. I spent a lot of my early life sitting in front of TV screens. I’ve been fairly over stimulated visually and sonically from an early age, but film captivated me in a really residual way. I’m fascinated by human emotions, and cultural behaviours. It’s such a powerful medium, and the collaborative nature of it is really appealing, the places you go and the people you meet. I want to do it everyday.

What’s the best advice anyone has given you about film making?

“No one knows it like you know it. ”

Apart from Alpine ‘Hand”s what work are you most proud of and why?

Donny Benet (see Related Content) – I made it on a tiny budget during Alpine. I had big dreams for it, and had a series of crazy disasters on a shoot. Brakes failing in the knight rider car with the talent inside on the freeway, models dropping out, ridiculous location issues, weather issues, almost everything that could go wrong did, it was very guerilla, but we were crying with laughter on the day, we weren’t sure if it was because it was funny or we were just really sleep deprived, we shot about 3/4 of what was planned, but it came close. We ended up with a good end product considering the craziness.

Also a new film for Nick Knight of ShowStudio , for his current season on Fashion Fetish. The film is called Love is a State of Mind, it’s due out June 21. (Standby for news of this next week.)

LINKS:

The Sweet Shop