It would be interesting to know how the partnership came about and how it works – do you have different strengths?
CLE: Nelson and I have been good friends for a while and have constantly found ourselves helping on each other’s videos. I have edited a few of his and he has either art directed or consulted on mine. I think we realized that we were excited by the same kind of ideas and decided to give this co-directing thing a go.
NdC:It’s refreshing. Co-directing gives you a new perspective on the process. Its a nice counter balance to working solo, and it’s been fun seeing how our styles blend.
Do you think a like? Nelson is amazing at working out precise crazy timing- so are you Carlos!
NdC:Our backgrounds and minds are surprisingly similar – apparently we both spent summers in the same remote part of Canada while growing up. Maybe that explains it.
CLE: It all comes down to having been brought up on MTV and seeing a lot of Michel Gondry videos while growing up. I don’t think we actually have any original ideas.
So this isn’t a one off, you’ve got more planned?
CLE&NdC: Yes! Nothing we can share yet, but we are finding more projects to work together on. We are also each doing our individual thing; so it’s just a matter of finding the projects that we think would benefit from the collaboration.
And Carlos. You’ve signed to Black Dog in the UK. Great. What’s on the cards there?
CLE: Yes. They’ve been incredibly supportive and I am very excited to start this new chapter with them.
Hook N Sling, Break Yourself
Directed by Nelson de Castro and Carlos Lopez Estrada
Produced by Zach Wechter
EP: Danielle Hinde for Doomsday Entertainment
Director of Photography: Niko Wiesnet
Production Designer: Britt Keller
Editor: Taylor Brusky
VFX: Tim Hendrix
Stylist: Jordy Scheinberg
AD: Genghis Jorgensen
Production Manager: Jocelyn Webber
Production Coordinator: Alissa Torvinen