Creatives-Turned-Directing Team on Invisible Hula Hoops & Crucial Casting

Josh King and Felix Heyes are two creatives who have just released their first piece of work as a directing duo.

King, who works at W+K Shanghai on Nike, and Heyes, a creative working on Rimmel at BETC in London, are friends who, depsite the distance between them, regularly combine to brainstorm ideas and, after being approached by 60s Thai-funk-influenced band Khruangbin, created a brilliantly strange promo for the track, Evan Finds The Third Room, that features a Chinese woman strutting through the streets of Shanghai with an invisible hula hoop. Yes, you read that right.

Below, Heyes tells us about the origins of the video and how getting wasted and grading ideas is a perfect creative pastime. 

Above: Felix Heyes, left, and Josh King

Where did the idea for the Evan Finds The Third Room video come from?

Khruangbin wanted a music video that would make people smile, the band were open minded as to how we got there. After listening to the track a few times we couldn't sit still. It was clear the video needed some sort of happy movement. 

We shared a few rounds of work with Laura [Lee, Khruangbin bassist] then one night our mate, Chris Miller [the film's choreographer], got pissed and did an invisible hula-hoop dance. Everyone liked it, so we wrote a short story about a sweet old lady who finds an invisible hoop, and her wiggly journey through Shanghai with it.

Were you inspired by other films/videos/directors?

Yeah, massively. Skream's You Know, Right [below] is the first that comes to mind.

Tell us about the casting; where did you find the main hula-hooping lady and why was she right for the part?

We got help with casting from a good friend of Josh’s in Shanghai. Our brief was pretty short in the end - Cute older lady, in her 70s, can move her hips. Eight people came back to us, but only one looked like Han-Li. We watched her reel and 22 seconds in we knew she was it.

Above: Hula Hooping Han-Li practices her craft.

What did you shoot on and how long did it take?

It was all kept pretty lo-fi so we didn’t distract from our star. One camera, a couple of lenses, a body-rig we didn’t really use and a little bluetooth speaker to keep everyone dancing. Then, seven hours of hips. 

How did you prepare for this shoot?

Asked lots of questions and got to places on time.

What was the most challenging part of the filming process?

Deciding where to go for lunch.

How did the two of you get together as a team and what's your approach to directing?

Josh and I met at Kingston university, while stealing pub food and feeding it to swans, and the first thing we made together was a rooftop mini-golf course. 

We've never really talked about how we work, but a little while back we were part of a small collective of smelly boys called King-Zog and, in it, we used to grade ideas. First, we'd get wasted and then write or draw every idea we could think of. Then, the day after, we'd lay them all out and grade each one, marking the work from 'kindergarten' to 'graduation', and binning the dumb ideas on the way. Sounds weird written down, but it seemed to work alright. And you can do it anytime, from anywhere, and with anyone you want involved. So, it's what we try to do now.

Why we work together:

Because we both love Elvis and the internet.

What are you working on next?

Trying to pass a handshake around the world.