Caviar's Keith Schofield Puts Darwin Deez In The Stocks

Caviar's Keith Schofield Puts Darwin Deez In The Stocks

It's safe to say that a new pop promo from Caviar director Keith Schofield is always a big deal. The innovative director has always erred on the side of the provocative with his video output, from the outrageously enjoyable 'SFW XXX' for Diesel to the more recent Duck Sauce promo 'The Big Bad Wolf', featuring ladies and gents with extraordinary … er … appendages.


For his latest output, the immediately popular 'You Can't Be My Girl' for artist Darwin Deez, Schofield has scoured the lifestyle stock-video archives and inserted the distinctive artist into a heart-breaking narrative. Ambitious, inventive and laugh-out-loud funny, the promo yet again confirms the director as a standout in the field. We managed to get a few questions over to Keith to delve into his pop promo process.

It's been a little while since the award winning 'Big Bad Wolf' and 'This Head I Hold'. Why the break? How do you pick which promos to shoot?

I'm not particularly picky when it comes to bands; but I have a hard time pitching if it's not some idea that I can get excited about. I'm always trying to do something I haven't seen in videos before; which gets harder and harder over the years.

How did the idea of using stock footage come about? Was it something you'd thought of before the video or did it emerge from hearing the track?

I had never thought of this concept before, but I've always felt like the genre of repurposing video clips had a lot more ideas left in it.

The first idea that popped into my head was compositing Darwin into a bunch of Wal-Mart and Target commercials. That quickly lead to the idea of stock footage, and after a little research I saw we could easily pull it off for the budget.
 

How much stock footage did you look through? Where did you source it?

Wayyyyy too much. At first it was funny, then depressing, then agonizing. I could rant for hours about how much terrible stuff is out there. It's mostly from pond5 - where some clips only cost $19 - and shutterstock.

Did any of the pieces of footage surprise you?

Yes. I actually briefly started a #StockFootage365 hashtag where I was tweeting the most bizarre stuff I came across.

Here's a sample:

Young woman running in to bathroom hallucinating spiders

Gay couple in financial trouble at home on sofa, dolly shot 

Hand Kick

How did you direct Darwin' reactions? Was he aware of what he'd be looking at / interacting with?

Yeah we had most of the video edited before we shot it. Most of my direction was "just stand there." In hindsight, maybe a bit one note.
 

The video isn't the first time you've manipulated existing footage. Was trawling the archives more fun for this or for the SFW XXX Diesel film?

I wouldn't call either trawling fun. Both became really tedious really quickly.

Were there any bits of footage you weren't able to include? Any that you searched for but couldn't find?

I tried putting in these two clips at the end but the label thought they were too much.

Woman applying moisturizer cream on buttock

Child hit by a car on the street

I was unable to find a good "woman in labor" scene for cheap; so that one clip is a pricey Getty Images piece.

Would you fancy shooting some stock footage for a bit of extra cash? Do you reckon you could suppress your style enough to achieve it?

I did think it would be funny to release all of the green screen clips we shot into stock footage, and then see if Darwin shows up in any local commercials. But I think if I DP'ed it myself I could possibly pull it off.

What's up next?

I have a Lucozade commercial coming out super soon that I'm really proud of.

Posted on 6th March 2013