“Given Ange’s vision for the look and feel was so strong from the get go, it was my job in pre-production to help build on that with more specific ideas on shots and performance moments that would accent the story beats. On set, for me it was all about helping Ange find the right tone for her performance and working with our DOP Michael to make sure we were capturing everything true to the references and story beats we’d laid out.”

Angeline remarks on how they initiated working together,

“Hamish actually jumped in on our ‘Teardrop’ music video as a last minute editor after two editors fell through … from one afternoon of editing together I immediately could tell that we spoke the same sort of language and gravitated towards the same aesthetics, pacing and ideas.”

Telenova is the thematic brainchild of the lead singer, her keen taste and visceral expression of ideas reverberates through the brand’s social media presence and curation. She is a collector of authentic creatives with the drive of a director. She reflects that she normally approaches music videos personally, listening to the song with herself, trying to find new angles, however this music video breaks tradition. Enter Zoee Marsh, an extremely well practised movement director and choreographer who focuses on deeply thoughtful, expressive dance. Zoee and Ange have a longstanding collaboration, the movement coach having already worked on several of Telenova‘s music videos already, they have deep creative familiarity and fluid communication. This kind of collaboration is the kind that releases creativity through a profound mutual understanding, Ange raves about the wordless communication and shared passions on movement and art, and playful dance:

“I was literally in a dance studio mucking around with this song with my friend and choreographer Zoee … Every time the chorus hit we were playing with these shaky crazy jazz hands like almost vibrating around our heads – this feeling of thoughts and anxieties closing in in a playful silly way – and that was really the seed of the music video idea – how the anxious ‘voices’ in your head might be embodied visually by dancers.”

With the themes of crumbling self-worth effectively communicated through dance, we feel the pumping dance music alongside a coordinated, chaotic panic. The stylish dancers and fellow auditioners taunt protagonist Angeline, digging into the fresh sting of rejection. In the waiting room they peer with judgement, her own style is echoed throughout their clothing and movements, versions of herself, challenging her. As the protagonist is tossed and vaulted throughout the space, we as viewers sense her selfhood subjected to probing questions: Who are you? Do you belong here? Can you compete with the confidence in this room? There are multiple moments where the dancers encircle Angeline, caving into her, as the lyrics vocalise “What a funny kind of prison”. When asked about pose construction, movement coach Zoee Marsh comments:

“That came to fruition after a lot of trial and error, sketches, me dancing around pretending to be Ange in my lounge room and having collaborative chats with the team in the early stages. As the intensity of being in Ange’s head progresses through the clip I felt that the waiting room choreography needed to mirror that … I wanted to create a beautiful disco ball inspired cave with the dancers for her to break through before jumping into the next scene where all the dancers are charging forward in perfect lines!”

The clip balances multiple elements. Intercutting dance, music performance and narrative throughout two locations, structure, planning is integral to the success of such a music video. There were multiple organisations that assisted in pulling together the ideas: Producer Lauren Nichols of Porkstore Productions brought with her a readymade crew and organised a 38ft Technocrane from ARR productions. Aforementioned choreographer Zoee Marsh sourced a cast of practised dancers to be Ange’s doppelgangers. Stylist Madeline Assi worked with Ange’s moodboard, interpreting it into a uniform style guide and a 10-page brief that would guide the dancers in the clothes they brought to set. She collated a range of hair clips and bows and silver accessories that would tie the range of outfits together. And Michael Lincoln giving his expertise when planning shots and corralling the list of gear together to achieve the idea. We asked Michael, the cinematographer, about the style and equipment that helped him achieve it:

“As soon as I heard we had 30 dancers in a big ol’ studio – we started looking into getting some kind of crane that could give us some big dynamic movements as well as achieve the top-down choreography shots … We had two distinct worlds we wanted to create for this clip; the dry, corporate office & hallway scenes and the dreamy discotheque world. The studio gave us a big blank canvas on which to use our own lighting to change the space very quickly with coloured LEDs provided by Filmstar Lighting & gaffed by Michael Hales. It also gave us a great contrast between the dancers and the background whichever angle we were looking at and allowed us to get some of those graphic dancing flower shapes.”

He continues to describe the vision of tapping into an old Hollywood vibe, utilising raw tungsten studio lights in the end of the clip to relate to the visual themes within the first audition scene. When capturing the music video, Co-Director Hamish Macgregor explains that they shotlisted carefully, listening to the visions of Angeline, the transitions, but ultimately when it came down to the day, this crew of carefully picked, efficient workers, knew that flexibility and listening to the choreography as it played out, was the key to success. Hamish recounts:

“We had ideas for how we would capture specific moments and Ange knew she wanted certain key dance moments to play out in these high and wide shots that would look very graphic on camera. We also wrote a shotlist … but a lot of it we discovered in the dance rehearsals which we filmed with an iphone and made an animatic that we used to brief the heads of department. Naturally there was also a bunch of stuff we discovered on the day. Once we got the crane up and running it opened up a bunch of possibilities and new ideas.”

This film set was a professional and passionate merging of like-minded people. It shows the fruits of a team who individually value both craft and artistic direction. With the championing ideas from Telenova, and a deep creative understanding of an interconnected, well practised network, we have a strenuous and succinct music video with YouTube comments raving about the talent clearly present on screen. Throughout the interview, Ange emphasises the idea of “speaking the same language” when choosing creative collaborators. This phrase stresses that in creative projects, shared interests makes for a fluidity and ease of communication, that it enables a deep sense of artistic agreement and further creative potential.

Telenova’s latest album Time is A Flower is set to release August 16th with Discotheque Inside My Head as track 9 on the 12 song album. You can listen to Discotheque Inside My Head now on all major streaming services along with associated singles Teardrop and Power, and pre-order Telenova’s debut album on limited edition vinyl or digital download at www.telenovamusic.co. 

Here is the official video for “Discothèque Inside My Head“

Music Video Credits

Production Company – Porkstore Productions. Written by – Angeline Armstrong. Co-Director – Angeline Armstrong. Co-Director – Hamish MacGregor. Producer – Lauren Nichols. DP – Michael Lincoln. Choreographer – Zoe Marsh. 1st AD – Grace Quinn. Production Assist – Ruby Thomas. 1st AC – Agatha Lee. Gaffer – Michael Hales. Best Person – Alec Barnett. Technocrane Operator – Jacko Panagiotou. Technocrane Operator – Antonio Riaola. Stylist – Madeline Assi. Hair/Make Up – Em Stacey. Hair/Make Up Assist – Lily Dowling. Production Designer – Annika Rigg. Art Assist – Dakota Hull. Art Assist – Fifi Aitken. Sound Recordist – Josh Peters. BTS Shooter – Meg Siejka. Editor – Emily Robb. VFX – Ryan Brett. Colourist – Ted Deacey. Online Editor – Ted Deacey. Dancers – Angeline Armstrong, Tracey Trinh, Deanne Francisco, Melissa Pham, Shayna Cua. Ariana Andrews, Bek Coates, India Thomas. Nic Sanders, Celina May, Sam Bruzzese, Amelie Piccinin, Xiao Zhu, Nikki Green, Lachlan Draper. Hannah Kirkby, Zoe Meede, Lachlan Purcell, Kevin Nguyen, Nirel Hardjosewoyo, Lulu Mckenzie, Cheyenne Griggs, Erin Taube, Lilac Pedraza, Briain Dixon, Eleni Geysen, Lulu Pye, Ebony Muraca, Briana McGeary, Claudia Bolam, Emily Bauer, Alice Fittock, Reika Ozeki, Arjun Tiwari.