Walls Behind-the-Scenes MTV Special
I don’t know if most people knew that MTV UK aired a longer making-of special for the Walls music video. It’s insightful and interesting, and the only copy I’ve seen was recorded on periscope on Twitter. These are the highlights (time refers to periscope). The original tweet was deleted, but the videos are now uploaded to Vimeo, part 1 and part 2.
0:53 Charlie Lightening mentions that logistically, it was easier to shoot in Morocco because the vastness of the space allowed them to build multiple large sets at once, so that all the shooting could be done in one day.
1:37 The foreman on the set states that 20 people worked on building the sets all at once.
2:25 Given the scale of the desert, Louis says that “naturally it feels more epic and more cinematic.”
3:23 Walls is a performance video, not narrative-driven like the previous three videos for KMM, WMI, and DLIBYH.
3:53 Charlie mentions that music videos of the 1990′s often had “surreal” elements. Both Charlie and Louis thought elements like the door in the middle of the desert made the video “dream, trippy, interesting visually.”
5:06 Louis sitting on the chair on the wall was his “favorite idea.” He and Charlie agreed on pulling the camera out to “reveal” the height of the chair.
6:04 Charlie mentions the iconic shot of Liam Gallagher sitting on the chair on the wall of the Oasis mv for Live Forever, which is a “strong visual.”
6:50 Charlie and Louis fool around very adorably on the set. Louis jokes that sitting on the chair has exacerbated his “recurring knee injury.”
7:42 Charlie mentions the epic skyline in the desert as the “sun’s going down, it’s getting cold” when they shoot the main performance of the band.
8:08 Louis says that the shot shows “me in the light of where I am now, it’s absolutely incredible.” “As we go through different dreamy rooms, each room representing a moment in my life, it’s important to show kind of who I am now.”
8:36 Charlie says he’s “always loved the bit at the end of 2001 (movie directed by Stanley Kubrick) “where the floor is a “big light box.” Charlie likes the contrast of the modern feel of the light box within the landscape of the desert, giving it an “otherworldly effect.” Lol at this Stanley Kubrick/2001 anon that I got the day after the music video came out.
9:19 Charlie and Louis explain that the whole video is a concept of reality vs. “outside of reality.” “Different moments in the video replicate different moments in my life.” “The middle 8″ is where the lyrics fit perfectly into his past in One Direction. It’s a nice transition as he’s “proud of where he came from” and the visuals “transition into me as an individual stepping into my own band.”
10:09 Louis jokes that in that particular shot, “Zayn looks shorter without the platform.” Charlie says, “It’s a performance video that still has little narrative bits.” Louis says fans love reading into the narrative, but the truth is the song is called Walls on an album called Walls and he’s sitting on a wall.
15:48 Louis says as with anything creative, you need to find a small group of people who understand you.
16:15 Charlie says Louis’ Walls videos were made in the “old school way of working with people to develop an idea creatively over several videos.”
17:00 Louis calls KMM “one of the most important singles and video moments of my career.” It was “written as a deliberate statement of intent” and was the first piece of narrative about the story of the “lad and girl.”
17:52 Louis talked about the DLIBYH music video as “different” for him because he was involved in the narrative itself. It was an “exciting day” full of “adrenaline.” He says that DLIBYH “answers the questions from the first two videos.
18:38 Louis talks about how he was always very “engaged” with One Direction’s music videos, but those videos “had to be relatable to 4-5 lads.” “Now I can have a say in how the video looks and get involved creatively.” It makes for long days!
19:29 The stage with the target was built specifically for the video shoot. In this scene, Louis describes “ballroom dancers around me and I’m kind of existing around them.” He then swerves into a discussion about his suit, which is unusual because he’s “been chavvy all my life and wears a suit three times a year.” He describes it as a “special treat for the fans.” “I love that. Fans love it.” Charlie gave the dancers notes prior to the filming, but he didn’t know what to expect before the filming.
20:08 Both Charlie and Louis describe the “red room” as a “throwback to KMM.” The “people wearing masks” evoked the “main character,” Joe, of KMM. “We’ve seen him in that mask.”
21:00 Louis describes the people in masks as feeling “trippy, scary, like a nightmare.” Charlies says that “seeing all the people wearing masks move as one” gives a “creepy feel.” It gives a nice contrast to Louis on the wall and the ballroom dancers.
21:19 The final scene filmed was the “fire” wall. Louis excitedly shouts, “Light it up! Now we’re talking!” Charlie describes it as “in keeping with the Walls element.”
22:03 Louis ponders that even though all the previous videos “have been amazing,” there is “something special about” the Walls video, with the fact that they had “purposefully built sets.” “It feels proper.”
Some nice gifs from this special: x x x
These gifs remind me of this funny post. Louis is so charming.
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