Girls Dreams

What's the purpose of a music video? Surely, it's to make you love a song even more than you do already, it's a collaboration between an artist and a director and it gives a band another medium through which to communicate their point of view—it's an underscoring and extension of their art. At least it should be. Sometimes these collaborations make you actually want to exist in said video, for all time. For instance, the promo for "1979" by the Smashing Pumpkins hits my sweet spot, because I'm in a permanent state of arrested devlopment, and drinking, dancing, and doing donuts with the windows down and the wind in your hair is a weekend ideal I'd like stretched to infinity and beyond. By the same token you can imagine how many ass-obsessed so-and-sos would like to live in Minaj's rump-rocking world of "Anaconda." To each his or her own, but as it happens, Kali Uchis's recent video for "Rush" actually bears traces of both "1979" and "Anaconda." In "Rush" there's plenty of free wheelin' road tripping goodness shot in bleachy-beautiful Super 8 (very "1979"). The vibe in the Pumpkins' video is very 70s (with a bit of the 90s thrown in too), while in "Rush" the styling is also totally 70s—think rainbow tops and high waisted everything—which means a lotta cute butts playing peekaboo in terry cloth short-shorts (and hello, butts equals "Anaconda"). OK, OK, this a pretty tenuous link, but below are several pertinent points to move forward with: 

1. Colombian-born Kali Uchis is divine and we've been raving about her finer points for months now. In her retro, silken soul—as exemplified on her EP Por Vida—she's at once sassy and lip-bitingly vulnerable. Then there's her platinum hair, that pinkified pout, and the threads she decides to encase those curves in. All of it: high fives. 

2. Additionally Noisey's been keeping a sly eye on photography/film duo Wiissa—that's 21 year old Vanessa and 22 year old Wilson, a real life couple and collaborative pair who originally hail from Miami, but now live in NYC. Currently they spend their time dreaming up images sweeter than the first lick of popsicle in Death Valley, displaying a sensibility tied to a time that fashion and art continues to exalt and pay homage to: the 60s and 70s. At last year's FYF they shot these awesome Warhol-style Polaroids of a choice selection artists backstage for Noisey, and more recently they've been making forays into the world of moving image, with directing credits including Karen O's "Day Go By" (watch below), and segments of Julian Casablancas + The Voidz's recent 13-minute opus of a video for "Human Sadness."

3. As part of Noisey's ongoing series Behind the Lens—which focuses on the artists behind the photos and videos, as well as exploring the partnership between the shooter and their subject—we tracked down Wiissa to talk Kali, Karen, and Jules, plus how they function as a creative-romantic force. Check out these exclusive behind the scenes shots from "Rush," and more of their projects below.

Strut! Jennie, Kali, Natasha, and Brilliant.



Wiissa: Kali pre-shooting on Rudy’s car. 
 

Wiissa: The last day of our trip to LA, we hung out with Kali around her neighborhood and got the last few shots. 

 

Wiissa: The car kept stalling and running out of gas, so we had to push it down the road a few times so we could get it out of the way.



Vanessa armed with her Super 8 which Kali's video was filmed on.

Noisey: How did you get involved with Kali Uchis and how collaborative the partnership regarding both the vision of the video and its styling? 

Wiissa: We actually made a video with Kali's good friend Natasha (who's also in the "Rush" music video) a while back in LA. Kali apparently saw the video and then emailed us back in December to make a music video for her! The process of getting the idea for the video took a while, we sent a few different treatments at first. We went through a bunch of song options to make the video too, and then one day Kali sent us "Rush" and we knew it was the one. We then starting bouncing ideas back and forth with Kali over the next couple months. We started getting into an adventure road trip idea, and Wilson and I started thinking about some Thelma and Louise vibes. Kali then sent us a scene from Death Proof and that became the main inspiration! We came and stayed in LA for a week to plan and to shoot, and a lot of the other parts of the video were more spontaneous when we were there. 

 

We did all of the styling for the main part of the video in the desert, using a bunch of amazing Stoned Immaculate Vintage pieces. Kali styled herself for the other parts of the video. 

 

What were your references for the aesthetic and styling of the shoot? 

We compiled a bunch of reference images for the shoot, but Quentin Tarantino was definitely a huge inspiration for all of us. We're really into the 60s and 70s in terms of styling and the time's colorfulness. We also shot on Super 8, which is our favorite and was a huge part of the aesthetic. 



Brilliant, Kali, Natasha and Jennie on set. 

 

Wiissa: Kali right before we filmed her lying on the car as it was driving. Most of those clips are filmed in slow motion, they were actually driving pretty fast! She was casually chilling on the hood, no straps or anything. 
 

Wiissa: This super sweet guy with an amazing car pulled over and helped us out! He introduced himself to us as Choco-dile Dundee a.k.a. Sexual Chocolate. He had some extra gasoline and filled our car up. He actually fit so perfectly in the video with his Tarantino vibez, and was really happy to be apart of it! 

 

Wiissa: We were trying to figure out where to film the bridge of the song for a while, and we all spontaneously decided to head to the beach and see what we could get there. 

 

Continues below.

[[recommended]]

 

You guys are a real life couple but what came first: working together, then love, or the other way round? 

Love first! We actually met at 14 and 15 so work wasn't really on our mind.

 

Does this mean you discuss concepts lying in bed? And what is the best part of working with your best friend?
Haha yes, definitely! We get so excited about making new projects that we kinda talk about it all the time. Working with your best friend is really the best, it makes what you do everyday so fun! And we completely understand each other, so it's great to have a shoulder to lean on when things get kinda shitty. 

 

How long have you been working together? 

Working came about out pretty gradually, but we did it together since the beginning. We've been together for almost seven years, but I think we started messing with photography and film more seriously probably about five years ago.

 

What other projects have you done  that you're especially proud of? 

Making a music video for Karen O (below) was definitely a dream come true, we have loved her music for so long! It was a simple love story, very similar to our own actually, and filmed in our hometown with our best friends, Amanda and Lucas. The Polaroid project we did for Noisey at FYF was also so much fun to do! We got to meet so many of our favorite musicians when hanging out in the artist area to take portraits (including Daft Punk—AHH!).
 

Behind the scenes shots from the Karen O's video for "Day Go By":
 

Wiissa: This is a spot in our hometown in Miami that we’d always hang out at when we first met. It’s still an empty lot after seven years! 

Wiissa: Sunsets at our spot.
 

Wiissa: CVS security cam shot of the four of us before shooting the Karen O video. Matching was sooo not on purpose. 

Wiissa: Both Amanda and Lucas had never ridden a moped so we had to do a few test runs before filming. They were naturals though. 
 

You've contributed to Julian Casablancas + The Voidz's 13 minute mega-video for "Human Sadness." Your parts were very much in keeping with your Super 8 aesthetic but what else can you tell me about the experience?

We've been long time fans and were so honored and excited when Julian asked us to work on it! We art directed the white room performance scene and it was great to hear them play the song so many times live, it’s so epic! We directed a scene at sunset with Julian and Juliet [his wife], shot on Super 8. That part of the song was our favorite, it's like a little break from the chaotic-ness and the section right before things really start to get intense. We shot that pretty quickly with just the four of us on the beach and got to see a perfect sunset.

 

Watch the "Human Sadness" here and read our interview with fellow director Warren Fu

 

We also directed Beardo’s “Back 2 The Motel” scene. We chose the seediest-looking motel we could find and were the only people in the motel, other than the owner. We were filming in a room and all of a sudden the hotel owner, a little Korean woman, slams on our door. She stormed into the room, seeing piles of fake money all over the place, Jeramy chilling with his guitar, two go-go dancers, and pink lights everywhere. We can only imagine what she thought must have been going on… She quickly kicked us out of the place, threatening to call the cops but luckily we had gotten most of the shots before she came in, so it all worked out! 
 

Wiissa: FYF behind the scenes shooting Julian Casablancas. We brought a white sheet around with us so we could take pictures anytime anywhere. TEAMWORK.

 

Wiissa: Wilson and Vanessa shot by Tami Snodgrass.
 

And finally what do you have coming up?

We're taking some time to work on a few personal projects, including a short film inspired by groupies of the 60s and 70s! Other than that, we have our eyes set on a few bands we really want to work with, so hopefully we can get some of that going.

 
Wiissa are repped by Nouvelle Vague. 
 

More Wiissa here. 

 

Kim Taylor Bennett would like to live in Wiissa's high-waisted, sun-faded world. She's on Twitter. 

 

from NOISEY RSS Feed http://ift.tt/1JiuCoZ

Share on Google Plus

About Unknown

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.