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London, United Kingdom

Bijoux Boy - A personal story

Back in the early days a video was made by a surrealist film maker called Maya Deren it showed a beautiful woman in palazzo pants chasing a grim reaper figure with a mirrored face into a house the house was full of objects you might find in a reoccurring dream, an Escher staircase, the film itself turned out to be a reoccurring nightmare it's called meshes of the afternoon and it stayed in my minds eye forever after. Along with Jan Svenkmajer and Rene Margritte I begun to talk with my friend and co producer Chris Kelly about making a little film that addresses surrealism to go with the song bijoux boy. I started writing the treatment and realised that the film was going to deal with my own past, becoming transfixed on another then crushing them slowly. 
I abhor the genre of the music video which is why I refer to it as a music film. The artform has become lost in sticky contrived cliches which usually involve a band in a forest singing to camera. I've never understood why as creatives, musicians dont take more ownership in their artistic output. The art doesn't end once the song is recorded. For me it bleeds into every facet of what I do. Which is why I made the costume, wrote the story, created a set and lighting design based on Clouzots L'enfer, painted my face and set about finding a beautiful Jewish prince to play the role of Bijoux Boy. Who for two days was permanently coveted in glitter, head to toe.
As the vision got bigger and more elaborate, Chris and I realised we needed professional advice We asked Umut Gunduz to come in and direct the film with me, and Laura Bellingham to be our Director of Photography. The film started to look a lot more professional and then Tom Werber came in to edit and carfeully hack down two full days worth of footage into 3 minutes 46 seconds. That was the painful part for me.
I also rallied in every close friend and every favour I could pull,  as no one was getting paid I felt even more responsible to make this a worthwhile project. I'm sure I would have made a film without these people but it would not hold the same beauty and richness as it does now.
Four months later and I made something that I feel proud of, something to show the grandchildren. 




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