music video

E is for Editors
Posted on  5th May, 2021

Celebrating 20 years of Soup in letters...

Beginning with their first video that we shot for “Munich” - a heady shoot day of trampolines, medicine balls and green screen treadmills - and continuing with their epic “A Ton of Love”, our relationship with Editors has always opened up some great themes for us to play with (dues to Marey, Muybridge and Boltanski among others!) and coincidentally always shot in BW with DP Ben Moulden.

D is for Doves
Posted on  5th May, 2021

Celebrating 20 years of Soup in letters...

So many Doves projects to mention, all of which stem from the early days of Matt Norman and his magical films for their live sets. Key memories include shooting our doc and visuals for Kingdom of Rust and filming Andalucia out in Granada, the first time shooting with Percy Dean along with Matt to capture Curro and his crew in full flamenco flare.

A is for Any Day Now
Posted on  5th May, 2021

Celebrating 20 years of Soup in letters...

'Any Day Now' is the first video from Elbow and our first major project. Andy Soup wrapped it up nicely a few years back:

“Mark and I had just graduated from our Interactive Arts course at Manchester Met in the summer of 2000 when we made the video for Any Day Now with Elbow. We’d spent a lot of our time over the past few years stockpiling and playing around with obsolete bits of projection equipment- 35mm slide projectors, old 16mm and Super8 projectors, 3 Bulb video projectors, overhead projectors and anything else that we could lay our hands on.

We used to turn up at clubs and gigs with the car full of a ton of heavy old analogue bits, bobs and boxes full of slides and shredded bits of old film stock. We’d spend the day running up and down ladders rigging it all in the rafters then get drunk and put on these expanded cinema shows. We were calling ourselves Soup Loops.

Any Day Now video with Elbow came about when the lads stumbled into one of these nights we were doing, liked what they saw and asked us to do the same for them. At that point the band were still unsigned but they had budget - a tiny budget but the biggest budget Mark and I had ever worked with. I think it was about 300 quid. We spent the money on shooting some 16mm film and projecting it back over the band in this Velvet Underground / Factory inspired gig that we put on at the Roadhouse. I think it was right after that gig that the band got signed and, bless em’ - they repaid us by letting us have a crack at making their debut music video. It was cool - it was the first video any of us had ever worked on.

I remember the thrill of first seeing it up on MTV2- I don't think we could believe that something we’d made had actually been deemed cool enough to broadcast. One of the nice things about making films collaboratively is that you have the film to look back on and reminisce. I’ll always be grateful for the Elbow boys giving us that break and also to Mark for having the energy, enthusiasm and stamina to see the project through and make it the best it could be.”

IDFA | Documentary Music Video Showcase
Posted on  17th November, 2016

We’ve been invited to show five music videos and talk at the International Documentary festival in Amsterdam as part of a showcase on documentary in music video. Our 2010 video for Doves song Andalucia alongside the series of four films produced for Elbow’s 2014 album The Take Off and Landing of Everything.

The event is on Friday 18th Nov 2016 (tomorrow!). If you’re there please do come and say hello! Event starts at 8pm at the De Balie cinema.

https://www.facebook.com/events/601981093328058/

https://www.idfa.nl/nl/tags/program.aspx?id=F663D6A7-C4EA-4499-85B5-2A5D...

Making Real Life (angel)
Posted on  15th July, 2014

Two days in Snowdonia, a little bit of rain and a new-found love of outdoor swimming thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of Vivienne Rickman-Poole. Continuing the documentary thread developed over the campaign for Elbow's sixth studio album, The Take Off and Landing of Everything, it was Vivienne's underwater documenting that sparked the idea to create this short portrait. Viv's take on being in and around the water proved such a strong inspiration for the piece, as well as drawing on her skills as a photographer to film some of the underwater scenes.

Shooting was a joy - our DoP, Percy went above and beyond the call of duty, stripping down to his smalls for some impromptu shots, and even trekking Snowdon for the sake of some lush landscapes. The hope is, while we can't recreate the feeling of being in that setting, we've hinted at what it's like in that world, and maybe even tempted a few people to give it a go.

Cheers, Mark

CREDITS
Client: Polydor / Commissioner: Emily Tedrake / Director / Editor: Mark Thomas / Producers : Tim Mullett and Alison Surtees / DoP : Percy Dean / Additional Camera: Vivienne Rickman-Poole / Lighting: Chris Sarginson / DiT/Assist : Sean Lomax / Edit Assist: Gwen Osmond / Colourist: Alex Hindle / Thanks to Surflines, Llanberis

Put Your Collar Up
Posted on  4th April, 2012

Latest video for Magic Arm, Manchester's undisputed king of the loop.. Directed by Nicola Ball, currently collaborating with Soup on an ongoing project.