Hanging with Peter Serafinowicz

"Following on from his boy-band bashing music promo I Feel Better for Hot Chip, award-winning comedian and now Colonel Blimp repped director Peter Serafinowicz tells shots.net all about the benefits of Twitter and how after a taste of the glamorous life as a music video director, he'll be back for more.

You're usually in front of the camera rather than behind it - what made you want to take a seat in the director's chair?

Since I was a kid I've walked around with my headphones on thinking up visuals for music. It's only now dawning on me that this is somebody's actual job.

And how did the collaborations with Hot Chip come about?

Very simply: we follow each other on Twitter. They asked me to direct their video and I said yes. I'm a huge fan of theirs and was delighted they asked. One of the great advantages of Twitter is how easy it is to directly collaborate with people. The Internet seems to be doing away with 'gatekeepers' more and more.

Tell us a bit about where the concept for the video came from… we're guessing you're not a big fan of boy bands?

Who IS a fan of boy bands? Young girls. I am not a young girl(anymore). Boy bands represent an identikit approach to music which produces something super bland that is inaudible to anyone except the target audience.

When me and Tamsin (producer) and Cynthia (stylist) were figuring out the look of the band, we realized that there's an unofficial manual for boy band assembly which must not be deviated from: the 'cute' one, the heartthrob, the 'tough guy', 'Mr. Hat', etc. It was great fun.

The video is pretty much a literal rendering of the sound of the song: it starts off with its Eurobeat pop feel, then the ethereal falsetto line enters to beguile and confuse the main melody. With mouth lasers!

Screaming girls, male dancers, a demon singer… how did the shoot go? Any unexpected happenings?

The original man (a stocky white guy) we'd booked for the floating laser-eyes head at the end didn't turn up so in a panic we had to recast. Luckily the guy we chose, Antonio, is the world record-holder for popping his eyes out of their sockets which was great for lasering. Added bonus #2: I got to make a comment about the superiority of the black race.

So now you've had a taste of the glamorous life of a music video director, will you be back for more?

Definitely. I'm a music obsessive, and with a video you can make something spectacular and fun that gets a big audience. Creatively it's hugely rewarding.

You're given an infinite budget and your pick of today's artists what would be your ideal music video project and why?

It would be a collaboration between Boards of Canada and Missy Elliot, and we would shoot either Hawaii or Jupiter.



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