New Director: Scott Dungate

It’s not easy to launch your directing career, but luckily for Wieden+Kennedy creative director Scott Dungate, his industry friends were more than happy to help out on the job and make the transition as smooth as possible.

He says he’s wanted to be a director as long as he can remember, but cites procrastination as his excuse for not doing it sooner. His debut is an epic music video for Texas funk band Khruangbin, a group which features former W+K creative Laura Lee on bass. Having a friendly face in the band obviously helped to ease first-time nerves, but the friends kept the relationship professional, with Lee giving Dungate a date for delivering the final cut, much to his relief. “Thankfully Laura and the band gave me a deadline – a loose deadline – but a deadline nonetheless,” says Dungate. “That helped things to actually happen.”

Two Fish and an Elephant plays out the last goodbye between lovers through dance, exploring the different emotions that take place during a break up. Inspired by the rhythm of the song – “which starts more melancholy and haunting, [then] builds to something more joyous and uplifting before ending with [an] energetic breakdown” – Dungate looked to contemporary directors, like Quentin Tarantino and Hayao Miyazaki as well as other Japanese animation, for direction on how to bring it all to life visually.

Dungate used distinct rooms and colour palettes to structure the story, signalling various scenes and emotions. The opening shot is of a bright yellow car – a vintage Scimitar – followed by a zoom in on the blood-splattered female protagonist, whose expression is a mixture of angst and steely determination. Looking down at her wedding finger, where a single gold band sits attached to a piece of string, she abandons the car and follows a trail, entering a deserted building, which reveals a recent battle – cards, people and arrows strewn across the room. Cue chapter two… and the first beats of the track.

After coming face-to-face with her former lover – who holds the end to her string – the pair engage in a cinematically stylish dance, at times smiling wistfully, capturing the fun, laughter and ease shared between them in earlier times, before she leans over and kills her lover, making a quick escape and leaving only the ring behind.

“I wrote the treatment over Christmas and then caught up with the band in the new year,” says Dungate. “They were very supportive of the vision and after a few tweaks we just had to work out how to fund and make the film a reality.”

Leaning on the support of friends and enlisting the help of Somesuch, Factory and The Mill, Dungate also took to Kickstarter to secure the bulk of the film’s funding. This process “is [normally] something creatives don’t see,” he admits. “Working with different departments and watching that all come together, and at a great pace, was exciting and brilliant to watch.”

Dungate can’t yet say whether he prefers directing to creative direction; he’d like to get a few more projects under his belt. He’s already developing another, more political idea, which could be out in as little as six months.

He’s drawn to the problem-solving aspect of the role. “Every stage of the process throws up new challenges, with different people to help you figure them out. It can make your head hurt but it’s what makes things most rewarding.”