shots Unsigned: Saul Lotzof

Browsing Reddit one evening I came across an intriguing post about a remade music video... It was for one of my favourite songs from The Smashing Pumpkins called Perfect, and to my surprise it was fantastic. At that moment I knew I had to share it with our audience.

A little backstory here; The Perfect music video was originally directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris who also directed other classic Smashing Pumpkins music videos including 1979, Tonight, Tonight, and Rocket. To expand on the song similarities between their records Perfect and 1979, the band released a follow up music video for Perfect which continued the story of the characters seen in the 1979 video. (watch them back to back for the full story)

So now in 2025, London based director Saul Lotzof being a fan of the band, and the song, decided to reimagine the music video for Perfect. He, and his team were compelled to do this after seeing a behind-the-scenes video with Billy Corgan, and the directors Dayton and Faris, where the creators are all discussing their frustrations with how the video panned out. 

I chat to Lotzof below about the shoot, music video nostalgia, and how this fascinating passion project came together.

Can you tell us about your background and your route into directing?

From age 10, I started making little videos when I went back to South Africa to see my family, and my love for the form grew from there. I think I was initially much more interested in editing and filming than writing scripts, despite writing short stories in my own time. As I got older, I just kept making stuff because it was fun.

I have directed a few clumsy, stilted short films, but this was my first music video, and the first thing I’ve felt deeply attached to.

I was born into a family of doctors (my parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents) and grew up in North London. So, film school was always out of the question, and studying English Literature at university was almost as strongly disfavoured. Unfortunately for them, they raised a stubborn, arrogant child, who felt that if he ignored them for long enough, he would get his way. He was right, and I eventually ended up studying English at UCL.

When I got there, I ended up spending much more time ‘experimenting’ in the film society than doing anything related to my degree. It’s where I first felt like I belonged, and where I realised there was a chance I might be able to do something creative for a living.

I have directed a few clumsy, stilted short films, but this was my first music video, and the first thing I’ve felt deeply attached to.

Above: The Smashing Pumpkins video for Perfect (1998)

What was the inspiration behind remaking the Perfect music video?

The song’s lyrics move me like few others. I am a huge fan of The Smashing Pumpkins, but those lines in particular “I promise, next time, we’ll be perfect” always make me feel intensely melancholic. We aimed to convey the bittersweet idea of maintaining and cherishing the hope of an alternative ending to a break-up, at the same time as accepting a relationship has run its course.

I think it was just out of respect for that idea, and for my own past experiences, that I felt so determined to make a video to this beautiful piece of music; a tribute of sorts.

The real push came after we saw an obscure behind-the-scenes video about the making of the original music video, where Billy Corgan (the band’s frontman) and Jonathan Dayton (one of the original directors) both expressed frustration with the final result.

For me, story will always be paramount for whatever I make, and I had previously resisted music videos because of my hesitation about the difficulty of conveying a story within the typical length. Similar doubts plagued the original directors, too, but we took it as a challenge, and I think we told the story we wanted to tell.

Above: The behind-the-scenes video that Lotzof stumbled across...

Who else was involved in putting together this passion project?

This wouldn’t have been possible without my talented DP and longtime friend, Max Goodkind, and buoyant, persistent co-producer Tash Raphael. Our two leads, Ciaran Donegan and Rebecca Metcalf, were also incredibly supportive and totally committed, without them, our video would have been very different. 

This music video was a real labour of love. A total of four producers joined and dropped out in sequence, after repeatedly doubting the project’s ‘feasibility’ and ‘possible outcomes’. I don’t blame them for struggling to see what we saw, which is why it was so crucial to have friends like Goodkind and Raphael who consistently pushed to make this as good as it could be, even if people told us we were doing something pointless. 

We were also generously supported by the UCL Film & TV Society, who repeatedly lent us their historical 1965 Arri 16 BL that I helped fix when arriving at the society in my first year of university.

This music video was a real labour of love.

Above: The Perfect music video from Lotzof.

How long was the shoot and what was the most challenging aspect of the project? 

It took us a year in total. The main challenge we faced was trying to cram the story into three minutes and 30 seconds, while trying to balance subtlety and coherence. We didn’t want to make the video as obscure as some 90s music videos were, since we think the way these videos are watched has changed. We also intentionally shot more scenes than we could reasonably expect to fit into the video, since I had a gut feeling that refining the story would be a process best saved for the edit. There’s quite a lot that didn’t make the cut. 

The other challenge was working with our 16mm camera from 1965, which was the only camera we could afford. The Arri 16 BL not only has a very dim viewfinder, but does not have any video-out whatsoever. The only person that could see what was being recorded was the DP, and there was obviously no playback. So Goodkind and I spent quite a while working on pre-vis for each shot, and then prayed that it would all be in focus. Fortunately, Goodkind nailed every shot. 

British weather did not help us either, but that was a consequence of us starting shooting in November. We waited for a sunny day for six weeks at one point. There were other things too, like working for weeks to figure out how to find the quietest public trains in England that we could use without permission, but it was all part of the fun.

ABOVE: Lotzof, Raphael, and Goodkind discuss the project in their BTS video.

What have you learned during the process of making the music video? 

The lessons I took away from this seem to be reinforcements of lessons I’ve learned before. We really tried to tell the story through our shots as much as possible, and I think we could’ve pushed it even further with more eloquent, expressive choices. Hands and eyes, little micro-expressions, that sort of thing. Our use of 16mm was a great choice for the aesthetic, but because we were so constrained with the budget, we didn’t have much stock, and I can’t help thinking how much better it might’ve been with more footage. It’s hard to tell. 

I spent two months editing the video, and something that seems to come back to me is that there is almost always more to be squeezed from an edit. I think a certain obsessiveness is necessary if you want to get absolutely everything out of the final product. For me, editing is a bit like writing with video, the script is just the outline. 

Lastly, I feel even more strongly that performances really define anything we watch that is meant to be emotionally engaging. The chemistry between the leads and the moments of subtle character revelation really dictate the success of a piece for me, and it’s something I want to focus on even more in the future.

For me, editing is a bit like writing with video, the script is just the outline. 

ABOVE: The music video for 1979 from The Smashing Pumpkins. The precursor to the Perfect music video.

How has the film been received?

The film has been released for less than 24 hours, and we’ve been flattered by the response so far. It’s really empowering to feel like you’ve made something that matters to someone. But, we still want to get it to the band, so any sharing would be hugely appreciated.

Recently a lot of bands have been revisiting old material with new videos, do you hope to share this film with The Smashing Pumpkins, and more importantly gain Billy Corgan's blessing?

It seems like we’ve stumbled into a recent trend of new videos being made for old songs. It definitely didn’t exist when we started, but our hope has always been to share this with the band, and with Billy Corgan in particular. It’s less that we feel the need for approval or attention - instead, we hope to share this with as many Smashing Pumpkins fans as possible. It’s a different video for a different generation, but it expresses a feeling I don’t think will ever change.

We’ve tried to get in touch with the band for a few months now, but haven’t had much luck, yet. We think they might like it if they saw it, but getting through to them has been harder than we imagined.

we hope to share this with as many Smashing Pumpkins fans as possible