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Last year we interviewed local punk rock band Lowprofile who are making a big impression on the South African music scene and now have just release their new music video for their singe “Apathetic Means”. We’re really digging this music video so check it out here, followed by a short interview with the band about the making of the music video:
LOWPROFILE – APATHETIC MEANS – OFFICIAL VIDEO
How did the Apathetic Means music video come about?
Jackie was just chilling on his couch watching TV one Saturday afternoon and thought about how he would feel if the movie he was watching was interrupted by something else. So Jackie WhatsApp’d Ozzie and proposed an idea along these lines for our next video – someone having a lazy, apathetic day at home then all of a sudden a Lowprofile band practice is on their screen. Ozzie was up a ladder cleaning his gutters at the time and frothing on the idea so much, he almost fell off trying to message Jackie back!
Many WhatsApp’s later, the band honed the idea down to a chick who finds this never ending cable sticking out from the back of her video player and follows it to see what’s at the other end.
We asked Director Luke Mason, Interpret Durban’s Best Film Winner 2012, to give us a treatment and write a script and he built in all the crazy little scenarios like the cake-eating couple in the park, the suntanning street kids, the businessmen getting a cheap haircut to keep her journey interesting.
Where was the music video shot and by whom?
Luke invited celebrated skate/art cinematographer Jimmy Reynolds to be Director of Photography and he filmed the entire video himself with a very small crew, including our lead guitarist Woogy – himself a film maker.
The video us shot in various locations around Durban. We all share a love for our beautiful city with Luke and Jimmy, and are so stoked with how they brought it to life in “Apathetic Means”. The idea was to shoot in as many iconic locations around Durban as possible. This includes a mates flat on the Berea, the Botanical Gardens, Moses Mabhida stadium, the city centre, Warwick Junction (Andries Botha’s controversial elephant sculptures), Soldiers Way and the point area until she finally joins the band at a well known derelict house next to Beach Bums in Umdloti. It’s a popular location for wedding and model shoots but we thought it would be the perfect place for the band shots.
How long did the video take to produce?
It was filmed over a three day weekend. Two days for the story scenes and a whole day for the band performance which was awesome and a lot of hard work. Given the number of locations, the cast and crew were driving around Durban fairly maniacally shooting in weird and wonderful spots. On the day of the band shoot, we had many visitors from a nearby informal settlement as well as staff and patrons from Beach Bums restaurant who were interested in what was going on, so the scene at the end of the video where the two stories meet, actually has about 23 extra people in it, just off camera.
Jimmy and Luke spent a good few days editing and grading the video and we played it to rapturous applause from a packed crowd at our local club hot off the presses, a full two days before it would be uploaded to YouTube. At the time of writing we’ve had upwards of 2200 views in two days of it being online.
You can also hear more Lowprofile music on Soundcloud or follow the band on Twitter or Facebook.
