Stéphane Sednaoui

Stéphane Sednaoui

MAA : Did you know Massive Attack musically before directing Sly?
Stephane Sednaoui : Yes, I did. Since their first album and I was dying to direct a video for them. Bailie Walsh, who directed wonderful videos for them, had been so innovating that the simple idea to work with Massive Attack was exciting. And I had to be up to his work. Finally, I had to wait until the second album.

MAA : Do you like what they do ?
Stephane Sednaoui : A lot. Even if the original line-up isn’t the same anymore. I enjoy the work of 3D for 100 th Window. State of mind is the same and I like that.

MAA : How Massive Attack came into contact with you ?
Stephane Sednaoui : At the time, I worked with Carole Burton Fairbrother and she offered me to direct a video for Massive Arrack. I was supposed to direct “Bedtime Stories” for Madonna. I had some ideas for this work. But I wasn’t ready so I took a vacation. Madonna was impatient so she decided to make this video with Mark Romanek, who was ready. Then Carole called me for offering to work with Massive Attack and I was in a special state of mind. There were a lot of things that I wanted to do and I transposed some of theses things in the music of Massive Attack. I had three themes and I mixed them into the video.

MAA : How did the work went ? Have you suggested a script or had they already ideas for this video ? Have they given you carte blanche or have they wanted to keep an eye on everything ?
Stephane Sednaoui : It was a fantastic period for a video director. We had comfortable budgets for this kind of artists. It wouldn’t be the same today. So Massive Attack, Björk, Tricky, etc...had very good budgets for videos and they were smart enough to pick artists/directors and trust them. For Massive Attack, I wrote a treatment and that’s it. We didn’t discuss about anything. They were enthusiastic (at least I hope so), everything was prepared and we met each other to shoot. So I had really “carte blanche”. As I said, I had these ideas and this music was so “cinematographic” . It was like a soundtrack for an incredible movie then I let music take me away. This song was a little bit different because Nicolette was there.

MAA : How were band members at work ? (easy to direct ?)
Stephane Sednaoui : There were 4 members : Nicolette, Mushroom, 3D and Daddy G. Each one had his own personality. Nicolette was enthusiastic and very easy to direct. 3D was easy to direct too because he’s got a powerful energy. He could be an actor. So there was a great internal tension in the shot. I don’t know if he was shy or if he didn’t like me but Mushroom was different. Anyway both of us weren’t on the same wavelength. Daddy G was very nice but I think he didn’t like to be shot.

MAA : How the shooting did happen ? And how was the atmosphere on the shoot ? Do you have any anecdotes ?
Stephane Sednaoui : There were three days of shooting : one day in studio, one day in the gardens and one day on Wall Street. It was a special atmosphere. Actually, people who work with me are my friends so everybody was enthusiastic to take part in this video. I called many friends. We were between 25 and 32 years old and everybody was free to work on videos. They knew MTV would broadcast this video, they could see themselves on TV, everybody watched MTV at this time. All during shooting, there were many friends so I shot band members in a sporadic way. We made a good casting for dancers, characters and we designed costumes etc... Sly is one of my videos most sophisticated . Vicky Bartlett designed a lot of sublime costumes. Jerry Schwartz did props and Daniel Adric supervised technical special effects and up direction of this video. Ward did a great job too. We had really good times, it was a “firework” of ideas and participation. I’ve a good anecdote. A Morning we shot, we reserved a street, which is my favourite in Wall Street. When we arrived, the street was closed for the shooting of a scene of Batman Forever. It was 6 o’clock in the morning and two days before this street was empty ! Batman’s production didn’t have the right to do that but it was a big movie shooting so they had the right to do whatever they wanted . What a drag on the shoot ! Desperately we looked for another street. Finally we found a perfect one 4 or 5 blocks away. Another anecdote : we had to cast go-go dancers so I devoted myself to scour strip bars. But I never went to strip bars before. It was the first time and I was very shy. I didn’t dare to watch girls who danced in front of me but after 4 or 5 hours I got used to it. Daniel Adric and casting director came with me. It seemed a kind of first experience for me, a first time in New-York sweet decadence.

MAA : With which members of the band did you have the easiest contact ?
Stephane Sednaoui : It was with 3D, definitely ! The most difficult was with Mushroom. The feeling was not good. In fact, the contact with the band was not excellent, just good, because there was a kind of "distance", and we never saw them again. And I heard that they didn’t like the clip. I was very disappointed. I was pretty proud of this clip... When your work for an artist and you feel his work and that you learn that he doesn’t like your work, it’s disappointing. But I have to said that I put so many things on this, on Massive, that I love this clip, even if the band did not, and I wish they would have love it... It was a kind of reference to the movie " The Man Who Fell To Earth " with David Bowie. There was a sort of mix up between space and time in this movie. There were future, present, flashes back in the far-west. It was very interesting, and it was the idea that I wanted to put in this clip, I wanted to make a kind of spaciotemporal fantasy !

MAA : If you could, would you work with them again ?
Stephane Sednaoui : Yes, I even believe they asked me to make another "treatments" for them, but I don’t remember well.. But yes, I really would love 3D to contact me to set up another project again. But now it doesn’t matter, I haven’t got the same enthusiasm to make video clips, I’ve moved to other thing... It’s a lot of work you know, and now I don’t have enough time to make clips. If I want to make a video I have to find very simple ideas to shoot fast, I can’t make complicated ideas anymore... But I would really love to make a movie scene for example, for Massive.

MAA : Which are the artists with whom you would like to work?
Stephane Sednaoui : That’s a difficult question. I have listened « citizen cope » ( http://www.citizencope.com ) I love them a lot. There are also "Tv On The Radio" ( http://www.tvontheradio.com ) , Sigur Ros ( http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/ ), and RJD2 that I like . I still like DJ Shadow (since the beginning I really love it), and that’s it, that’s the music I love, but there is other music like Lou Reed for example. I am working on a compilation of all my videos for the Directors Label ( http://www.directorslabel.com/ ) witch has already made Compilations for Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham. And as I work on it, I want to make something special, an unreleased work. So I met Lou Reed to make a video of « Walk on the wild side ». That’s a very exciting project. I just have to find the time to write and shoot this !

MAA : What are your professional projects ?
Stephane Sednaoui : I am finishing my website, adding photos, videos clips, personal projects, ... Many stuff to have a look of my whole work ’cause I am doing reports, fashion, portraits, videos clips and commercials. There is the DVD too, some fashion photo projects, commercial projects, ... Many things around photography and music video. I want to make a movie too... I had tried to buy the copyrights of a story, but it didn’t worked... So I am waiting to fall in love with another story !

MAA : To finish, what do you listen ?
Stephane Sednaoui : Chemical Brother, Björk, Tricky, Mirwais, many people I worked with, because in general, I only work with people that I appreciate as artists and for witch I love their music ! I have had some exceptions but I try, in music videos, to be close of my musical taste.