Acclaimed director Henry Scholfield has once again found the meeting point between music and cinema, creating an evocative and emotive film for Fallon & Skoda.
The three-minute music video for Skoda’s #IGottaBeMe campaign is an epic tour through the UK’s modern music scene starring UK rap royalty Lady Leshurr, indie darlings The Sherlocks, uplifting Gospel singers The Kingdom Choir, soul revival queen Paloma Faith and new age virtuoso pianist Alexis Ffrench. Each artist has their moment in the headlights performing their impressionistic take on Sammy Davis Jr’s all time classic and anthem for individuality “I Gotta Be Me”.
From creative conception to delivery, Scholfield and Fallon’s Creative Directors - Ronaldo Tavares & Ricardo Motti - worked extremely closely to ensure their joint creative vision rang true to the directors treatment.
Tavares & Motti said of the collaboration: “This project was a crazy challenge for a director, basically creating five music videos in one. We were not sure someone would really be able to pull it off. Luckily we had Henry and Caviar on our side. Henry is supremely talented and the nicest person to work with, just like the whole crew”
We see our stars as they emote the meaning of the song through their performance, surrounded by sets specially designed by Scholfield and production designer Mikey Hollywood. The sets themselves being customized to represents the personalities of the artists, and in some cases becoming a visual metaphor for the challenges of being in the public light.
Their co-stars in the visual feast are a fleet of Skodas, exquisitely captured as they sweep through an abstract space dedicated to musical experimentation and artistic integrity.
The film begins in a mirrored room, something like 2001 meets a boiler room session, where we find MC Lady Leshurr with a packed in crowd, the camera bobbing and weaving between the bodies moving to the rhythm of the grime beat . With a cinematic swerve of the lens we follow the headlight beams of a sleek white Skoda and travel from grime to orchestral grandeur - Alexis is at a grand piano composing an elemental melody.
Then, two Skodas carve through the frame leading us to a pyramid of PC monitors, old tv’s, skate decks, records, bedroom wardrobes lamps and drum kits. Like a monolithic compilation of all the elements that have carved the journey of the band that stands proud upon it, because stationed on this monolithic rock and roll rig are The Sherlocks, rattling through riffs on the
way to a soaring chorus. A 13-strong gospel choir threatens to steal the show before Paloma adds some abstract renaissance romance and Lady Leshurr returns for an emphatic mic drop moment.
Now breathe.
Schofield says: ‘We wanted to create a piece that felt like a visual echoes of the artists themselves, whilst connecting them in the flow of film to carry across the Gotta be me core concept. No mean feat as it transpires, because they’re each so iconic in their individual ways. The boys (R&R) were all about pushing the envelope on conventional car advertising... needless to say, we made a great team!’
