Johnny Marr Upstarts

directed & edited by David Barnes
production company: David & Goliath

Working with Johnny Marr is a very collaborative process. In his brief Johnny stated that he wanted a bright new wave performance video to accompany his first solo single Upstarts.

Taking on board Johnny’s suggestions and the song’s new wave vibe, I decided to be as true as possible to the early 80s new wave aesthetic by shooting  on 30 year old Sony tube cameras and setting the video in a large stripped back TV studio. The grammar for the video embraced influences such as David Mallet with a bright upbeat tone, loose roving style and lack of microphones even though the band perform to camera as if playing live.

Youtube comments include:

“Why does this remind me of a classic Blondie video… Love it.”

“I AGREE WITH YOU, SOME OF THE VIDEOS OFF EAT TO THE BEAT”

“holy shit! this is beautiful!”

“Was this shot on a phone camera?”

“they’re still making music videos in 4:3. Bloody hell.”

“this song is just rubbish (in my opinion). And the video is even worse.”.

“Great song, shiiiiiiiiiit video”.

“Brilliant guitar, oddly brilliant video (very DIY-esque)”.