Pop CultureApril 29, 2020

Chelsea Jade explains her bizarre new music video

Contributing writer

LA-based New Zealander Chelsea Jade’s latest single, ‘Superfan,’ is out now. She explains everything behind the stilts and the strangeness of her new video.

Chelsea Jade calls herself DIY pop, and she really does do it all herself. After a couple of years touring North America with Muna and YourSmith, the songwriter, singer, director, and dancer is back with a new single. ‘Superfan’ is a perfectly-crafted song all on its own, but with Chelsea Jade there’s always a bigger picture. The video is just as engrossing as its audio; they’re both off-centre but never off-beat.

https://youtu.be/zdgXQSVmpWE

Her previous music videos have made familiar spaces unfamiliar: a car, a swimming pool, and a barn have all been cast in abstract lights. In ‘Superfan,’ the space she distorts is her own body; using stilts, clothing, warped shadows and roaming facial features. We got in touch with her to discuss the video, co-directed by The Spinoff’s own Alex Gandar and Chelsea Jade herself.

The Spinoff: Who thought of the stilts? And aren’t you tall enough? Is that the point?

Chelsea Jade: Me. I had seen an image of somebody wearing exceptionally long trousers with no stilts inside them and it helped me to grow some connective tissue between several ideas I’d been having. I’d been hunting down exaggerated silhouettes to wear for my live show – extremely flared trousers and blazers with built out shoulders and hips — always in black. Seeing that image showing room to extend ones legs beyond their length sparked an investigation from me as to why I was pursuing these visuals.

I think it’s a common experience to inflate and deflate certain parts of yourself in company. I’m hyper aware of it in myself. I’m not easy going by nature and I fortify myself in unflattering ways to get through social situations. I become acerbic to assert my value in the room while minimising my body to overcorrect my imposing height. Like my whole being is trying to equalize in order to be accepted and enjoyed but it’s all misfiring. Stilts felt like an amusing way to illustrate that feeling of blowing yourself out of proportion and doesn’t it marry perfectly to the phrase “super fan”?

Further, I’m always interested in openly warping perception without creating any illusions. That’s why many of my videos are situated in spaces that aren’t recognizable as a specific location but are familiar. An empty swimming pool, a large and empty barn. If anything is visually achieved in post production, it’s extremely obvious and pointed. No tricks. I don’t want to alienate with otherworldliness, I want to show an abstraction of what you already understand.

Did you know how to use stilts before this?

I didn’t and I still don’t! I quietly ordered a pair in LA before I returned to Auckland to work on the video but I was duped into feeling comfortable on them by relying on the walls of my confined space. It was absolutely terrifying to be in a wide, open studio. I can still feel the sharp intake of breath from when I almost fell and had nowhere to grab onto. Luckily Rosabel (the producer) and Michael (the talent) were always at the ready side stage, wearing extremely chic hard hats and primed to sprint to my aid.

I realise this is addressed in the video, but why did you choose to use stilts instead of doing it in post?

I don’t really like doing anything in post. It’s never as funny or weird as if you do it in camera.

In the video for ‘Night Swimmer’ Chelsea Jade cradles a large block of ice in an empty swimming pool.

What’s the significance of the video being in black and white?

I had decided on a whole visual language for the body of work ‘Superfan’ introduces and it’s all in the same vein. Black and white has a loneliness about it and I think all of the music I’ve been making is about that. Optimistic loneliness. I also like the idea of details being detectable in texture. Like the feast is for those who put their face right up in all of it.

Truthfully, I think I really tested the boundaries of patience with Alex [Gandar] and Steve Gulik who graded the video! I kept asking to push the noise level so everything was crunchy which isn’t necessarily kind to the beautiful footage Steve shot on the day. I just really wanted it to be stark but lively. I think they did a really nice job with that.

You’ve worked with Alex a lot, but what’s it like to direct with him?

I feel that we’ve been gradually growing into equal footing as these videos have been undergoing their creation. This time I had decided to ask how he’d feel about sharing a directing credit but I didn’t have to. Alex brought it up first and I really appreciate that.

How well do you think “treating ‘em mean to keep ‘em keen” works?

I think negging culture and actual bullying is supremely stupid but there’s something to be said for the intimacy of soft ribbing. It’s a delicate balance but somehow quippy bullying of no real consequence is a good way to gauge somebody’s observational skills. I place a lot of value on people really partaking in specificity. Usually they’re the funniest.

You have a great sense of humour, but there’s also some really personal insight in ‘Superfan’. The part about lying awake in bed wondering if you mean to be mean — that hit home. Do you think recognising our flaws means that maybe it’s OK to have them?

The conversation around flaws is so complicated. I don’t really believe in physical flaws. Everyone is somehow hot in my opinion. In terms of interpersonal flaws, it’s a shit show. I think we’re reaching a zenith where self-care is being weaponised to the point of accepting selfishness as a necessity. On the flipside, recognising one’s own behavioural flaws seems like enough of a reaction to them and it’s not. I struggle with that. You feel incapable of being anything but a piece of shit so you don’t try. Or you think being a piece of shit is more funny than it is hurtful. All of that to say, flaws are perfectly fine if you don’t inflict them on others which is impossible if you’re not aware and actively working on them.

I love the backing squeaks and sighs. Are we going to see more of this in the future?

The only real confidence I possess in songwriting is my voice, both physically and mentally. Everything else is up for grabs. Any chance I have to make my voice the instrument is gladly taken. Leroy Clampitt — who I made the song with — is hyper aware of that and it was his idea to arrange some of my vocal smatterings into the kernel of the song. He is the nicest person to work with because he always tries to understand you so he can apply it to your experience together.

Would you care to comment on the sudden new relevance of the lyric “locked down, low key, slinking through the party”?

OMG I’m in week seven of LA lockdown and it’s brutal. I would trade the relevance of that lyric for a safe alleviation of confinement.

Are you really a Taurus?

Of course! Who has the energy to lie about something that is already imagined! But yes, I wrote the song about me so it’s true that I’m about to experience a birthday. I just hope everybody made the connection between “taurus” and “bullshit” in the lyrics.

Keep going!

The roots are showing, as Have You Been Paying Attention? moves from the studio to the living room.

Pop CultureApril 29, 2020

Have You Been Paying Attention’s Hayley Sproull on the move from studio to lounge

Sam Brooks

Contributing writer

The roots are showing, as Have You Been Paying Attention? moves from the studio to the living room.

How do you move your news-stuffed, comedian-packed game show to Zoom? Sam Brooks talked to Hayley Sproull, host of Have You Been Paying Attention?, to find out.

Over the last five weeks we’ve all become a lot more comfortable seeing inside the homes of our colleagues, politicians and epidemiologists. And while television has always been in our living room, now we’re in the odd situation of being in television’s living room too, as Covid-19 has forced many of our most beloved television shows out of the studio and onto the couch.

Since its last show on March 18, the comedy news quiz Have You Been Paying Attention?, one of the least physically distanced shows on television, hasn’t been able to shoot. And it’s left a large, light-hearted hole in our daily news consumption that’s been morbidly dominated by the coronavirus. But now Have You Been Paying Attention? is on its way back – with a few format changes.

The new episodes will be shot on Zoom, the app that has wormed its way into our hearts and onto our laptops. Rather than comedians almost literally rubbing shoulders with each other, they’ll be in their individual houses. The internet provides.

I talked to host Hayley Sproull about what these changes entail, the challenges of Zoom, and what she’s most excited for when we no longer have to think about alert levels.

(Full disclosure: Hayley and I are friends, and we’ve seen about as much of each other during lockdown, safely distanced, as is reasonable. This interview reflects that!)

Sam Brooks: So how did the conversation about moving to shooting in lockdown start?

Hayley Sproull: Like pretty much all shows, we couldn’t be on air, and we used the time off air to try to brainstorm lots of different ways so that when the lockdown rules were lightened, we were able to offer something, rather than having to wait until we got back to the studio.

We had conversations with the creators of the show in Australia, Working Dog, but they have the luxury of having slightly different, slightly more flexible lockdown laws than us. That allowed their host, Tom, to be in the studio and then have the contestants at home, and it was working for them.

We wanted to do our own version of that, so we just thought to try all of us at home, including me. We all went on Zoom and recorded the session, then uploaded it to our poor editor, Tim, who had to put it all together on his own. Six different cameras’ worth of footage. It was crazy.

That sounds like a bloody nightmare.

We did just a trial where we recorded half a show, with friends and staff. We were all really proud of it and it had such a cool feeling, seeing everyone’s stuff and living rooms. Everyone’s looking a little bit rough around the edges, it’s safe to say. Most of the women are going to be coming on with a bit of mince and cheese hair happening – myself leading the charge on that.

But we did that trial version and we thought, “Actually, this is really cool.” We took it back to TVNZ and went, “What do you reckon?” And they were on board.

Everybody’s talking about Covid, not surprisingly. It’s dominating the news right now, which kind of dictates how the show might go. But there’s gotta be that split between Covid and non-Covid stuff, right?

We like to think of the show as a news quiz show first and a comedy show second. So ideally it’s you watch it and you’ll be entertained, but you could also watch it and get your news for the week from it.

With that in mind, we would be so wrong to not address Covid-19 as it is the biggest news story in the world. But of course we’re wanting to keep it light, we’re wanting to keep it entertaining. So, we’re trying to cover the major points of the news, and not just dwell on Covid-19 stories of the week. There’s still lots of other things happening in the world too.

Hayley Sproull, in her home, shooting the new lockdown version of Have You Been Paying Attention?

You’re filming in your house. What the hell is that going to be like?

Well, I’m lucky because my boyfriend Aaron works in the film and TV industry. Usually in the show I would be in the studio and there would be a whole control room operating all the clips, the media and all that kind of stuff and the contestants can see and hear it.

Now Aaron doing it on a PowerPoint display. The creators of the show give Aaron a script and the PowerPoint and so he just has to, well, PowerPoint along with me in the lounge. He also has to press record, make sure that I sound all right and tell me if my hair is getting flat.

I’m going to do my own hair and makeup.

Barbaric, horrifying.

If I don’t look as good, that’s definitely because a professional hasn’t done it! I’m wearing the one suit that I physically own myself until I can get some more suits dropped off, so it’s going to be interesting.

I honestly feel like anything could happen and if it all goes wrong, I’ll enjoy it equally.

It’s quite funny, opening up your house and letting people see inside your home and your personality. You’ve been to my house, I’ve got a lot of stuff and personality there. I think people are going to be like, does she live in a gypsy trailer?

The cast and comedians of Have You Been Paying Attention? on Zoom.

The thing about Zoom is that we’re suddenly letting people in our houses in such an intimate way. I’ve had to set up a specific Zoom zone, so I have proper three-point lighting around me. We’ve become used to letting so many people, whether they’re co-workers or even close friends, into our homes. I kind of hate it!

I know. And you’re so right how quickly we adapt to it. Now with you and a couple of other friends, we just have a weekly Zoom and we organise it by going: “Okay, so what about tonight? Here we go!”

And now we’re filming shows on Zoom.

Do you guys think that you’ll take some of the things that you’ve had to innovate and learn from this, well, Zoom period back to the studio show again?

I think so. I mean, I’m not sure how that looks. I think it could definitely open us up to maybe have contestants who don’t necessarily have to come to New Zealand or get quizmasters who are in America or something.

I think that we’re really enjoying what we’re creating now and it’s going to be so weird to then go, “OK, we’ll stick Hayley in the studio.”

I can’t even imagine now going back to shoulder to shoulder comedians and a packed crowd of 80 people. It just seems absurd.

There’s also something to be said about the energy that comes with that packed crowd – that you can feed off of them, and vice versa. How do you, as a host who is largely driving the show, bring that energy to a Zoom?

I think that was probably our biggest concern. Because if you’ve got no laughs, you’ve got no energy feeding the comedians or feeding the show in any way. I think the thing that works to our advantage, that hasn’t been working for some other game shows overseas that have been trying a similar way, is the speed of it.

We can create energy in the game itself without needing to pause for laughter or necessarily needing that audience laughter to keep the energy alive. Whereas there’s some other game shows that are struggling with the loss of audience because they run at a slower pace and you really feel those gaps.

In terms of being a host, it’ll just be my job as per usual, which is keeping the thing moving, keeping it trucking along and keeping the contestants in line and moving forward. Because per show or per record, we record between 90 and 100 questions.

That’s too much news. What’s the thing you’re most excited about doing post-lockdown? At alert level two and one, or knock wood, zero, what’s the thing where you’re like, “I most want to do this?”

I’ve enjoyed the time off but I think I’m such a social person and an extrovert. I just want to touch people and be in a public loud environment because it just feeds my energy. It feeds my internal energy, being in a pack. I just want to see my friends in a big group, I want to sit on the stoop of the Basement Theatre and drink wine and just talk face to face, touching and hugging my friends.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

You can watch Have You Been Paying Attention? at 8.30pm on TVNZ 2 tonight, April 29.