Taste
Directed by award-winning filmmaker, Mackenzie Sheppard “Taste” is a favourite of Guy’s from the album that he says, “dives into that illusive thing called identity”.
Producer Georgina Pope scouted the six incredible locations used in the one-day shoot, each scene of the clip placing Pearce and the various characters in bizarre situations, from being tumbled about in a rotating capsule to strutting backwards through a maze of colours in an underground nightclub.
“The main idea behind the concept for Taste was creating a sense of hyper-reality”, says Sheppard, who won Young Directors Award at Cannes 2014 for Best Short Film Asia. “I wanted to take iconic – or stereotypical - Tokyo characters and put them in strange and surreal environments that would be slowly revealed throughout the video.”
In preparation for the clip, Pearce studied the song in reverse, which needed to be perfected for the shoot to go ahead. Sheppard says, “I wanted Guy to learn the song in reverse and have him move backwards through these environments to build a strange malleable atmosphere that I felt suited the song.”
Like the track itself, the clip for “Taste” builds and “becomes bolder towards the end of the song”. The clip dances the line of what is surreal and real, progressively “bending out of reality and into a surreal landscape”.
Taste music video
DIRECTORS NOTES
“The main idea behind the concept for Taste was creating a sense of hyper-reality. I wanted to take iconic Tokyo faces/characters and put them in strange and surreal environments that would be slowly revealed throughout the video. In addition to that, I wanted Guy to learn the song in reverse and have him move backwards through these environments to build a strange malleable atmosphere that I felt suited the song.
Learning a song in reverse is a huge challenge, but Guy spent a lot of time studying the song in reverse while filming his feature film project in Japan. Every few days he’d send me a clip of him singing the lyrics backwards and we’d exchange feedback as we went along. That was the first task in making sure the clip would work.
The second task was assembling the cast and team to pull off a lengthy one day shoot in 6 different locations. We owe that to our extraordinary producer Georgina Pope. We had a really passionate group of film-makers come together to lend their talents and skill.
For the whole thing to work, I knew we had to take a subtle approach that would become bolder towards the end of the song. It was fun escaping any allegiance to maintaining “real-ness” and being adventurous in the way we pulled reality apart. I’m really happy with the way we slowly fall into the “rabbit hole” of surrealness in the edit as things get progressively weird--slowly bending out of reality and into a surreal landscape” -- Mackenzie (Director).
Credits
Performer - Guy Pearce; Director - Mackenzie Sheppard; Producer - Georgina Pope; Director of Photography - Oliver Millar; Production & Locations Manager - Shinji Orita; Casting - Ko Iwagami; Costumes - Tony Crosbie; Make Up - Yoshi. T (Avgvst) for Mondo; Glam Squad Assistants - Higashimura , fuyuki ikechi , Yukina Handa; First AC - Hirohide Osawa; Gaffer - Tomoya Yoshimura; Lighting Assistants - Hajime Takao and Moe Koyama; Production Assistants - Bruce Yamakawa and Ken Hirama; Editor / Visual Effects - Mackenzie Sheppard; Catering - Kenji Bento Boy; Special Thanks to : Robot Restaurant, Shinjuku Kuyakushomae Capsule Hotel, Club Ai, Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan