In Depth with the Director - Ft Langley

Tell us a little about yourselves and your background in filmmaking

We've been directing as a duo for about eight years. We first met while working together as web designers at an agency and started making DSLR videos on the side for our own projects.

How did Just A Dream first come together as a project?

Darryl approached us about making a video for his lovely song. We shot a couple videos in 2018 for Foxwarren, another band of his, so we already knew a bit about each other.

What did Darryl Kissick have to say about the project?

Darryl: The lyrics to the song playfully question the nature of reality. The guys from ft. langley ran with that sentiment and created a really thoughtful and beautiful video. Very happy to have been able to work with them.

The design of the robot is both unsettling and emotive. How did the design come together?

The original inspiration for the look is a real Japanese robot named CB2. It has this hilarious, uncanny, and clumsy child-like quality which is wonderfully at odds with typical depictions of robot physicality. Our friend Peter Javidpour designed a beautiful 3D model for the head and another friend, Neal Granger, did an incredible job fabricating it via 3D printing. At various stages we were concerned about whether it would come across as creepy rather than sympathetic but reactions to the video have been very positive – seems like we achieved a good balance. One of our tricks was to add scuffing to the face so we could modify the robot's expressions.

The shots of the outside world present a bleak, almost dystopian setting. Where did the inspiration come from for the world of the music video?

There's a lot of homage to Robocop – it was one of our main inspirations for the video's world. We shot in our home town of Victoria, British Columbia though, which is a small picturesque seaside city, not at all urban or dystopian. So it took some matte painting trickery to create the locations we were after.

What was the biggest challenge in making this film?

The robot head! It took us about six months, on and off, to figure out. We came a hairs breadth away from giving up on the whole project after miserably failing with an early prototype. We didn't think we could pull it off and our friend Neal saved us with his 3D printing and engineering skills. He even built a custom RC controlled servo rig for moving the robot's eyes. He's brilliant.

What projects are coming for you in the future?

Nothing scheduled currently. We've got a feature film screenplay in the works. There aren't any baby robots in it but we promise it's still fun. If it ever gets made!

Do you have any message for our Melbourne audience?

Thanks for watching our weird video.