Isobel Knowles & Kris Moyes // In Conversation

Curated by MIFF’s Juliana Chin, ORBIT is designed to support and promote Australian and New Zealand film talent through a showcase of music-clips placed rightfully upon the big screen. Taking place tonight and on August 4 at ACMI, ORBIT will feature an eclectic range of filmic styles with a world premiere of the latest Angus & Julia Stone clip, a director’s cut of Kris Moyes’s latest clip for Architecture in Helsinki (’Heart it Races’), an amazing 3D animated clip for Bit By Bats, Mark Rodda’s space invaders ‘reinvented’ clip for Mum Smokes and Isobel Knowles’s neon bonanza with the Ground Components featuring Romy from Macromantics.

With Kris currently in LA and Isobel somewhere in Europe they still managed to find time to chat, covering everything from Romance Was Born costumes, secret dance routines, crime scene investigation and making Sia ugly…

KM: A while back you sent me a clip of your last work for Dr. Dog, which I really liked. How did you do it? Was that painted on glass?

IK: Not on glass. Watercolour paintings on plain old paper. Then I photographed them because I don’t have a scanner and assembled them with the computer.

KM: Wow! How long did that take?

IK: Well it was 3 months from start to finish, and I worked quite solidly every day, but I also had about a month working on other things during that time.

KM: The song is sooo good

IK: It’s amazing isn’t it!? That makes all the difference. It was so exciting to be able to work with them. I met them when we toured with them in the states and I saw their show 30 times or more.

(image from Dr. Dog film-clip ‘My Old Ways’ by Isobel Knowles)
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KM: So you got into music videos through association right? Being in a band that needed clips?

IK: Well the first clip I did was for Architecture (In Helsinki) before I started playing with them. I went to RMIT with James Cecil and they asked me to do it. Then we became friends and it all fell into place. Your brother is in the presets right? Is that how you started?

KM: The clip I made for The Presets was the first one that made people stand up and pay attention.

IK: Yeah. You did do a really good job. It’s great.

KM: Thanks!

IK: I really like your new Architecture clip too.

KM: Oh really?

IK: Yes. I love how they go glow in the dark. Was it hard shooting in Mexico? I imagine doing anything abroad would be way more difficult just because you can’t call upon the same resources as usual.

KM: I had great support. With six people who are in a an amazing new place for a small amount of time it’s hard to keep them focussed on the job… I felt bad… I wish we had time to just hang out an relax in these amazing locations but I was like “ok, no time to look at this stuff, we need to start shooting”.

IK: Tell me more about your Architecture clip. How many people did you have working?

KM: I had a driver, Augustine, an assistant, Moy and me. That was it – pretty light crew.

IK: So you shot it yourself? Did you shoot from a boat?

KM: Yeah, that was fun.

IK: I bet! I just finished reading interviews with Werner Herzog and he has lots of stories of filming on boats. It’s awesome that you got to do it in Mexico. It looks totally amazing.

KM: I’m grateful to Cameron and Berny and the others who enabled me to share such a special experience.

IK: Who made the costumes for the clip?

KM: Luke and Anna from fashion label Romance Was Born. They worked so fast to turn them around. Very lucky to work with such talented people

IK: Yeah, it’s great doing projects where you work with people because sometimes doing the animated clips can get so lonely. I’m glad I did that Dr. Dog one but it’s so much more fun to do when you have other people involved. Provided they are the right people of course.

KM: Oh so you entirely animated that one?

IK: I had my friend Emily work out some dance moves with me.

KM: As reference?

IK: Well, it’s always more fun doing choreography with a friend.

KM: Did you shoot yourselves dancing the moves first? I want to see that!!

IK: Ha, no we didn’t film it. I just kept acting it out in front of the mirror. There was one clip where I filmed Cameron dancing for the ‘Do The Whirlwind’ clip. Paul Robertson did that one and he needed references though cause he doesn’t dance.

KM: Then he made loops from them right? I love that kind of process.

IK: Yeah. He’s an incredible person to watch working. He’s so fast.

KM: So, what’s on the horizon?

IK: Well I’m just hanging out experiencing the European summer for a while then I’m going to go to the States for a few months. I’m playing trumpet on an East Coast tour with Still Flyin who I did a clip for last year in San Francisco. Maybe I’ll make them something new when I go over. And you?

KM: I just did a clip for Sia a few months ago which is only just come out it’s an anti-pop video think the first of its kind. I made her look ugly.

IK: Anti pop? Ha you sure did. It’s awesome, I love it!!

(images from Sia film-clip by Kris Moyes)
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KM: But it didn’t work entirely because she kind of looks cute in some shots. The uglier you make someone the cuter they are. All the guys I’ve shown it to have fallen in love with her.

IK: Of course. She’s outrageous, letting herself be so ugly. Funny how things go sometimes.

KM: Brave artist.

IK: Plus she’s naked…

KM: Hahahaa yes!!! All skin!

IK: I love it when people let loose because sometimes they can get so self-conscious on camera. I was proud of Romy for her job in the Ground Components video. And the guys too – they pretty much went with what I asked.

KM: And Dmote and Jonathan Zawada did such a great job on the artwork.

IK: Hey, The Directors Bureau is a pretty good list of directors to be on!

KM: Great company to be associated with for sure. (…) I’m just watching your video for Ground Components. You did an amazing job!!!

IK: You like it?

KM: Definitely. What did you shoot it on?

IK: I couldn’t have done it without my cameraman Gus. I’d never shot live action apart from that roundabout A.I.H video. It was shot on some Sony hi-definition camera but it was still pretty yucky compression. I wasn’t very impressed.

KM: I love the animation. Great use of it with the live action. I usually hate 2D animation with live action, but this really works well.

IK: Well there’s a compliment!

KM: Was it done in flash or something?

IK: Yes Flash and Final Cut. I drew the animation on frame-by-frame so I didn’t need tracking. I exported the flash lines once thin and once thick and blurred the thick version and did a little of some kind of daggy effect in Final Cut like wave pool or something.

KM: And stop frame animation for your New Buffalo clip… I like the imperfections of stop motion it’s like the crackle on a record player. Sooo warm.

IK: Yeah that clip was really fun. We did it all in six hours and then did some pick ups the next day, edited for 1 day, then it was done.

KM: Very pretty. She should be happy.

IK: So did you go to school for film-making?

KM: No. I wanted to be a crime-scene investigator, then an artist. I found that I could kind of somehow do both.

IK: So you went to crime scene school? Are you solving mysteries with your videos?

KM: I did work experience at a Crime Scene Unit and then went to art school. I like to look at things and wonder how they were made, like a photo for instance and break it down.

IK: So you started with photography?

KM: Yeah, then I realized I could make multiple images that could be viewed in a sequence rather than one image!

IK: hahaha…

KM: And you?

IK: Well, when I was 16, in my commerce class we had to do a fake job application. I flipped the job seek book to letter the letter ‘A’ and put my finger on animation – then I thought how great an idea that really was and how much sense that made for me. I spent my whole last year at high school making an 8-minute film which was a sesame street style alphabet.

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