CANADA is a video production outfit out of Barcelona. Their directors make music videos, commercials, and related projects. The collective also has its fingers in the music and publishing world, repping artist and releasing albums and printed materials under their own imprint. The unifying theme for this disparate group of international directors and creatives is that they’re the ones making the work that pops off the page at you when you’re on the Nowness site, cruising Vimeo, or in a more commercial platform. We got in touch to find out more about the inner workings of the operation.
Did you guys start out with music videos or commercials? How did the one lead to the other?
We started out doing other things. But music videos came first.
Are you pursuing any interest in filmmaking? Will there be a CANADA feature film?
We love movies; we love cinema. And we would love to do a film someday, yes.
What’s new about making music videos now that they’re mainly consumed on-line? And what are some of the iconic videos of the 80’s and 90’s for you guys?
Well, the feedback is immediate now and comes to you on your phone, which means anytime and anywhere. But that does not mean anything by itself, I mean, how this feedback affects you depends finally more on what people think and how you face it than the medium per se.
Some iconic videos from the 80’s and 90’s that we love: Thriller (John Landis, 1983) Take on Me (Steve Barron, 1985), Bachelorette (Michel Gondry, 1997), Let Forever Be (Michel Gondry, 1999), All is Full of Love (Chris Cunningham, 1997), Praise You (Spike Jonze, 1999) and All I Need (Mike Mills, 1998)
What are clients looking for when they come to CANADA?
We are not sure, honestly.
How much of a shared aesthetic is there between your directors? How do you all come together? And do you think there is something identifiably Spanish about your aesthetic?
When it comes to defining some stylistic attributes or what is intrinsically cultural or national or local in someone’s aesthetic, we’re quite disoriented. We’d rather think about creatives individually beyond a larger context.
We understand that these traits are real and do exist, however, but we feel that this is the kind of observational exercise that is better done by the others, the ones that are observing.
I love the drawn-on look you use many of your videos? How was that developed?
Thank you very much.
We love to draw. The technical process is pretty basic. We shot some actions and objects, we edited some compositions, joining different layers of images, then we printed half of the frames (so the frame ratio is not 25 fps as usual
