By Christine Champagne

It’s one thing to make stars like Kylie Minogue and the guys in Oasis shine in music videos. Director Dawn Shadforth has done that quite capably, directing Minogue’s iconic “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and Oasis’ critically-acclaimed “The Importance of Being Idle” among numerous other clips over the years.
    But it’s quite another thing to take ordinary bank employees with zero experience in front of the camera and make them the bold singing, dancing stars of a truly spectacular musical. Remarkably, Shadforth pulled off that feat, too, in a spot for Halifax bank out of DLKW, London, called “Moocher.”
    Shot earlier this year, “Moocher” is one of the highlights on Shadforth’s reel of recent spot work. The commercial opens on a customer consulting with Halifax mortgage advisors when the modern-day bank is suddenly transformed into an authentic 1920s speakeasy. The mortgage advisors, now dressed in period garb, belt into song, singing the praises of a Halifax mortgage.
    The spot required the creation of a big, complex production number and the use of visual effects. But, according to Shadforth, her biggest challenge was making sure her understandably nervous talent delivered not just passable performances but lively, memorable performances. “They literally had been taken out of a Halifax branch the day before, and they hadn’t done anything–maybe karaoke. But that was the extent of it,” Shadforth says with a laugh, noting that she got the performances she needed by nurturing the newcomers as well as styling them so that they would feel like stars.
    “It was a great process,” reflects the director, who is repped by Little Minx, Los Angeles, in the U.S. and RSA London for commercials, and by sister shop Black Dog for music videos.
    “It was also an interesting piece of advertising,” Shadforth continues. “It’s something that I think reflects what’s going on in culture–everyone feels they can have a pop at it these days because of Pop Idol [the British show that spawned American Idol] and those kinds of shows.”
    The female dancers Shadforth directed in a recent series of Nike Women spots out of Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam, didn’t need any coaxing or styling to feel comfortable in front of the camera–confident and charismatic, they readily asserted their prowess as athletes. One spot titled “Sofia” has dancer Sofia Bouterella busting her seriously impressive moves in front of screens onto which screaming fans are projected. Her voiceover says in part, “I’ll never have a fan club, get a signing bonus or even sign an autograph. But can you honestly tell me I’m not an athlete?”
    “Those girls were fantastic,” Shadforth enthuses. “That was a really inspirational piece to do because of them.”
    While Shadforth has a way with talent, she is also known for her sense of design and art direction. In “Brooklyn Nights,” a spot for Dulux paint out of Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London, Shadforth depicts a split-screen soap opera following the rather colorful lives of characters such as Candy Love, Blue Diamond and Cocoa Blush.
    For H&M, she takes viewers on a journey through a girl’s “modern classic” day. The end result is the starkly gorgeous “Modern Plastics.” Shot on five white sets, the spot is clean and simple and presents the clothing in an elevational, aspirational light. “It was a real challenge from both a design and lighting perspective. The white could have been quite limiting, but I was delighted with the way we made each environment feel very open, with a real sense of scale and space and scope,” Shadforth says.

The Beat Goes On    Shadforth has been quite busy with spotwork this past year, but she has continued to make music videos. This is notable given that some directors give up music videos once they find success in the advertising arena. Commercials pay better, after all. But Shadforth remains committed. “I can see why people do give up making music videos. It’s become very corporate, and it’s difficult for everyone in the process because there’s a lot of fear and a lot of risk and not enough money,” she acknowledges.
    However, Shadforth says she continues to find joy and inspiration in the process. That’s obvious in her work. In a day and age when music videos have seemingly gone stale, Shadforth, whose client list includes Bjork, Iggy Pop and Garbage, continues to deliver visionary clips, with two of her most recent efforts being for rappers Plan B and The Streets.
    Shadforth crafted an intense, kitchen-sink drama for Plan B’s “Mama,” an autobiographical rant in which he urges his mother to dump her crackhead boyfriend. The director then relied on nightmarish horror film techniques to tell the harrowing tale of life as a junkie in The Streets’ “Prangin’ Out.”
    Not all of Shadforth’s recent clips have been so dark, by the way–the music video she directed for Goldfrapp’s “Oh La La” is a gorgeously crafted performance piece featuring a fanciful disco ball horse.
    As in her spot endeavors, Shadforth can’t necessarily be categorized in terms of the type of work she does in music videos. “If you don’t want to be pigeonholed, you really have to work hard to show that you can do different things,” Shadforth says, noting, “I’m doing a lot of fashion work in commercials at the moment, but luckily, I’m doing fashion work that has a lot of performance in it and characters and celebrities and action as well.”
    It should be noted that Shadforth has made one big change in the way she works in recent years–she isn’t editing all of her own work like she previously did. “I’ve given it all away,” she says laughing.
    Why did she finally let go? For starters, the director has gotten busy and just can’t physically do it anymore. Beyond that, Shadforth says she realized that she could trust other people. “The bigger the jobs that you do, the more you have to work as a team,” she remarks. “I started off in a place where I was doing everything myself–editing, designing. But you have to work with people and trust them. That’s part of directing, and what I found by letting go of that part of the process is that there are some great editors out there who will give you a perspective you never saw yourself.”

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