Video: French Concession - At Knifepoint (UTR Premiere)

Christchurch-based artist Ella Chau Yin Chi aka French Concession has conjured up a striking video for her song 'At Knifepoint', which we are absolutely delighted to premiere here at UTR. The video was shot in Hong Kong under the direction of Ella, but also incorporates elements of animation to portray a story of a girl transported into another world by a magical necklace. The song is lifted from French Concession's latest EP of the same name. Watch the video and read our interview with Ella below...

Congrats on the new video it looks awesome! Last time we spoke you mentioned that you do all the producing, editing and directing for French_concession videos. This clip also features an element of animation - was that your realm as well?

I've just recently returned to animating because I have been inspired by all these amazing visual artists out there putting great works on the internet. Years ago I used to do flash animation, which is now extinct, so I pretty much had to learn from scratch on more "modern" apps, but I have been keeping up with 3D environment modelling side of things. Tech progresses so fast, there is always so much to learn!

There’s a lot going on in the video - including footage shot overseas. How long did it take to all come together?

The video was shot in Hong Kong. The concept took a few weeks to form with couple of months of prep which included the manufacture of the 'witch' look with my image designer friend Keith Cheung, and everything ended up being custom designed and made, from clothes, jewellery to hair. The actual shoot only took two days. After that, there was a few months of off-and-on post production time, because I went on tour and juggled with other things in life.

What were you hoping to convey with the clip, and what was the most challenging aspect?

I was mainly trying to convey the urgent, uneasy and relentless feeling of the song. The visual narrative is not that important, but it focuses on a girl who is ecstatic about a magic necklace she has received which transports her into another world when she wears it. The world she goes into isn't necessarily a better world from where she was from, but just different.

As I often find, the most challenging aspect of the production is trying to achieve a vision with no or very little budget. I am lucky that I have very supportive and talented friends who have always been keen to work with me!

Any more music videos in the works??

Hopefully I will be doing some music videos for some local Christchurch artists and friends in the near future, but things are in a very early stage of scheming.