My experience assisting TP Hyland on his latest music video

Earlier this year, final year BA (Hons) Film and Moving Image Production student Dan Franklin assisted TP Hyland on his latest music video for band Ida Mae. Dan shares his experience with us. 

I met Tim through a mutual friend over a pint. After an NUA Degree Show event we headed to the Norwich Playhouse and just clicked. Doing the usual social media search of each other and sharing snippets of our work together, a couple of months later I jokingly replied to a post he had shared commenting that I would be in a music video he was casting for- which ended with me actually being his 2nd Assistant Director on his recent piece with Ida Mae for their new song ‘Baby, I Need a Driver’.

The shoot took place on a campsite just outside of Norwich during the first of two storms we had in February, Storm Ciara- which caused a few issues with the weather, but didn’t extend to the atmosphere that Tim created on set, managing to get 20 extras to dance in the rain… and enjoy it.

My role on set was to support Tim’s vision from a creative point of view, ensuring his key aims for the background artists were met and that the cast were looked after. The concept behind the shoot was, in short, centred on a cult. The key aims were symmetry and strangeness, so my job was to ensure that whenever possible and appropriate each shot abided by these two aims, so that Tim could focus on the bigger picture and spend time with his lead Hannah Britland.

The main challenge with the shoot wasn’t the large group of extras, nor was it the amount of content on the shot-list, it was just the British weather- as expected anytime you pick up a camera and even think about going outside.

While Storm Ciara did throw some unplanned difficulties in to the shoot, Tim worked together with producer his and cinematographer to manoeuvre these hiccups and keep the shoot running. From this project I’ve found that it’s these moments where the real learning takes place, seeing how to work with a challenge and be responsive to the changes that need to happen, in order to complete what you set out to do.

Working with Tim and the team really showed me how to get the absolute most out of an idea. It can be simple but so effective when it works, and if you watch the music video you can see for yourself it did! I’m grateful that with this experience I was able to move forward with my final university project with confidence in my approach and knowledge of how to support my team as they support me- to which I say to Tim and his team, thank you.

Watch the video