Hi Racer! Firstly can you introduce yourselves?
Hi! We are Jack and Alvy two best friends who work as a director duo. We started RACER in 2021 but have been making films together since college.
How did you come to work with Faith?
Rubio from The Horniman reached out to us last year about making a film for one of their Musicians in Residence and introduced us to Faith’s work.
We checked out her instagram and saw she had a really cool look, then we went on her story highlights, showing all of the music she was into and it was so inline with our taste. Even artists we weren’t familiar with, the chords and sound were right up our street so we were very keen to work with her.
Was the process a collaborative one – and how does that compare to other projects you’ve worked on?
Faith was still working on the EP whilst we were storyboarding so we couldn’t actually hear the tracks until later down the line. We had heard a snippet of one of the tracks which was beautiful so we planned the film around the tone of that snippet and mapped out an interview structure that we thought would work well over the shots and track.
We shot the film last summer and then didn’t hear any of the music until Faith held a listening party, performing the EP at The Horniman Conservatory. It blew us away! The tracks were so perfect for the stuff we had captured and the tone we had envisioned. Compared to other projects it was a definitely an unorthodox workflow but really enjoyable working with lovely people and being allowed to get fully creative with it.
Your work has such a striking and clear aesthetic – who are your inspirations and key references?
Ah Thanks! I know it’s not probably the best answer but we find it difficult to say exactly where our style/identity has come from.
Saying that, Spike Lee is definitely a director that we’ve taken inspiration from in terms of compositions and camera tricks. Tone wise we often find ourselves leaning into the playful and slightly comedic side of things.
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