Since the early autumn of 2013 one song has been played a lot on Swedish radio that I just love. And I happen to know one of the directors to the beautiful and dreamy video to the song Jubel by the French duo Klingande. His name is Johan Rosell. He’s 27 years old, currently living in Stockholm and he’s a typical freelancer, with big dreams and ambitions. I had a quick chat with him about the video and how to be a music video director!
Tell me about the video to Klingande – Jubel
It was a very fun but hectic experience! We shot it on location in Möns Klint, Denmark in the end of august 2013. Since we wanted most of the video to take place during magic hour we didn’t have a lot of time to get all of the shots we needed. At one point we were chased by an angry Danish farmer who didn’t like that we were walking around on his field, but we returned the next day with a bottle of wine and he forgave us!
How did you get in contact with the band?
It was a little bit random and sort of a lucky coincidence for me. I had the song on repeat the entire summer and was very much in love with it. So it came as a very happy surprise when Michael Johansson (whom I co-directed the video with) called me and asked if I wanted to do it with him. He knew the record label from working with one of their artists before.
How did you end up becoming a music video director? What have you done before this?
A couple of years ago I moved to Sydney to study film production at Sydney Film School. I didn’t really know anything about film making when I started, but I thought that if I didn’t like the school or making films at least the weather in Australia would be nice. However, it didn’t take long until I realized that making films was a lot of fun.
When I moved back to Sweden to study screenwriting in Stockholm I took an internship position at a production company on the side. Since then I have been doing freelance work, mostly on the location department in film and TV-productions. In between those projects I also make short films and music videos. My latest short film is called ‘Första Strulet‘ and is about a fourteen year old boy who attends his first party hoping to kiss someone for the first time.
Music and film, do you think there’s a direct connection between the two?
I think so! The right choice of music can really enhance a film sequence. It can also work the other way around, where a really bad music video can make a good song not so good anymore.
Would you like to call yourself DIY?
Not really! I wouldn’t be able to finalize a film project all by myself, or at least it wouldn’t turn out very good. I always try to fool really talented people into working with me.
Now, just enjoy this and remember that it’s only six months until it’s summer again.