Having worked with artists such as David Guetta and Chris Brown, and brands such as Nike and Puma, Director Shapxo has developed a bold, visually lavish style that often blends contemporary aesthetics with the rich history of culture. That combination of past and present continues with his latest fashion short Chasing The Drums, which presents a Pan-African inspired world filled with dynamic, fantastical elements. In the short film’s brief 79 seconds, the Berlin-based filmmaker is able to use energised cinematography and ambitious conceptual effects to produce a visual feast that highlights the inspired fashion of Rick Owens and Balenciaga. With the film now available to watch online, DN caught up with Shapxo to talk about his ambitious vision for the shoot, working night and day during the post-production process, and the challenges of shooting in an operating subway station.
What drew you to this particular location for the shoot?
As a location for the shooting, we chose a subway station, a symbolic choice echoing the resilience and perseverance of African heritage, often exploited throughout history. Our intention was to infuse light into the shadows of human suffering, portraying the darkest pit of our soul where the light finally reflects, to spread across the world of a bright future.
Given the ambition of the shoot, I’m curious to know how big your crew was.
We had a super tiny crew of 10 people including camera, beauty, style and production departments. Our camera crew was even smaller, having only me as a director, Maks Klenov as a DoP who was shooting everything handheld and doing focus himself, and Ody as our gaffer aka light assistant aka Swiss Army knife, haha. These were the absolute MVPs of our shoot.
Our intention was to infuse light into the shadows of human suffering, portraying the darkest pit of our soul where the light finally reflects.
Was the subway station in working order? How did you navigate that as a production?
We had an extremely tiny budget and were shooting in a working subway station in Berlin, so we had to shoot at the time when trains leave so we have a clear frame of location, but when the trains arrived we had to face many people coming towards us, taking pictures, laughing or even being scared. Not every day do you see a bunch of people dressed in Rick Owens with blue painted faces on your way home. The production process took us around four hours max because we simply couldn’t afford to shoot there more.
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Chasing The Drums is brief in runtime but you really fill each and every frame with something impactful. What do you attribute that to?
The film lasts under a minute and a half, but each frame you see there is a result of absolute team dedication, love, and sleepless nights of the whole post-production team. Thanks to the help of Dream Bear Production from the US who believed in this film from the first second, we could afford to bring the whole look of the film to a completely another level.
Who were you collaborating with during post?
The post-production process took us 119 shots to be nailed by compositing and cleanup work of the team at Abyss Digital VFX studio, my incredible Post-Producer Yan Marchenko who was in charge of that. The sharpest cut by the brilliant Berlin-based Editor Nixi Windorf. Absolutely stunning original music score and SFX by Moritz Staub. And a brilliant touch of color by the maestro Colorist Nicke Cantarelli!
The film lasts under a minute and a half, but each frame you see there is a result of absolute team dedication.
This film wouldn’t happen to be that different and striking without the energy, time, love, and dedication that these people put inside of it. I am extremely happy to share this piece with the world and hope it’ll motivate people to create without having any borders of creativity. Everything is possible when people believe in what they do!
Knowing that you would be embracing VFX, did you storyboard or detail your shots before you went into production?
We couldn’t plan the shoot that much as the process itself was pretty freestyle knowing we had three hours to shoot it. Also, you can’t plan much while you’re shooting in a busy city subway station. However, we had some angles for the sky replacement shots that were planned and sketched in advance. Most of the film had lots of invisible cleanup work which the viewer doesn’t see, before the post-production shots contained lots of people, graffiti, banners, etc. that were inside of a station, we removed all that in post with the help of the team from Abyss Digital.
I love creating a film world that the viewer can dive into, even if it’s a 30 seconds spot, it has to have the message and a world that is crafted in detail.
How do you feel you’ve developed as a filmmaker through working on commercial and fashion short films?
I’d say as time passed, I paid more attention to the craft and choosing the right people to involve in each specific project. Even while working on a commercial job, I’m always trying to create something new that brings goosebumps to the viewer. I love creating a film world that the viewer can dive into, even if it’s a 30 seconds spot, it has to have the message and a world that is crafted in detail.
Can you tell us about any other projects you currently have on your plate?
I’m currently developing a short film about an ancient Scandinavian creature, a spirit of water that lives under the waterfall and enchants people with his beautiful play on the fiddle. Planning to shoot it in Iceland this year. Let’s see where this journey brings us and hope soon we can speak more about it down the line.
