An interview with directors Fleur & Manu: Music Video Profile

How would you describe yourself and what you do?
Let's say that we live in a fantasy world that doesn't really fit with the reality so we always need to escape in our minds in order to create a universe where we would feel free to do or be whatever we want.
 Sometimes, dream and reality mix together, and then it's a total mess…

You just won some awards at the UK Music Video Awards (for Gesaffelstein – Pursuit (Best Dance Video – International), (Best Visual Effects in a Video) and Connan Mockasin – Faking Jazz Together (Best Alternative Video – Budget)). How does that feel?
Really good but we keep focusing on the next project… it's never an achievement.

Can you tell us about the concept behind the Gesaffelstein – Pursuit video?
It is a trip through the quest for power, showing the bad aspects of it. Power, money, success should never be the goal otherwise you lose your soul.

You also recently directed a second video for Gesaffelstein – Hate or Glory, how is this related to the Pursuit video?
It is exactly the same subject as the previous video. How far you could go in the quest for power, which is embodied in this one by gold. [The moral is] you never win in the end, if your wish is not pure. 

The Connan Mockasin video won an award in the 'budget' category – how does the process differ when working on smaller budgets compared to larger productions? Do you have a preference?
The process of creation is completely different from the beginning, as you need to find a simple and cheap idea. And believe me, it can be very difficult for us, as we are used to going really far… We don't have any preference, it's great to do both. We love to support underground talented artists such as Connan, who don't have the money to produce big music videos, just for the love of music. And in another way, it's also great to have the ability to create and realise bigger projects where we can fully express ourselves.

How did you start working together and how does your collaboration work?
We don't know how we started working together, it just began naturally. We had a project and we just said, "lets do it!" We are really different but simultaneously really close. Its difficult to explain, it's a kind of weird chemistry that produces the results that you see.

Do you work as a unit or do you have very delineated roles?
Sometimes our roles exchange on the projects we do. Sometimes we work as a unit but it's never a holiday trip. It is more like endless discussions, on almost every detail, where we push each other to be the best we can be and when we finally agree, we are like, "Thats it! That's the thing to do!"

You both studied Graphic Design, how does this relate to your film work?
Definitely for the concept, all the details, the art direction, the style. And in another way, as we hadn't studied film, we had the desire to do what we didn't know. So we documented ourselves a lot and worked harder on storytelling. We didn't want to do only visual videos.

Can you describe your process? How do you get from the artist's song to your images?
The lead is always the track that we listen again and again, tracing what we feel when we listen to the sound, or what the lyrics express.

What are you working on at the moment?
Commercials, a cool cultural TV show opening, music videos project, and a feature film project.