12/24/2022 0 Comments Chromeo dont sleep![]() ![]() Dave and French Montana are Moroccan, and Pee is Lebanese, so Pili pushed the art direction into a more North African/Middle East-inspired look with the props and set dressing. As lucky as we were to get that location, I didn’t want to lean into the Victorian vibes too much. The house comes pretty much unfurnished, but our amazing production designer Pili Weeber completely transformed the space. There’s about 75 rooms in the house – it’s pretty nuts. We shot in a giant mansion in Yonkers, NY. The interiors showcased in this video are pretty incredible! Where did the shoot take place? Did the location pose any interesting logistical challenges? I think it was fun for Robin to take on the “melancholy queen” role, and it was such a pleasure for me to direct such a pro. There’s a dissatisfaction and nihilism to her character, who “has everything” and yet nothing is ever enough. Robin is a stunning person inside and out, and perfectly embodied the role immediately. I really wanted the video to star someone slightly older, not only because women over 25 are underrepresented in videos these days, but also because I felt that gave the character more weight and power. The casting of Robin Givens as the video’s female lead is an interesting choice – can you tell us more about this decision? We talked about conceptual hooks and aesthetic references, and they had a ton of ideas, but at the end of the day they were encouraging me to “do what I do” which was really refreshing – not just for me, but for the whole team behind the video. Dave and Pee were very excited and involved, but also fully trusted me in the process, which made for a collaborative yet authentic discourse without too many cooks in the kitchen. It’s a rare luxury to have any kind of conversation with an artist before you’ve even sent a treatment in, so I was really lucky in that sense. and wanted something similarly dark to juxtapose with the upbeat funk track. I pitched the idea to Dave from the band over the phone, and he said, “let’s do it.” He had seen my past work with Moses Sumney, serpentwithfeet, Autre Ne Veut, etc. How did you and Chromeo work together to hone in on the creative vision for this video? The video is about how even as a “powerful” woman, luxury and privilege and options don’t amount to happiness. There’s always the possibility of “something better” out there. I was thinking a lot about dissatisfaction in the age of Tinder, how our potential access to so many dates/partners makes it impossible to appreciate whatever we have. ![]() From there, I envisioned this male harem led by an older woman, who plays a twist on a “sad king” character. I was initially inspired by the song’s line, “a boy likes me knows how to take direction,” mostly because I found that kind of deference – as well as Chromeo’s general willingness to self-deprecate – to be charming. What was the starting point in the brainstorming process for the idea? Your video for Chromeo’s “Don’t Sleep,” is a playful inversion of some classic music video gender roles. We spoke to Allie about instructing male models to do synchronized pushups in a pool, getting lost in the 75-room mansion, and her desire to make any kinds of films she wants with the same freedoms afforded to male directors – and to get paid for it! ![]() It’s a fitting sentiment for a generation of consistently dissatisfied Tinder daters. Robin Givens steps into the video’s lead role, a female version of the “sad king” archetype – overwhelmed and exhausted by a wealth of options. In “Don’t Sleep,” Allie Avital‘s latest work for Chromeo (featuring French Montana and Stefflon Don), the Partizan director playfully unpacks visual expectations for the genre, filling the halls of a cavernous mansion with glistening, idealized male bodies.Īllie’s dark, luxurious vision, previously explored in her work for artists such as Moses Sumney and serpentwithfeet, provides a rich counterpoint to Chromeo’s uptempo track. It’s a classic music video trope – a camera panning over an expanse of undulating (usually…female) bodies. ![]()
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