Mat, pictured left, on the Christmas Lights shoot
Hello Mat, how are you?
Good thanks, just on my way to watch the band at Top Of The Pops.
Well, congratulations on the video.
Aw, thank you.
When did you first hear you were doing it?
Phil rang me, probably about a month before we shot it. He just said, “We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do yet, but I think we want something very low key for this. We’re busy on the album, so it’s got to be something small.” And then I spoke to Chris and he said, “Really, I just want you to come along and we’ll walk along Oxford Street and you can film us with a Handycam. Really simple.”
And then from that little acorn…
Exactly! It was supposed to be a tiny little video. And then after a couple of days, Chris suggested doing something like the Beatles’ video for All You Need Is Love, with a lot of friends and family in the studio, doing something which wasn’t too obviously Christmassy, and not too cheesy. Just something which was fun and felt like it was a kind of family Christmas event.
What happened to that idea?
Well, then they talked to the techies in the studio and they pointed out that the band are right in the middle of making an album and everything’s set up how they like it, so it could disrupt the flow of the recording. So, then we thought about finding another studio to do it in.
But that didn’t happen either?
No. That was when Will mentioned that he’d been to Willesden Music Hall before and that he loved that as a venue. He suggested we did it there, so that it felt more like something on stage, with a nice Christmas vibe. But all the music halls around town were booked up, for Christmas. And then they suggested getting Misty Buckley involved.
What was her role?
She’s this incredible designer. She did the Take That Circus tour and she does Glastonbury every year. She’s sickeningly young and talented. So she came in and we sat down and tried to work out what we could do without being able to book a music hall, and we came up with the idea of building our own music hall and putting it in a really interesting location. And that was the start of the video that it became.
And that decision was made with just a few weeks to go?
Yeah, this is with three weeks left. Misty was right in the middle of several other things and I was finishing off something too. And it still wasn’t definite at this point. So Chris said we should all come into the Bakery and have a chat about it with the band, and we started brainstorming and watching things online and Misty showed us some of her designs. The band got really excited and said, “Yes! This is what we’re definitely going to do. Let’s start from tomorrow.”
The band were quite involved in it all, then?
Yes, that’s what’s great about working with Coldplay. Whenever I’ve worked with them, they’ll brainstorm and have hundreds of ideas and then you just try and take the best ones and put them into the video. So Chris would just come out with these ideas. Like he’d ring me up in the middle of the night and say, “I really want there to be three Elvises playing strings, in jumpsuits.” I thought he was joking. And then two weeks later, there they were!
What other ideas did Chris have?
Well, it was his idea to be lying on the floor next to the piano as the beginning of the video. And he wanted some kind of illusion quite early on. So we got in touch with this illusionist. He suggested a few things – some of which just didn’t work with our one shot idea – and we ended up kind of using the levitation idea. I think Chris’s starting point was that we wanted to do everything live and real as much as possible, and to try and do it as one shot if we could.
And then you had to find a location.
Yes. We talked about doing it in tunnels under Waterloo, then Chris suggested doing it on a rooftop and we managed to secure the roof of John Lewis in Oxford Street. But then Chris thought it’d be good to do it by the river, to tie in with the line about where the sea and city meet. Then we got down to the South Bank – and this is now about five days before the shoot – and he loved it. So it’d gone from being this tiny little video we were going to shoot as mates walking down Oxford Street at midnight, to being something quite huge. That was great, but also borderline terrifying.
Was it a stressful experience?
Yeah, that would be a fair description! The band and the crew were absolutely lovely and patient, but it was one of the hardest shoots I’ve ever done. I think I probably put pressure on myself because they’re friends, as well as people that you’re working with. So, I was desperate not to let them down. It’s always pressure when you’re working on a film or music video with people who professionally you want to do a good job for, but when it’s with mates, and they’re trusting you with their money, you really don’t want to cock it up!
It would’ve been awful if, after all that, the video was rubbish.
Oh God, it would’ve been horrible. When we finished that night, because it was such a complicated shoot and we were all freezing – particularly the band and the Elvises who weren’t wrapped up – I really wasn’t sure if we had it right. The band were incredibly patient, though. It was so cold. I think a lot of other bands would’ve just walked.
But you’re pleased with the video?
Yeah, I really am. It’s such a beautiful song, we just wanted to do it justice. But the response has been fantastic.
Do you enjoy working with Coldplay?
Definitely. It’s all very low key, as if it’s just mates putting something together. If they wanted to, I’m sure they could pick up the phone and do a music video with Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze or someone. But instead they’re talking about it as if they’re a band who’ve just been signed and are having a bit of a muck around.
Which, of course, you have experience of, having directed their first ever video.
Haha! I do. That was probably just as stressful. With Bigger Stronger, Chris rang me the night before and changed the song. It was going to be Spies, but they changed it at the last minute. I remember I’d been working on a student short with Penelope Keith and he rang me up pretending to be her. And I was so tired that I was completely taken in. He actually rang me the night before the Christmas Lights shoot and said it wasn’t going to be that song any more. Luckily I knew he must be winding me up!
How many videos have you made with them now?
Bigger Stronger, Violet Hill, Lost!, Lovers In Japan and this. So five. Six if you count Lost+. And we’ve shot in the studio and filmed lots of gigs, as well.
You met them at university?
I did. I was living in UCL in halls with them. And over the summer holidays I slept in the place in Camden Road that Jonny and Chris used to live in. They put me up for a bit while I was looking for a job. So, I’ve known them for a long time now, since ’96 or ’97.
And you’ve always kept in touch?
That’s the amazing thing – there’s group of about 20 or 30 of us from college who are all still in touch. And the reason is really that we all meet up at Coldplay gigs! But the main thing with working with them is that it almost feels like making a home movie or family video. The atmosphere on set is always very, very different to anything else I work on. It’s like working with friends, which is incredible.
What did you think of the Coldplay fans [recruited via Coldplay fan site Coldplaying] who were on the boat for the Christmas Light shoot?
They were amazing! I’ve spoken to a few people who’ve seen the video and assumed they were a special effect! But it was so beautiful. I think the band were really touched that they turned up and actually did that for real, and that they were patient enough to sit there in the freezing cold and wait for us to get on with it. There’s something quite moving about hearing them singing along to the track. I really like it. They sounded brilliant.
There are so many great little touches in the video.
Well, there are even some accidental ones. There’s a cross where the piano is supposed to go from one of the earlier takes, which is next to Chris’s eyes at the start. In a way, it’s those little mistakes that make you realise it’s real. There are quite a few little things like that in there.
Did the shoot go smoothly?
Actually, it was a bit of a nightmare. We had problems with the piano and with the crane. But you forget about those things when you watch it.
Christmas music videos tend to stick around for a long time. This is a video that we might well be watching in 50 years.
I hope so. The track’s so good that I’m sure people will still be listening to it. It’s very, very difficult to pull of a decent Christmas tune, but I think they’ve done it.
What else are you up to at the moment?
I’ve got a few things on the horizon. I’m doing a film with Ray Winstone, early next year. It’s like a road movie thriller, which we’re hoping to be filming in March. And I’ve got some TV series and some movies and another documentary that I’m working on. It’s quite tricky for film makers to get things financed at the moment, but fingers crossed some of it comes off.
It’s been a good year for you, though. Sex And Drugs And Rock n Roll was a big success.
Yeah. And I did the Take That thing too. But, actually, since April I’ve been trying to get this road movie made. That feels like a really long time. I just want to crack on with it.
Do you think making the Bigger Stronger video opened doors for you?
I’m not so sure that one did, because it was such early days. But I honestly don’t think that I’d have got to do Sex and Drugs if the band hadn’t asked me to do Lovers In Japan. They never believe you when you tell them, but people do take you much more seriously when you’ve worked with Coldplay, on videos of that scale. It’s helped enormously.
Finally, the question we always ask Coldplay.com interviewees, what’s your favourite Coldplay song?
It changes all the time, and there’s so many that I love, but I think in terms of connecting with something, I remember when they used to play Careful Where You Stand. I love that tune. I still find that one really beautiful and haunting. I used to listen to it a lot when they were first starting out.
The choice of a hardcore Coldplay fan!
Haha! I just feel lucky to have seen them grow from literally jamming in a bedroom to being one of the biggest bands on the planet. It’s very surreal. But they wear it so lightly and they’re such lovely guys, who are still in touch with all their mates from that time, that it actually feels completely natural. I’m very proud of them.
