Bogstandard aka Dylan Byrne and Ben Strebel
Dazed Digital: Who are you and when did you form Bogstandard?
Bogstandard: We are Dylan Byrne and Ben Strebel. We work as a director’s duo under the name Bogstandard. We met just over a year ago while working together on a few commercials. Now it seems we are inseparable, developing some slightly worrying signs of a married life relationship! In the last year we’ve completed over eight music videos, for the likes of Stereo MC’s, The Levellers, Hello=Fire and Fightstar.
DD: What was the concept for the video?
Bogstandard: The concept is quite simple; to use minimalist graphics to deconstruct the song, break it down to its most basic form and present the band in a strong visual light – excuse the pun!
DD: Tell us some of the challenges you faced in making this.
Bogstandard: The key challenge was that we had to create something special with a very limited budget, just over an hour of shoot time and only seven takes! Basically we had to fit it all in before the band did their soundcheck. As is often the case though, it was these this restrictions that really helped us develop such a strong minimalist approach, which we believe is the beauty of the video.
Another challenge was in the preparation. We needed to know everything about the venue, stage plan and band formation to make sure the projections aligned perfectly with each member of the band. It was absolutely crucial that all the information was correct on the day, as we had no window for error.
DD: How did you find the whole experience of working with the band and with Dazed?
Bogstandard: Phoenix were great! Really calm and cooperative, no big egos and really into the idea. Thomas, the lead singer, also had laryngitis but didn’t even mention it and still gave a really good performance.
Working with Dazed was an eye-opener. The main thing we liked was that we were given total creative control with nobody looking over our shoulder – basically a big sense of trust with lots of creative space. Making something for a website like Dazed’s as opposed to, say TV, meant we could afford to experiment more and really push the boundaries of the live format, it was really refreshing to have such a blank canvas with no rules. That is hopefully reflected in the end result.
DD: What other projects do you have coming up?
Bogstandard: Currently we’re working on the next Fightstar video amongst others things, really just trying to do as many interesting projects as possible
