Director Wayne Holloway has built a reputation for leaving egos on the cutting-room floor with his direct and no frills approach. Having stacked up a Filofax full of celebrity-fuelled clips, he has now taken on his biggest task of all - gathering a house party full of high rollers to create the adidas Originals House Party series. With a knack for capturing the ‘real’ essence of an unreal world, we caught up with Wayne Holloway for a quick 'behind the scenes' chat as he puts the finishing touches on his House Party Hexology.
Tell us how you got into filmmaking?
I got my start shooting pop videos for bands I knew back in the day like Homeboy Hippy and a Funky Dread amongst others. My mates and I didn’t know anybody in the film business; we just picked up our hand-held Bolexs and started shooting. We filmed videos for Shane MacGowan, Sinead O’Connor and Aswad. Music video was a lot of fun and more meritocratic back then than the official film business, especially in the UK.
ADIDAS - THE ROAD TO SYDNEY (LEE EVANS - CYCLING)
How long did it take for adidas to come knocking with their 180 Amsterdam campaign, a series of two-minute doc-style spots for the 2000 Olympics?
I had shot my first commercial for the Met Police just a few months before, so I had very little commercial stuff on my reel. I must have done good in my meeting with them I guess!
Do you have a technique that has helped to capture the essence of these personalities on reel?
Never underestimate people’s personalities. If you give athletes enough respect and space they can be as much fun as anybody else. See your subjects as humans first and celebrities/stars second. You are as good or as cool as they are and vice versa!
Good advice! How structured and scripted was the work and how did it then compare to working with adidas again for the House Party viral vids?
We had more time with 180 as the campaign was very well thought out by the great Larry Frey. Then adding myself, Lee Evans and Bryan Farhy into the mix just brought the ideas to life. There was a great balance between structure and improvisation. Also the DP Alex Melman brought his own reflexes to the job. We just enjoyed ourselves and captured Lee's amazingly infectious energy plus we added our own. House party was much less thought out, just a hectic scramble for footage, but with some of the people we had to work with, we got some great stuff.
ADIDAS ORIGINALS - THE INVITATION
Is this why you were chosen to direct the 60 Years House Party videos?
No idea! It must have been off the back of ‘The Road To Sydney’ videos, I guess. Also I have worked with lots of celebrities since and managed somehow to get credible performances out of them. It was all pretty much on the fly, just responding to situations. We were shooting tape so we just rolled! For ‘The Road to Sydney’ we shot 16mm, which brought a certain discipline to how we worked, to make it feel that there was no structure.
ADIDAS ORIGINALS - HOUSE PARTY
Well you've achieved a very free, improvised feel with the vids...
Yeah, it was all about me interacting with the stars and getting something fun/real or unguarded from them.
Was scheduling a nightmare to get all the 'talent' in one place at one time?
It was, we just worked in the gaps that production kindly gave us. It was a very liminal experience for me, which is how I like it sometimes, to be on the outside, picking up the pieces. The David Beckham/Kevin Garnett stuff has just come out, there’s more but it's meant to be a surprise. The one thing I will say of the whole experience is that Kevin Garnett has an amazing personality and presence on camera. I would love to work with him on something more substantial, a movie, or a short film. Whatever 'it' is, he's certainly got 'it'!
ADIDAS ORIGINALS - DAVID BECKHAM AND KEVIN GARNETT 'HOLE-IN-ONE'
Do you have a greater appreciation for the adidas brand now?
I’ve always understood the place adidas has in people's hearts! Years ago I shot a documentary film about adidas, went to the HQ and had the opportunity to interview the top guys, so I have always had a great insight into their world.
Oh, we'd love to see that! What’s up next for you? It seems this may be hard to top!
Well I just finished writing a screenplay for Forrest Whittaker, we'll see how that goes!
Thanks Wayne
To check out all of Wayne Holloway's adidas House Party videos, click here
Didn't get invited to the party? Well check out our adidas House Party pics here - Sydney and Singapore
