Shynola has always been 4 people, but late last year our friend and colleague Gideon died suddenly after contracting a virus. So now we are 3 and not so sure of ourselves anymore. On top of that, we hadn't made a music video in 4 years. So here we were, rusty, plunging into a technically difficult shoot, one man down, and it's for the biggest band on the planet! Luckily, we had a great producer, and the label seemed more confident than us that everything would be great. And, as it happened, it was.
Is the princess based upon anyone in particular?
The princess is inspired by characters from Winsor McCay's Little Nemo. Originally I designed the girl to look 6yrs old - about Nemo's age, but it was pointed out to me that it might seem a bit strange for Chris Martin to be kissing a child. So she grew up a little.
Why the evil squirrel?
We've placed bad squirrels in several of our previous music videos. I wish I knew what was behind it. Maybe one of us has a terrible squirrel incident buried in our subconscious.
Have you interesting stories from the shoot to relay to fans?
Chris Martin didn't seem to pay attention to our little instructional films showing him his movements for the next shot. Nervous glances would pass between us as he blithely said "yep, yep, got it." He didn't want to rehearse either. Absurdly though, he was perfect first time, every time. He has a great memory for movement and good body control. The lengthy handstand he did for one of the shots was unrehearsed and unscripted. We hadn't dared to think that kind of shot was possible (especially in the beginning of the pitching process when we were considering Jack Black for the acting part). On the day we did our wardrobe fitting, Chris nervously came out of the dressing room wearing the superhero costume and told us that he was out of his comfort zone and couldn't really judge how he looked. He looked at us for reassurance and all I can remember thinking was: "Oh my god, we've dressed him like a clown."
Luckily, it looked great on camera, and he made the costume look amazing.
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