Video Chats: Christine Yuan on ‘Just Like a Fool’ by Cliff Dweller

A lot of music videos try to be sexy. The videos that try too hard, but ultimately fail, can sometimes be fun to watch. But the videos that are even more fun to watch are the ones that seem to effortlessly succeed at their sexiness, both with the actors and within the narrative. “Just Like a Fool” by Cliff Dweller, directed by Christine Yuan, is one of those videos. We talked to Christine about how she achieved this sexiness, where the idea came from, and how she was able to style the video with the help of some custom clothing. 

Doug: Was there something specific about this song, "Just Like A Fool," that in your mind made it fit best with this particular concept?

Christine: There’s a breakdown that happens about a minute into the track that I thought would fit well with a love scene. The sound is really gorgeous and builds slowly to a climax. I wanted to match that sensation visually, so I had an idea to create a love scene, but I wanted to push it further. So instead of two people, I thought, "What about three?"

Doug: Was the original idea of the love scene based mainly on the song?

Christine: Yes and no. I was doing research for another video and came across a porn star named Jessie Andrews. I was so fascinated by her lifestyle - how she's so publicly sexual, yet still a normal, everyday person who tweets about doing yoga or going to the beach. If you looked at her, you wouldn’t assume she was a porn star - and that’s what’s so great about it. I love the idea of someone being something you don’t expect them to be.

Doug: I'm curious about directing those sex scenes. Are you giving a lot of direction to the actors, or is it a little bit more organic in those scenes?

Christine: It was definitely organic. We did several takes in the beginning where we had the actors improvise, and then there were certain shots that we choreographed. Like the shot of Viktoria on the bed against the floral sheet, we choreographed that. But everything did come together very organically. I’m so grateful for my actors who were so open to the concept and really went there.

Doug: What about the styling of the video, not just the clothes but also the hair, the makeup, the accessories? Was that inspired by anything?

Christine: This video is all about those little details so I’m glad you noticed. The hair and makeup is based off Anna Karina, who was Jean-Luc Godard’s muse. We wanted a classic, timeless look for Viktoria so there’d be this contradictory tension between style and content. Our makeup artist Veronica Chanel did such an amazing job accomplishing the look we wanted. Also, Viktoria’s look was very reminiscent of Anna to begin with.

Doug: And the clothes, are they custom made?

Christine: Yes! A friend of mine, Zoe Miyori Fujii, is a fashion designer. I contacted her to see if she wanted to collaborate and incorporate some of her original pieces to the video. It’s a music video but I also want it to be a vehicle for fashion. Styling is one of the most expressive forms of art.

Doug: Were you hands on with that process with Zoe, or did you just give her an idea what you wanted?

Christine: She had the clothes pre-made from a line she did earlier in the year. We did a fitting with the actress, and then put together a look for each location and scene based off the colors and patterns.

Doug: Was everything custom, all the way down to like the rings and jewelry, or was some of that stuff found?

Christine: Some of that stuff is thrifted, it wasn't all custom. Like the jeans in the laundromat, those were borrowed from a friend. A lot of that jewelry was from the stylist's personal collection. It was mainly the top in the grocery store and the dress she wears when she enters the motel. Those, Zoe made by hand.

Doug: Was there a vibe that you were going for with the locations as well? What was the scouting process like?

Christine: The scouting process was probably the hardest part of production. It was hard to find a motel in LA to let us shoot for little money. There was this one motel in Culver City that I really loved, but they were very stubborn about not having us shoot there because they had encountered "porno situations" in the past. I was just like, "OK, well, that's out." I ended up finding a motel in Joshua Tree that let us shoot. We didn’t really have time to scout it beforehand, but just went out the day of and did it, and it turned out better than I could’ve imagined. Plus we got to spend a day in the desert, which is always fun.

Doug: I see you have a couple of casting assistants credited, what was that process like? Did you have an open audition for the characters?

Christine: We had an open audition, which was interesting. When the actors came in, the first question we asked them was, "Have you ever been involved in a threesome?" The answers we got were pretty insightful. Most people are more experimental than you’d think.

Doug: Did you have a period of rehearsal with the actors? Did they meet each other before or were they just thrown in there?

Christine: No, we didn’t do a rehearsal beforehand. I intentionally wanted them to meet the day of so any immediate chemistry or excitement would read on screen.

Doug: You mentioned to me that you are really proud of the treatment for this video, is there a particular reason why?

Christine: The treatment portrayed my vision very clearly, so if you read the treatment and watch the video, you can see how I got there. I was very prepared with the vision.

Doug: With visual references and a lot of that stuff?

Christine: That's right. There were visual references, there were reasons behind the character, why she was doing what she was doing, and reasons as to why I wanted to make the video - for the audience to become aware of themselves as voyeurs - to catch themselves in the act, if you will.