Video Chats: NORTON on "Elevate" by St. Lucia

Getting evicted from your apartment from your apartment is no fun. That is, unless you’re the members of the band St. Lucia in the video for "Elevate," in which case getting kicked out of your apartment just means one last chance to throw a super awesome rooftop party/concert. Directed by NORTON and shot in Williamsburg, Brooklyn,  "Elevate" stars the residents of New York as much as it does the band, taking time to focus on the people that they encounter in the city doing their daily routines. We talked to NORTON about the video, shooting it with his roommate Jackson Hunt in NYC, and why commissioner Saul Levitz was mean enough to evict the band from their apartment.

Doug St. Lucia is a New York based band, is that why this video was shot out there?

NORTON: The true reason the video was shot in Brooklyn is because of the idea behind it. When I got the brief for "Elevate" it mentioned having the band in the video and involving their neighborhood and studio building, because they are actually (true story) really getting evicted. That neighborhood is where Jean (the brain behind St. Lucia) and Patti (his wife, who plays keyboard and does vocals on the project) live. And their studio building is also in the same neighborhood, where HAERTS, The Dap Kings, and other musician friends of theirs have studios as well. They’re all also getting evicted.

Doug: How did you determine what parts of New York would feature in this video?

NORTON: The nature of the treatment dictated that the shooting locations would all be around the same neighborhood, in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But I did have a particular vision for each vignette. I looked at classic Brooklyn street photography by Jamel Shabazz and other artists, but also pulled references from some great Adidas spots from a couple of years ago. For the skaters, I wanted a location that would fit them, with street art on the walls, that kind of vibe. The puerto ricans playing domino, I found that location that obviously screamed Puerto Rico and fit our set up nicely by conveying the pride and nostalgia of these immigrants. After scouting for fire hydrants, we decided on that one, for photography and production reasons. Trying to get hasidic jewish people on camera is virtually impossible, so we had to be content with only seeing those school buses with hebrew writings on them and the back of one of the drivers. I love one shot where you see one of the skaters and a hasidic school bus drives behind him. That wasn’t planned, it’s just how that neighborhood is, it has all these different cultures mixed together - which is what we wanted to capture with this video. The locations that featured the band are their real studio locations. True that we shot in both the HAERTS studio for their rehearsal, but we shot in Jean’s recording studio and also Andy Baldwin’s mixing studio, and their real rooftop. Andy mixes both St. Lucia and HAERTS, along with Björk and other amazing talents. We made it a point that he’d be featured in the video as well. You can see him in front of a massive sound board along with Jean and later on the rooftop dancing like a mad man! It’s funny because Andy was also in the HAERTS music video for Wings earlier this year dressed as a clown, so we’re determined to make him a music video star.

Crew waiting for next shot. DP Jackson Hunt (in the hat), AD Aaron David DeFazio (in red shirt) and NORTON (in blue shirt)

Doug: Were all the people on the street found naturally? Or were they cast?

NORTON: Almost everyone was cast with the help of my producer Dave Brody, except for the older domino player and the younger guy looking over, as well as a couple of the skater kids. As for the older domino player, Julio, I felt like we needed this one guy that just looked really genuine and not actor-y at all, so I walked into a deli around the corner from Jean and Patti’s and asked the guy behind the counter if he knew of anyone on the older side that was a big domino player; he yells out “Julio, viene aqui!” and this older gentleman comes out all smiley and curious, and with very little convincing says yes to being in the video. The skaters we got looked great but their skating abilities didn’t match their look. But all of a sudden a crew member said: “There are a couple of kids down the street shooting a skating video.” So I ran down and as I turned the corner there were— and I’m not exaggerating—about 15 skaters hanging out and doing tricks. I turned to a group of them and asked: “you guys wanna be in a music video?” And that’s how the australian skater (the white skater that got a couple of close-ups in the video) and his friend got to be in the video.

Doug: Jackson Hunt shot this video for you, and he is also your roommate. Did that make the working relationship any different than it would be if you guys didn't live together?

NORTON: Maybe not the fact that we’re roommates as much as the fact that we’re friends. When you know someone well, I think it makes for quicker decisions, less formalities, so - while still obviously keeping it professional—it was great to have that element of familiarity with him. Jackson was my first choice and this being my first true lifestyle video I really needed someone like him to support my inexperience in the genre. I learned a lot from him on that one day of shooting and also just by picking his brain beforehand on how he shoots his videos, in particular the Solange video. It was nice to know his secrets, his favorite lenses and other things like that—now I can sell them for a fee to other DPs. But seriously, we were lucky that Jackson’s schedule worked out and he was able to fit this video in between his two other Beyoncé videos that week.

Jenny Winslow, Erin Hogan-Braker, Deirdre Muro, and Patti Beranek in African tribal masks

Doug: Why is Saul Levitz such a jerk that he evicts the band?

NORTON: That’s just who Saul is, man. It’s a shame...

Just kidding, Saul couldn’t be further from a jerk, he was great to work with. Having been one himself, I feel like he understands us directors really well. It was nice to feel that kind of support. This was such a special and intimate video, because having known Jean (aka St. Lucia) for such a long time (we’re close friends) it was the complete opposite from any other band situation I had dealt with before. Usually you don’t even meet the band until the shoot day. For one reason or another we hadn’t been able to do a video together yet - like a real video. I had shot a “I’m bored, let’s shoot something right now” kinda video before, years ago one afternoon, just Jean, Patti and I, but that wasn’t even for St. Lucia and is never gonna see the light of day. This was obviously on a whole different level. I think we all did great at respecting everybody’s job and responsibilities in this video, like true professionals. Shout out to Roach, the band’s manager, who was great and pretty crucial.

But to answer your indirect question, when the production designer asked me what I wanted her to write on the notices, I suggested one of them should read Saul Levitz, as a meta-joke. And actually, according to the eviction notice, Saul is also being evicted, by (funny enough) Shongololo, which is the name of Jean’s studio. And speaking of meta, I think I managed to have an element from almost all my previous videos in this one. For instance, the masks that Patti and her friends are dancing with in "Elevate" were the source of inspiration for the tribal masks in my The Aston Shuf?e "Sunrise" video months ago - Patti sometimes does this dance at parties at their place, when she grabs one of their african masks and dances around, so I really wanted that in the video. But also one of the couples on the rooftop (Jess and Jono, actors and not a couple in real life) were the stars in my French Horn Rebellion "Dancing Out" video; and the HAERTS studio where we shot St. Lucia performing was also in my Killer Shoes video, and on that video, drummer Nick Brown also has a cameo (look for him!). So it was all tied together nicely. In the PAPA video, for instance, the bathroom guy (actor Dinarte Freitas) was also in my Killer Shoes video as the homeless guy. This is sort of a dream of mine, to have a connecting thread, however meta, in my work.