Guest Blogger: Director Vincent Kavanagh [Nov, 2016]

Guest Blogger, Writer/Director/Editor – Vincent Kavanagh shares a few thoughts about his inspiration for creating  Tenek‘s, “Imitation Of Life’ (Official Music Video).

“My collaboration with Tenek and why it’s cool…

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I am the one responsible for tenek’s new music video. So direct all complaints towards me.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way. One of the most difficult aspects of production I think, is convincing others to believe in your vision in order to land an opportunity that is sought after by countless other talented individuals. So I was quite excited when I received the news that I’d landed my first Music video.
Science fiction is one of those interesting genres. A science fiction film from the 60’s may no longer be considered science fiction today. Films have predicted a lot of new tech. The Simpson’s also predicted president Trump. Just thought I’d throw that into the mix.
Anyway, one of my key inspirations for the concept of the video was the 2009 film “Surrogates” starring Bruce Willis. Now, objectively not the greatest film of all time, but the concept of humanity living through remotely controlled robots was utterly terrifying and fascinating to me.
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But that’s already happening today, to a certain extent. We may not live our lives through a literal artificial lens just yet, but we do project an artificial and often false image of ourselves through social media. Facebook is the principle catalyst. We love to cherry pick moments of our lives and present the best ones to our friends and Family. Holidays, nights out, camera phones which come with a “beauty” filter built right in (and enabled by default) for that perfect egotistic selfie.
Our genetic makeup and hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have taught us to
boast and present ourselves in the most advantageous way in order to attract a member
of the opposite sex so that we may create genetically superior offspring. It makes sense.
But we are no longer instinctual animals, we feel and love and think about how we got
here and where we’re going. We’re capable of reason. We have the power to shape our
reality and make it the very best it can be. Hence the growing number of people rejecting
social media and its false projections.
So to end that rant, the theme that accompanies ‘Imitation of Life‘ is one that I was very much on board with. It was just a matter of pulling it off. Without going into unnecessary details, production was certainly a challenge. I was required to bring on a much larger team than I was used to, and to leave my comfort zone entirely (which fits into the theme of the video now that I think about it). You could say the main character’s journey and my own weren’t so different, in that we were both terrified. Or maybe I’m just projecting. Probably the latter.
In any case, I’m very grateful to Tenek and Cheri for allowing me to build on my skills
(which still very much need building), and for giving me the opportunity to express myself
creatively. It was an absolute pleasure working with such a great band. And look forward
to working with them again.
(Please hire me) ”

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From left to right: Amir Moulfi, Franco Cuen, Peter Steer, Vincent Kavanagh.