Love & Salt
What is the story behind your music video?
"Amor y Sal" is a song that basically talks about love stories in general, seeing how these are formed and eventually disappear, suddenly they emerge, and then they are shipwrecked. The song talks about the frustration of realizing from the beginning that it wasn't going to work out and that it always ends up falling apart halfway.
The Music Video takes place mostly inside a train, narrating from an imaginary world the different stops which symbolize the stages that life presents us with and the people we meet during those stages.
The video tells the story of this every day that is happening in parallel and happens to many people where we live in a constant movement and meet many people and learn differently from many people, where we fall in love and fall out of love.
You can learn more about this project at https://diegoante.com/portfolio/amor-y-sal/
What should people take away after watching your music video?
How love feels in different stages of our lives, how we think we fall in love for a second, and then we realize we have grown in so many ways that now we want new or different things. That's what the train represents, the different stages of live, where we keep moving and defining who we are so that we're able to define who and what we want in our lives.
What interesting thing happened to you during the filming?
The idea of faking a train in an interior was hilarious because we had to create a way to simulate that the train was moving. I always had the idea of having light coming through the windows in a way that it could show that we were moving, and that's when the lighting department came up with the idea of having all those mirrors turning at the outside of the "train", constantly moving to simulate that the train was actually moving forward, even giving the illusion that we entered tunnels at some points. Also, the first scene where we have Laura and Lucía being "sucked in" by the sofa, was very fun to shoot because the effect was all practical.
How many people worked on the production of the video clip?
I'm not sure of the exact number, but we had a small crew because we had to adapt to all of the covid limitations. Yet still looking at all the practical effects, the art, production and camera department, and what they have achieved is amazing to see how well it all turned out.
What creation style did you use in the production of your project?
This project was completely handheld for the train scene, as we had to feel the wagon's movement when there wasn't any movement. We used mirrors on the outside of the wagon, which were constantly turning to give that feel of movement at the inside of the train as if we were actually speeding up, and sometimes playing with the lights to simulate getting in a tunnel or under a bridge. This gave a lot of options and rhythm to the edit. And it was awesome to keep that hot feeling inside the train, even though we were shooting in Bogotá in a very rainy season.
I think this allowed us to be faithful to the Latino essence without compromising the cinematography.
How did you select the actors for your project?
Laura and Lucía (Las Villa) are also dancers, and this was a music video that was driven by its choreography. We started to cast dancers to decide who was the perfect fit for them, to play with the idea of Las Villa being playful and flirtatious with the guys, where the other females could express their jealousy. So they had to have the ability to act and convey the emotion of the scene.
Do you have any advice for up-and-coming filmmakers?
Do you have any advice for up-and-coming filmmakers?
This might seem like the advice that everyone gives, but it is so true! Please, keep dreaming... Because I think those dreams are what really forms you and your own taste and style. Learn as much as you can so that you have more tools whenever you're proposing an idea. Learn how to create things by yourself, even if you can then ask someone which is much better to do the final product, but having the understanding of how things work, will allow you to collaborate and create even cooler things.
If you could change something in your music video, what would it be?
To be honest, nothing. The essence of the video is its own constraints which then defined a path to have this music video, so every step of the process has been awesome and allowed us to ask ourselves constantly how we can become better problem solvers so that the audience can be surprised when they see the video?
What topics do you like to address in your stories?
Emotions clearly, I think I've talked so much about them that it is my main focus. So while I can find new ways to talk about love, loss, happiness, joy, nostalgia... I try to keep very real with the emotion that the people could relate to. It doesn't matter if I want to depict a family of aliens, somehow people have to be able to relate to them and feel as if they could know them, even as if they could be them, or at least understand their motivations.
What is your motivation in making your projects?
To be able to tell stories in different ways, I think both films and music videos allow us to connect with people through stories. Many of my favorite songs are telling a story, where you have something to relate to. I think our only real legacy is the stories we tell, so I found this is my way of telling what I think, believe, and am.
Which contemporary filmmakers motivate you the most?
Damien Chazelle, Salomon Ligthelm, Diego Contreras, Cristopher Nolan to name a few.
What projects do you plan to shoot in the future?
I want to keep pushing the boundaries both in film and music videos, with new narrative styles and a more dynamic approach. So any projects that challenge me to think differently or to create in new ways, are the ones that I'm looking for.
Diego Ante is a Colombian director who has been working for more than ten years in the advertising industry and answering the question of "how to tell stories excitingly?".
He is a self-taught director, so he is constantly searching for how to do things differently and efficiently. Diego's career began as a Creative, working for the BBDO network, allowing him to understand advertising from the inside out. This has built his vision as a Director on what is essential for brands from a business point of view. He's also a painter and illustrator; and has worked as a lead compositor in post-production projects, and the mixture of these areas allows him to create eye-catching projects.
This has allowed him to bring a lot of craft into his projects, thinking about lighting, color, and art direction and making him able to imagine every detail before shooting any scene.
His love for music has allowed him to work with clients such as Warner Music Group, directing music videos with a strong narrative background.
In 2022, his music videos Poema and Amor & Sal, for the Latinoamerican duo Las Villa, won several awards in Munich, Paris, Los Angeles, Prague, Berlin, Budapest, and London, as Best Music Video, Best Latin American Music Video, Best South American Music Video, Best Director and Best Male Director.
He always has in mind what is needed in the different production stages, anticipating solutions from pre-production to post-production, accelerating the dynamics of the team without losing sight of the quality of the final result.
Diego is a versatile director who understands that post-production is a process that adds, catalyzes, and enhances, not a process that corrects. Therefore, within this experience, he is also aware of when to use it and when not to use it without losing the focus on telling memorable stories that generate a strong and emotional connection with the audience.
Links:
https://diegoante.com/