Beyond the Wizards Sleeve – better known as producers Erol Alkan and Richard Norris –released their LP The Soft Bounce earlier this year. The record features guest appearances from a variety of singers and artists, including Jane Weaver, Blaine Harrison of Mystery Jets, Jon Savage and Holly Miranda. Alongside the album, the pair have been piecing together a short film directed by BAFTA-award winning filmmaker Kieran Evans. It knits together five clips accompanying tracks from the debut album, and now those segments have been weaved together into one, unified whole: And So to Sleep. Watch the full film below.
Evans talked at great length about the short film: “The story of And So To Sleep begins with me receiving an email from Erol and Richard with a track attached that they wanted my opinion on. It was called ‘Black Crow’ and it was brilliant. The incredible scope and ambition of the track had me frantically emailing them back with superlatives and congratulations and asking what else they had up their sleeves (no pun intended).”
He continued: “Each track sounded immense and thrilling, fusing many musical influences and genres in to something completely unique. To say I was excited was an understatement. Rich and Erol emailed me asking if I was up for making a promo for ‘Diagram Gir’l.’ I emailed them straight back and asked if they might be interested in me making a short film featuring the five tracks they sent. Over several cups of coffee, a plan was hatched, a budget was agreed and a dedicated producer in Drew Smith O’Neill was found.”
Evans also talked about the influences behind the film: “Drawing on the influences of these French New Wave films alongside the surreal photography of Arthur Tress and the staging ideas of Samuel Beckett, I wrote an outline for And So To Sleep that featured the story of two characters, Emily and Francois, lost in a dream state that finds them trapped within a strange house populated by weird masked characters who occupy rooms, loaded with symbols, sinister shadows and surreal logic. The idea was that over the five chapters, we’d create something sinister and foreboding in places, playful and tongue-in-cheek in others. The overall effect was to create a dream like state where movements are weird, time slips back and forth, images are reflected or twisted as we interweave the story of Emily and Francois around these events as they try to navigate their way through their dreams.”
