To mark our tenth(!!) anniversary this year, we’re excited to begin interviewing and showcasing our incredible client base.
First up, the one and only Andy Little. Andy’s been working with us for years now, predominantly shooting music videos and concerts. Sam from On8Mil spoke with Andy a few weeks ago, a few days after he was shooting on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Let’s jump right in!
SAM: What was it that first got you into film?
ANDY: There was a certain filmmaker, a Scottish filmmaker called Blair Young, and he did a lot of music videos and I loved something about the style of them. And this was 15 years ago, and I could never put my finger on what it was about it that looked good. I became aware that it was all shot on 16mm. And I was just like, how do I make my work kind of look like that?
SAM: Did you start with Super 8, or did you go straight to 16mm?
ANDY: Yeah, I shot Super 8 just because that was the most accessible. I just did a few rolls on a few personal projects. One of the main things I did was weddings. I did them a lot with Craig Goode from Silver & Light.
SAM: Oh yeah, over in Saltaire?
ANDY: Yeah. So I did a lot of weddings, and then just started to trickle feed it into some of the music projects that I was doing. It was always at my own expense. And then all of a sudden I’d got a couple of great looking projects under my belt that I’d shot on film. People were like, oh yeah, I want to get in on a bit of that.
Midlake’s ‘Live at the Roundhouse’ album, 2022, featuring Andy’s work on the cover
ANDY: Film footage makes the edit really easy. It almost edits itself, with the transitions and light leaks. I always really liked how digital footage and 8mm footage edits together, the graininess of the 8mm and the clarity of the digital footage, they sit together really well.
SAM: Can you give an overview of some of the people you’ve worked with?
ANDY: The biggest one is Michael Kiwanuka. The thing that’s exciting about working with him is that his sound is timeless. Shooting on the Bolex, it just has that quality to it. And he loves it. So Michael Kiwanuka, who else?
SAM: The Howl and The Hum, right? And Idles.
ANDY: Yeah. So Howl and the Hum, I’ve done quite a lot with them on film.
SAM: Are you getting your jobs through word of mouth?
ANDY: It’s been a hundred percent word of mouth. Quite a lot of it’s come through social media. It often comes through recommendations from other creatives.
I’d definitely say all of the coolest jobs and all the things I’m most proud of is work that I’ve shot on film. And that has definitely become the thing that’s propelled me to these higher places.
All the things I’m most proud of are on film. Shooting on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. I got a Midlake special edition album cover. That’s screengrabs from the digital scans and I was like, they were one of my favourite bands!
SAM: So shooting on film really makes you stand out.
ANDY: There’s something really unique looking about film and the beauty it brings to things. And that’s what I love. Midlake. Ash. I shot some Pigeon Detectives stuff on film a while back.
‘Polygod’ by Hayden Thorpe, official video directed by Andy Little
ANDY: But the one with Hayden Thorpe. That was the first time somebody had approached me that I would consider a bit of a hero. Somebody who’s like, I love Wild Beasts. And Hayden approached me out of the blue because he saw that I’d been shooting on film. That showed me that my work was starting to spread a bit.
SAM: How easy did you find it to learn to shoot on film?
ANDY: Super 8 is easy peasy. I love it because you can get away with a lot more of the mistakes. That’s all part of it. That’s part of the charm. My advice for anybody new would be to make sure to get a camera with an auto exposure.
SAM: And then what about going over to 16mm?
ANDY: So the results, when you get it right, are absolutely amazing. But I’m not going to lie. I find it so stressful. I still get it wrong. Often I’m shooting at gigs or these situations where it’s a bit more run and gun. For example, I was changing a roll of 16mm on an amp at the back of the Pyramid Stage, mid-gig.
So much of the stuff I’m most proud of on Bolex and 16mm is when it’s gone wrong, because it creates something completely unique. Some of the Michael Kiwanuka footage that you guys scanned, I think I’ve either shot with the loop forms closed or there was an issue with the camera and it went through a weird shutter speed and the footage came back all blurry.
SAM: Oh yeah, that was probably a misload, where the film was a little too tight in the camera. So you get flashes that are sometimes in focus, but most of it is blurry.
ANDY: I was devastated when I got that back. But then skip forward to a few years later, and that’s what Michael Kiwanuka’s using as his visuals. I’m not going to lie, I do find shooting on the Bolex stressful, but I love it. And that kind of not knowing how the footage is going to come out, I find that quite exciting.
I’ve not had any formal training with this. I’ve just learned myself just from getting the camera and figuring it out myself. That’s how I’ve done it.
I get really excited when there’s something a bit odd about the footage. I’m not interested in the really super clean image. That’s not what I shoot film for. I’m interested in the little bits of weirdness and uniqueness that’s there. You just can’t replicate that on digital.
Andy’s visuals projected behind Michael Kiwanuka on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2024
If you’d like to chat to us about your work, please get in touch with Sam here.
