By Hannah Story
Sydney filmmaker Chris Elder wasn’t always an Ed Sheeran fan. After watching the singer’s documentary, The Sum of It All, he developed a newfound respect for the singer.
“Once I got to see that, it opened me up to his musicianship and his music,” he says.
Actors Rita Kara and Shameer Birges with director Chris Elder (centre) on the set for Ed Sheeran’s Amazing.Credit: Declan Blackall
In fact, Elder’s taste in music was rather the opposite of Sheeran’s pop balladry, having been part of the Sydney music scene for years as a vocalist in several hardcore bands.
About 12 years ago, he transitioned into making video clips for other members of the community.
Now he’s the lens behind clips by artists across genres from Sydney metalcore outfit Polaris to more mainstream acts Peking Duk and Illy. But Elder never could have known that his experience in the local industry would lead him to make a film clip for Sheeran, for his song Amazing.
He made the clip over just five days, filming much of it in his parents’ house in the south of Sydney. “I didn’t tell [my parents] at all what this entire concept was or who it was for,” says Elder.
The result of the filmmaker’s efforts is a deeply personal video told through the stories of three people: a father who gets his groove back when he returns to the football field; a woman who evades authorities to attend a wedding; and a teenage boy who tries to raise money to buy a keytar.
Elder took inspiration from both his life and Sheeran’s.
For example, an early scene of a fire in the kitchen calls back to a house fire when he was growing up, when his dad forgot to turn off the stove. And in a nod to Elder’s hardcore roots, the aunty character sports the T-shirt for Sydney hardcore band Speed.
A reference to Sheeran comes in the form of a football jersey spotted in the locker room: Ipswich Town, the singer’s favourite team.
Elder was also keen to make the video distinctly Australian. “I leaned into the idea that it’s impossible for somebody to create an Australian video overseas,” he explains.
“Quite often, the pop culture representation of Australia is that Crocodile Dundee or Steve Irwin level of Australiana. I didn’t feel like that was an accurate representation of Australian life.”
That intention led to the inclusion of a lamington-eating competition and a footy game.
But hold up a minute: how did a Sydney creative wind up making a clip for one of the world’s biggest pop stars? With lamingtons in it?
In October, Elder won a global callout for fan-filmmakers to make music videos for Sheeran’s latest album Autumn Variations. His entry representing Australia joined clips from filmmakers from Japan, Germany, Mexico and beyond.
The prize came with a midsized budget. Elder decided to use the money to make the best film clip possible – spending the bulk on production costs including catering and locations.
To supplement the budget, he relied on his own money, donations from companies such as camera equipment from ARRI Australia, and unpaid labour from the cast and crew.
“I never like [asking people to work for free],” says Elder. “I wouldn’t have asked anyone else to work without pay if I wasn’t doing it myself. Because that wouldn’t be fair.”
Editor Rodrigo Torres live-edited the clip with a face covered in lamingtons.Credit: Declan Blackall
It’s something the actors and cast were comfortable with. The editor, Rodrigo Torres, who also cameos in the lamington-eating scene, says: “It was an opportunity to give up six days of time to get this title. It was worth it.”
Actor Rita Kara, who starred as the mother in the clip, stresses that the experience was rewarding despite the lack of financial compensation, thanks to Elder’s care and appreciation for his team.
“Everyone on this production just put so much heart into it,” she says. “You know when you go on a school camp, and you’re only there for a few days, but you just feel like you’ve bonded really closely? It just felt like that.”
But the team had set themselves a formidable task. They had just a week from filming to get the clip to Sheeran’s team, and decided that Torres would edit it live on set.
The short time frame meant there was no time for reshoots, but live-editing kept them on track. They knew immediately whether there were the shots they needed to tell the story – and could get feedback immediately from the whole cast and crew.
“It sounds harder than it is, I guess,” says Torres. “But because I’ve been working for a long time, it was actually a really exciting challenge.”
Never mind that he was live-editing between takes of his cameo scene. “In between set-ups, Elder would call ‘cut’. I couldn’t touch my face, I’d grab the hard-drive, go and edit with a face full of lamington,” he says with a laugh.
Elder doesn’t know whether Sheeran has seen the clip himself, but notes it has been shared to the musician’s YouTube and Instagram pages.
“He may have watched it, but I’m not expecting him to,” Elder admits with a shrug. “A big goal of mine was always to work with an international artist. And I hadn’t really ever been given that opportunity until this popped up. To do something that I’ve always wanted to do is amazing.”
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