Down Your Memory Lane: Making Anorak

I thought it might be nice to share some recollections of our films in the form of a little “making of”, for anyone who might have wondered what goes into making a Fake Dog Film. If nothing else, it’ll keep our memory fresh.

I figured I’d start with a nice, simple one; our music video for The LK. Despite the length of its unwieldy title, Anorak and Other Complicated Words Beginning With an A, the video itself is well under 2 minutes. Upon re-watching the film, the first thing I was shocked to realise was that its release date was May 26th 2007! Almost 2 years ago. Time enough, then, for some analysis.

Anorak began after an unexpected meeting with the Swedish duo The LK after they played a gig in Galway. I had never heard of them before that, but after an impressive show Paul and I ended up talking to them. They were very nice; they gave us a beer, and we told them we’d make them a video. We listened to their album, which was very poppy and electronic, and tried to pick out a song that we thought might make a good video. Inevitably, we ended up picking the opening track. Its brevity may have had something to do with it, as the only other music video we had released at this point was just over a minute long.

After Paul and I settled on a concept, I mailed a few sketches and the basic premise along to the band. They seemed to like it, and asked if we could play with the colours in it a bit, which we did. As the most available actors we knew, Paul and I decided we would play most of the parts; a handy mixture of vanity and convenience. Paul played the main part, and I played all the others, bar the female ones (though I’m sure even that was considered at some point). On reflection, Paul agrees that “logistically, it was very handy for Dara to play so many parts. It added to the surrealism of the video – a community of Daras.” A terrifying thought, indeed.

And so, the two of us set off with a camera, tripod and a gear bag of various costumes to our location in Mervue, Galway. Heading down in costume in a pair of shorts, with an Ireland jersey and a big jacket, Paul quipped I looked like I could be the next Ireland manager (a position which was in doubt at the time). I changed costumes as we went along, using a bush in front of a church as my changing room, surprisingly, to little scandal. I shot Paul’s shots, and he shot mine. That was the extent of our crew. The shoot went relatively smoothly, with some lovely weather and only one public altercation; upon viewing my “Alcoholic” costume, an elderly man left his house to give us a good telling off. We quickly won him over by agreeing with everything he said, though, and continued on shooting. After we had shot all we could on our own, it was time to call on the ladies to play their parts.

The “Attentive” mother was played by Julie Tierney (who also appears in Distance and Crackdown 2) and “A” was played by Caoimhe Connelly. As we only had one Anorak, we had to shoot Paul’s and Caoimhe’s scenes separately, swapping anorak and label. Cheap, but effective. With a little help from Caoimhe, we took the shot with me and Paul. We spontaneously decided Paul should look up to the sky, as he had looked down from it at the beginning. This came about when Paul mentioned he had seen “someone looking up at the sky and it looked cool.” After the closing tracking shot, we noticed increasing delinquent activity in the area and, with the film pretty much in the bag, we decided to call it a day. As good a reason as any, I believe.

Paul and I have always had a soft spot for Anorak. It was one of our quickest shoots. It was shot in one day, on one tape, with time to spare. The only two people on set for the majority of the shoot were us. I’ve always thought film sets are more fun with less people, and Anorak was fun to shoot. As Paul says, “It was really enjoyable to shoot, we knocked it out in an evening.” Looking back, I see a lot of faults, especially with the editing. There are certain edits that don’t really work for me, and I don’t think they did at the time, they were just out of necessity. It wouldn’t fly now, but it’s nice to see a progression in our work (after 2 years, I’d hope so!). I still think the premise is strong, though. It’s about as overtly high-brow as Fake Dog has gone. This may be the reason it is our most divisive video. Some people hate it – and they tell us! The main complaint being “I didn’t get it.” This made us very conscious of the video’s faults, for a while. That’s why we take a special pride when someone tells us they like Anorak – and they tell us, sometimes.

Watch Anorak in our films section.
See photos from the shoot.

— Dara

Leave a comment ...

1. 2 years ago, oh my goodness.

   — Paul · May 12, 07:22 AM · #

2. Of course, THE FUTURIST! loves ANORAK. He rated it 4 stars. It’s a favorite of his, too. Who would dare to say they hated it? It has elements that later works lack. This one has an artistic bent.

   — THE FUTURIST! · May 12, 11:33 AM · #

3. One day and one tape, wow! Ye’ve gone through a lot more on later shoots. It’s cool to see how it’s all evolved!

   — Gearóid · May 12, 11:39 AM · #

4. Anorak is made of win. It’s easily one of my favourites… Who didn’t get it??

   — Paul(Random Numbers) · May 12, 01:19 PM · #

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