In this interview for my book on Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) I speak to pioneering music video film-maker, David Mallet.
Adam Steiner: You have a long history working with David Bowie on music videos for some of his most successful songs, beginning with songs from Lodger, the Kenny Everett Show, and through to Let’s Dance and China Girl — do you have a favorite memory of your time working with Bowie?
David Mallet: When we had David in the clown suit for “Ashes To Ashes”, a man comes by walking his dog–
AS: Ah, wait. I think we’ve heard that one before…
[see my book, Silhouettes And Shadows for a more thorough account – AS]
DM: Ok, how about this, then — we were on the “Loving The Alien” shoot, and at one point, we were filming in front of a huge chimney in the background. Turns out, it was due to be demolished, so we had to have some of that in the film! We got a countdown from the wreckers, and on ‘5’ we started rolling the camera, so the chimney started to topple and someone had forgotten to plug in the camera, so that was a classic ‘lost’ shot. A moment never to be repeated.
AS: It’s interesting you mention that video, I always noticed what I thought were the shadowy arched doorways and windows of De-Chirico’s paintings all through the background of “Loving The Alien”.
DM: Yes, that’s correct. Bowie was great at discovering people that were perhaps less known and bringing them to a general audience. I offered the idea of walking on water, expanding on the religious themes of the song. And the deeper subject matter of The Crusades; in its conversation about the perception between holy men and infidels.
AS: As I understand it, you and Bowie collaborated on the look and storyboarding of the Ashes To Ashes video – how did this process work between star and director?
DM: It was the way we always did it. He would arrive with ideas what the song was about, or his own vision, for instance he said I want to wear clown suit on a beach. ‘That’s silly’, I thought, so let’s go further and solarize it and colourise it, then he added more details upon that. After we had made several videos together we had a kind of shorthand and it got shorter.
AS: What about the rest of the video and its imagery?
DM: I only heard the song once before we started shooting. I do remember I ripped-off Quatermass And The Pit. We had him plugged into the wall. There was always a seed of doubt that he might have been an alien. David also decided the mother from his lyric should be there also, and she should be nagging him. Other than that, it was a complete one-off, Bowie brought his own internal influences to bear.
AS: The whole thing feels like a dream but full of nightmarish aspects, like it could suddenly flip over into a much darker emotional register. The video is perhaps most well-known for Bowie;s pierrot clown costume from the album’s cover art coming to life in the film. Did he ever mention anything about the style choice or deeper meaning behind that look?
DM: It was the incongruity of the clown on the beach, that contrast was its own form of surrealism. The whole thing is very subliminal – all dark waves and burning pink rocks under a big black sky. The great strength of Bowie was not to force too much additional meaning onto his narratives. The whole thing was shot on original 2-inch video tape, it stands up great, even with all the decay. It retains a timeless quality when so much of it felt spontaneous.
[Mallett points out that Bowie’s use of wild juxtaposition, methodical surrealism, was done with intent, but it was left open enough for people to read into it]
AS: How was it directing and working with some of the Blitz Kids on the set?
DM: They were great, a small team of extras, young people on the beach, Steve Strange very witty and very clever.
AS: How did Bowie seem to you at that time ‘79/80? It seems to be the point at which he completely moved on from his addictions, but Scary Monsters still carries/exorcises so much emotional baggage
DM: He was disciplined, upright, the first time I met him in England we went to see Amadeus at the National Theatre.
AS: The “Ashes To Ashes” video seemed to be pushing the envelope in terms of digital editing effects for the period – was this difficult? Were the colours inverted or solarized to make it appear more dreamlike?
DM: It was an effect that came up when filming for the Hot Gossip show, an accidentcaused by an engineer, he eventually found out how to do it – the same engineer and same equipment – so it was one particular, imperfect combination.
AS: Where did the bulldozer idea come from, and the figures reaching down and grasping at the ground?
DM: David said: Let’s have a bulldozer, it was supposed to be the biggest bulldozer in England, the lens made it look closer like they were about to be run over. It was Steve Strange who came up with the swooping arm gesture ‘sanctifying the ground’.
[Bowie would pull a similar move in the “Loving the Alien” video, uh, “Dancing in the Streets” videos too, not just also in “Fashion”.]
AS: I’ve heard wild variations about the cost of the “Ashes” video, so it would be good to set the record straight. Does £25,000 sound about right, or was it really £250,000? Of course, I’ll need to adjust these figures for inflation…
DM: In all, it cost about £32,000 in 1980 money [Adjusting for inflation, we’re looking at about £133,000 in 2024 – AS]. At that time we spent £700 total in a few hours for a band promo video. “Ashes To Ashes” took three days of shooting, no-one was spending money on music videos in those days.
AS: Many people claim that Ashes was one of the first ever music video; how do you view its legacy now?
DM: The legacy is that it is worth spending time and money, and skill, on a music video, compared to film and theatre. It elevated the format and helped establish it as an art form.
AS: The Fashion video was much more straightforward shoot, where did the parade of dancers concept in the club come from?
DM: The idea was to make it smell of New York and the characters who were around at that time, a collage of images from that era, it was deliberately dated to look more like early to mid-1970s New York.
AS: Let’s Dance is a legendary music video in its own right; as much for it’s iconic 80s look as it’s political subtext. Did David spend a lot of explaining his thoughts behind the song and the video?
DM: Very much so, the concept was from him, of course a very political edge. The good old boys in the boy were taking the piss; any minute they were going to beat us all up.
AS: Both the song and the video for “Let’s Dance”, share themes of racism and forbidden love, but Bowie seemed determined to make a political point? My impression of the video was of equality in love, so let’s dance and enjoy ourselves, as suggested by the red shoes?
DM: He’d latched on to another aspect of racism in Australia; social divides against native aboriginal people.
The girl puts on the red shoes – meanwhile – there is a shot like a nuclear blast on the skyline behind the mountains. Something horrific has happened but we never quite find out what it is. The shoes themselves are a nod to the movie “Red Shoes”, by Powell and Pressburger.
DAVID MALLET
With a career going back to the early days of comedy with the likes of the Kenny Everett Show to ground breaking music television, David Mallet has made some of the most outstanding music videos and films. Find out more about his long career in film at Serpent Films.
Read more about David’s work on Bowie’s 1980 video, Ashes To Ashes, in my book – Silhouettes And Shadows
