Making of Big Boss Man’s ‘Last Man Man On Earth’ Video

Ahead of the release of their fourth album (September 1st 2014 on Blow Up) Big Boss Man have been busy filming two new videos in Bristol. The first, and album title track ‘ Last Man On Earth ‘, sees the band as never before as (almost) unrecogniseable mod zombies stalking the streets of post-apocalyptic Bristol with a cameo from guest vocalist Princess Freesia. Director and photographer Marcus Way takes us behind the scenes… The new Big Boss Man video for Last Man on Earth concept was born from an idea created by the band, after discussing the details and the feel of the track, a post apocalyptic/mod zombie theme was decided. We had some simple webcam footage from Princess Freesia recorded and sent from Australia, for the vocal track which was to be inserted into a retro TV set in a 60’s style room shot on location in a vintage furnishing warehouse in Bristol, now for some zombie action. After a couple of hours of the band tearing up and dusting down their best mod zombie threads and attempting to poke scary contact lenses into their eyeballs, Scott, Nass, Des and Trev, in full undead garb, hauled musical instruments down disused railway tracks to an area of heavily graffitied warehouses in South Bristol. I directed them to distort their reanimated corpses as people went past on their evening runs and walks with their dogs. The Big Boss Men played the part wonderfully shaking heads and dragging feet like the crazed living dead they were. To complete the changeover we needed an extra scene to take us from the relative comfort of our suburban house out into the streets crawling with the undead, I devised an old style news report with actor Mike Bidmead, the TV crackles into an important news report that takes precedence over the original programming. The song stops and all eyes and ears turn to the TV to hear of the horror! To complete the feel of change and shutdown I shot the full moon passing through the night, time lapses of boiling, moody, cloud filled skies and a series of time lapses of Oxalis triangularis (Love Plant/False Shamrock) closing down. The final scene has the gang of rotting zombies sensing the viewer and moving toward them preparing to tuck in! The very final shot is a 7 hour, night to day time lapse overlooking Bristol, the final moments, life rushing before your eyes before you slip away, only to return as something abominable. As always it was a pleasure to work with Big Boss Man and I believe we have created something with just the right balance of horror and kitsch to entertain! Check out the  final video for ‘Last Man On Earth’ here  • Stills courtesy of Marcus Way at  marcusway.com