This article was originally published on THUMP UK.When Will Bevan dropped Rival Dealer fans and critics went ballistic—and not just because it was a new Burial release. The three track EP was divisive for the right reasons; a sonic minefield as dark as you'd expect from Burial, but with more human inflections than anything we'd heard from him before. Scattered with vocal samples, meddled with symptoms of both hope and confusion, Rival Dealer sounds as right for the dance floor as it does on the lonely night bus home.The title track is an 11-minute long heart-wrench, with peaks and troughs more turbulent than a tricky, Friday night gram of whatever. It grows and recoils, a track that pounds like a rave anthem with a head full of blood. Ben Dawkins, director of production company The Sweet Shop, heard the track and took from it inspiration for a beautiful short film, entitled Dealer.Picking its way through the urban catastrophe that is London at night Dealer follows the steps of Curtis, leading him through less familiar back alleys and introducing characters recognisable to anybody whose found themselves a part of a cautionary tale. THUMP spoke to him about what exactly inspired the film.THUMP: Hi Ben, how did the idea for Dealer come about?Ben Dawkins: I'd been working up a few ideas for short and feature films when the Rival Dealer EP came out last December. One of the ideas really connected with the title track, so I began adapting the narrative to see if it would work throughout the entire 11-minute duration. For this, I developed a treatment that sat somewhere between a traditional promo and short film.What were the first things about the track that stood out to you? What images started forming?Ben Dawkins: The thing that really stood out about the track is the amount of warmth and heart it projects. While brutal in parts, the tune's over riding sense of optimism is what accentually changed the course of my original narrative - and for the better, I might add. It made me completely re-think the main character from a stereotyped thug, to someone you actually felt total empathy. Burial's music has always housed a very cinematic quality to it, so forming visual ideas from the music felt very natural. For me, the track has a clear beginning, middle and end, so constructing the visuals to work with this simple principle seemed obvious.Dealer is filmed in London. Does Burial's music have a particularly "London" sound to you? Could it have been filmed anywhere else?Ben Dawkins: The overriding story could work anywhere, but for me Burial's sound is 100% London. I couldn't see the film being made anywhere else. I guess when I say that I mean his "overall" sound. The Rival DealerEP went away from the more typical sound you'd attach to Burial. The title track though had London all over it, from the background audio to speech samples.Of course, I wanted to utilise all the atmospheric gun cocking, distant train lines and rain drops you hear across everything that is Burial. I shouldn't finish this explanation without mentioning Munzie Thind, over at Grand Central, London, for adding the extra audio across the entire film. With him, everything else "London" wouldn't be there.The story line draws on a fair few stereotypes—the dealer, the punters, the partner and child at home. How did you decide who to portray?Ben Dawkins: Connecting the narrative idea and track meant looking at all the characters—especially that of Curtis, the lead. It was incredibly important for me that the audience felt a bond with him, and didn't view him as a criminal. He is accentually just a guy trying to support his family—the one thing he can't afford to loose. I set up this idea right from the start, because it makes Curtis much more venerable.As for the punters, I wanted specifically higher end drug users, not desperate addicts looking for a fix. Celebrities, bankers, rich kids—the kind of people who really drive the market. This "more approachable" client base has accentually made it easier for Curtis to conduct business for longer. More than that of your average street dealer, but has also softening him up somewhat.What else was it about the song that made it suitable for the video?Ben Dawkins: As I was able to adapt the story to fit the track, the song ended up driving the whole narrative. It meant I could use every aspect of the audio and edit the footage accordingly. Each segment of the track invoked a different visual look and feel, so I let it influence everything creating a more harmonious result. The most important thing for me was not to edit the track in, anyway.
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