Interview With 'Soon We'll Be Found' Director 17-09-2008 03:15 | 0 comment(s) | As a special treat, siamusic.net brings you an interview straight from the director's chair as we speak to Claire Carré - the magnificent mind behind the video for Sia's forthcoming single, 'Soon We'll Be Found.' What inspired the basic concept of the video and who came up with the idea of using sign language? Was it input from Sia or was it your visual response to the lyrics? It was Sia's idea to incorporate sign language in the video -I was told she would like to include it in some way when I received the song to write the treatment. I loved the idea of doing the entire video in sign language instead of lip synching the vocals. A music video is a visualization of the song, and the sign language is an interpretation of the song into a visual language, so it's a perfect fit. What was the purpose behind using so many different kinds of light sources and the shadows they create? I wanted to explore different aspects of sign language. In the first section where Sia is performing under regular lights, the sign language is treated in its linguistic form as a method of communication, and the focus is on the performative aspect of the ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation. The shadow section is kind of a creative expansion on the relationship between signs and their meaning. The shadows of the hands directly transform into things themselves, and create an imaginary world around Sia. Where the shadow section is more two-dimensional, the UV section is four-dimensional and plays with the shapes of the signs in time and space (particularly with the trailing effect) and the extension of the signs as expressive gestures into the realm of dance. How difficult was it filming in UV lighting? Actually setting up the lights for the UV section was surprisingly easy. Harder was getting the UV makeup to look good. We did 4 makeup tests prior to the shoot, and as a result several of us had faces that glowed in the dark all week. How many different sets of hands were used to create the shadow puppets? With the exception of the grass, all of the shadow hands were performed by puppeteer Ken Berman. We planned and storyboarded the shadow scenes beforehand, and then during the shoot he stood behind a white screen and created each shadow element individually. Later I combined and manipulated his hand shadows and placed everything over the brick background. It was put together in such a way that it could have been created live, but shooting everything separately provided more flexibility and required only one talented shadow maker instead of a large team. There is a scene in the video where Sia and a few friends are using sign language to sign the lyrics to the song - how many takes did you need to do before you got this scene just right? Did you have people forgetting what they were signing next? (Similarly to an actor forgetting their lines?). We actually only did about four takes of the wide shot of everyone signing together. Two of the signer/dancers, Russell Harvard (from "there will be blood") and Alexandria Wailes (also our choreographer), are fluent in asl, and the other four dancers had been practicing during the morning while we were shooting Sia alone. To keep their timing aligned, Keith Wann, who created the ASL interpretation of the song, was behind the camera watching Sia and signing synchronized with her speed, while the dancers matched their speed to his. - In terms of forgetting "lines," in addition to rehearsals, Keith created a video of the ASL that Sia and I used to practice with on our own for a week before the shoot so that on the shoot day Sia rarely forgot a sign. Have you ever worked with sign language before? Do you think it worked well as the main focus of the video? I had never worked with sign language before. I had studied mime, which is a totally different form of silent expression, and may have influenced some of my ideas for the dance choreography, but I don't know ASL. I did research for a month before the shoot and watched at least a hundred ASL interpretations of songs on youtube. I noticed what affected me as a hearing viewer, and read the comments about what deaf viewers found particularly moving or disliked in a particular interpretation. I reviewed many interpreters before i chose to work with Keith, because not knowing ASL myself, I had to be able to trust that they would interpret the song in a way that would be accurate but also convey the emotion of the music. Keith has an ASL song of the month club and displayed a broad range of interpretations that altered according to the feeling of the song. In working out the ASL interpretation of "Soon We'll Be Found," when there would be several sign possibilities for a given word, we always chose the sign that would best lend itself to being extended into a dance movement. Both Sia and I needed to learn to sign the song, she so she could perform it, and myself so that I could direct and edit it. It helped both of us to learn the meaning of each sign and how that meaning altered as we shifted our hand positions. It was important that Sia's signs were not just technically accurate but that she was comfortable enough to give an emotionally expressive performance. I would love to do another project that incorporates sign language. It is very beautiful, and learning the little bit that I did only made me want to learn more. Was Sia's dancing choreographed? I worked with Alexandria Wailes to create the choreography for the video. As a hearing-impaired choreographer fluent in ASL, she had some unique ideas about how to incorporate signs into the dance. originally the UV section was choreographed so that it could be performed all the way through, but during the shoot this proved too difficult and we shot it in sections. In order for only the hands of the dancers to be visible, they had to be entirely covered in black, including their heads. Between the black set and the black hoods over their heads, the dancers just couldn't cover space as quickly during the shoot as they could during the rehearsal when they could see. In terms of Sia's dancing, specific elements were choreographed like the stairs, coming out of the water, and drawing, but between those points, Sia's dancing was totally improvised by her. Sometimes she would even dance at the beginning of a take before we got to the section of the song we were intending to shoot, and some of those moments ended up in the edit. How many shots were needed to film sia dancing? Did you have to do lots of re-takes? All of Sia's improvised dancing came quite naturally in between more choreographed points, and we never needed to shoot additional takes for that. She was so energetic and fun, despite the fact that it was one of the hottest days of the summer and we had the location shut up to keep it dark. Of the choreographed dancing, we had to do the most takes of Sia walking up the stairs. With the darkness and the dancers' limited vision, it was hard to get the timing of hands opening to match Sia's footsteps. What was the inspiration behind the sequence of clouds and trees that are drawn by Sia in the video as it's very reminiscent of the artwork to 'Some People have Real Problems.' When I was writing the treatment I came across some pictures of Sia performing on tour with glowing tape that looked like children's drawings. As she had already created that kind of visual iconography for the album, I wanted to reference it in the video. One of the flowers that is drawn in light in the video actually matches one of the neon flowers from Sia's tour. Conceptually, it worked with the rest of the video, because we are using hands to create quick gesture drawings, a different use of hand movements to create meaning. |

Sia Kate Isobelle Furler, to use the name her musician parents gave her, already has a staggering track record. If her name itself-pronounced 'See-ah' isn't familiar to millions, her voice undoubtedly is.

In 2000, the Adelaide born singer scored a bolt from the blue Top 10 hit with her debut single, Taken For Granted. Pairing her unique Australian drawl with the strident strings from Prokofiev's 'Romeo & Juliet', the track was championed by Trevor Nelson and had Sia performing live on Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show. Her debut album, 'Healing Is Difficult', arrived to similar cries of ´the next big R&B thing'. Then, to cap it all, she added her jazzy slurs to two tracks on Zero 7's Simple Things album and became the unmistakable voice of the year's coolest down-tempo soundtrack. All the pieces for a phenomenal career seemed to be in place.

And then nothing.

"I went a bit mental after that," she explains, before letting out a laugh that would stop traffic. "No seriously, I needed therapy and everything." She recovers her composure only long enough to explain that going from hero to zero left her confused and frustrated and that it was a really enjoyable time, those moments of feeling like a 'Coolio'! But sadly they've passed now.

Brandishing both wicked humour and brutal honesty, it's sometimes hard to know exactly when Sia's joking. What is certain is that, with fragile beauty, a collaboration with Beck, and swathes of sensual soul-searching, 'Healing Is Difficult's long overdue follow-up, ‘Colour The Small One, rekindles thoughts of an all conquering phenomenon and will surely make her a 'coolio' once again.

From the lilting pianos and claustrophobic beats of 'Breathe Me', to 'Sunday's' enchanting harmonium and breathless chant, it's a mesmerising album, undercut by the hope and despair of a little girl lost. Guilt, and how to deal with it, is the recurring theme with Sia's vulnerable voice as a beacon guiding through the pain and fear. "I call it easy Listening," snorts Sia trying to keep a straight face. "That's what I've been telling everyone." A mix of horror and hilarity dawns on her face. "Do you think it's depressing? It's not too depressing is it? It's meant to be nice, easy, music. Songy and lush."

Whatever it is, it certainly isn't the album anyone was expecting. The muffled rhythm track and sensual cinematic strings of 'Don't Bring Me Down' are a stratosphere away from 'Taken For Granted's' dogmatic march. ‘Colour The Small One’ would never be mistaken for R&B. "I hated that," she cringes at the thought of the jazzy beats and soulful grooves of her first album being tagged 'urban'. But that's not why this album's different. "I just wanted to make an album that was more song driven, and I've changed as a person. After the first album I lost it, and this album reflects how I was feeling. The vocals are small and needy, because that's how I felt." She looks momentarily troubled before adding, "Plus, I'd tried to have a pop career and it didn't work, so I thought I'd try something else." More strangulated giggling. "If this doesn't work I'll fuck off back to Australia."

Sia's vocal talents extend all the way back to her earliest memory. But unlike most singers, she isn't exactly the product of her childhood influences. Born in Adelaide, she was raised on the hippiest street in Australia. "Everyone was a musician or worked for Circus Oz." Her parents played in a rockabilly band called The Soda Jerks, and her dad, "a real nut nut", briefly played guitar in uncle Colin's band Men At Work- yes, they of 'I Come From A Land Down Under' fame- but "they kicked him out for being too in yer face." Early appearances singing Shangri-Las songs aside, Sia's musical leanings didn't get serious until she joined jazz-funk bar band Crisp at 17. "We thought we were really cutting edge," she sniggers with a roll of her eyes, "but we were trying way too hard."

In fact, Sia credits the biggest influence on both her and ‘Colour The Small One’ as touring with Zero 7. "That's when I actually started listening to music," she says with a grimace of embarrassment. "All the other music I'd listened to in my life had been incidental; in clubs, cars, lifts. I only owned 2 CDs: a Jackson 5 anthology and Jeff Buckley's Grace. While we were on tour, the Zero 7 guys were always talking about artists I'd never heard of, so I bought a Discman and started listening to their James Taylor, Nick Drake, Harry Neilson, Randy Newman and Django Bates CDs. And it all just really blew me away."

‘Colour The Small One’s’ lyrical roots, however, run much deeper. After three years fronting Crisp, Sia packed her bags and headed off with an open ended ticket on a round the World trip. After enjoying colourful times in some unusual places, she agreed to meet up in London with the man she describes as her 'first true love'. A week before she arrived, he was run down and killed by a black cab on Kensington High Street.

"Nearly everything on the first album was about that," she says, her chirpy facade slipping. "I was pretty fucked up after Dan died. I couldn't really feel anything. I could intellectualise a lot of stuff; that I had a purpose, that I was loved, but I couldn't actually feel anything. The last album was very deflective. This one's very exposing. I think that's the difference between the two albums, the first was intellectualising, this one is feeling." Catching herself being uncharacteristically serious, she quickly deflects with a half chuckle of, "and I'd quit drinking. That was probably what it was."

Bully, the track she wrote with Beck has similarly serious roots. "There was this kid at school who I used to be really cruel to, and I've felt bad about it ever since. It got to the point where I was having nightmares about it. So I wanted to write a sorry song." Thankfully, the collaboration itself had happier origins. "The last date of the Zero 7 tour was a festival at the Universal Amphitheatre in LA and Beck was on the same bill. Next thing he's ringing Zero 7's management asking if I'd like to duet with him." Understandably she said yes, and found herself on stage singing 'You're The One That I Want' from Grease. "I suggested it as a joke; but we changed the major to a minor, made it really slow and turned it into a bit of a country stalker anthem."

The Beck and Zero 7 connections- Sia's already recorded two more tracks to their next album - give the biggest clues to ‘Untitled’ and the giggling Australian's current intentions. "I don't want to be a superstar, doing all that wibbly-wobbly stuff. It's too emotionally stressful; photo shoots always make me want to have plastic surgery. I just wanted to write an album that was me: a small, weird, needy freak. It's a slow burner, but it's honest."

‘Colour The Small One’ is released in the UK on 12th January 200

Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( /ˈsiːə/; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian pop singer and songwriter. At the 2009 ARIA Music Awards, she won the award for Best Music DVD and Some People Have Real Problems was nominated for Best Breakthrough Artist Album.[1] Furler received six nominations at the 2010 ARIA Music Awards and won Best Independent Release, Best Pop Release for We Are Born and Best Video for the song Clap Your Hands.[2] Furler has also collaborated and performed with Zero 7 and Christina Aguilera.

Early life
Furler was born in Adelaide on 18 December 1975. She is the niece of singer-songwriter Colin Hay and her father is also a musician. In a 2008 NPR Music interview she said that she mimicked other singers while growing up and counts Aretha Franklin and Sting as her early influences.
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Career
During the 1990s, Sia started gigging in the Adelaide Acid Jazz Scene and participated in two studio albums with the band Crisp. In 1997 she released her debut album Only See and moved to London.
Personal life
In 2008, Furler discussed her bisexuality in interviews with Scotland on Sunday and AfterEllen.com and was included on a list of gay entertainers in the June/July 2009 issue of The Advocate.[14] In 2009 she was listed as an influential gay and lesbian Australian in the annual SameSame 25 poll.[15]
Furler, who is a vegetarian, participated in an advertisement with her dog Pantera, for PETA Australia to encourage pet neutering.[16]
In June 2010, Furler's official web site stated that all scheduled promotional events and shows had been canceled due to Furler's health.[17] According to Furler's Twitter account she was suffering from Graves' disease.[18] Four months later, in an ARIA awards interview Furler said her health was improving after rest and Hormone Replacement Therapy.[19]
In both 2009 and 2010, Sia was selected by readers of samesame.com.au as one of the 25 most influential lesbian Australians.[20]

Colour the Small One
2003 saw Sia release an EP titled Don't Bring Me Down. This was used as the closing title track of the French film, 36 Quai des Orfèvres. Her second album, titled Colour the Small One, was released in Australia and Europe the following year. This downtempo album saw Sia employ a mixture of acoustic instruments and electronic backing in her material, which led to comparisons to artists such as Dido and Sarah McLachlan.[citation needed] It featured "The Bully", which was a collaboration with American musician Beck Hansen. Two further songs were co-written and produced, but have yet to be released. Colour the Small One, though, spawned the singles "Breathe Me" and "Where I Belong". The latter track was earmarked to appear on the soundtrack of the film Spider-Man 2, but owing to a record label conflict, its inclusion was withdrawn. In anticipation of this notable inclusion, the single of "Where I Belong" was packaged with a cover featuring Sia dressed in a Spider-Man costume.[4]
In early 2005, Sia parted company with Go! Beat Records, disappointed at the company's poor promotion of the album, and the failure of the label's U.S. counterpart to pick up the record. Meanwhile, "Breathe Me" was beginning to receive international notice with appearances on the series finale of the U.S. HBO television series Six Feet Under and the broadcast of the 2006 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. The track had been licensed to Astralwerks (which also produces the Six Feet Under soundtracks), and based on positive feedback, the full license of Colour the Small One was picked up by Astralwerks and given an American release in early 2006.
Sia toured the U.S. throughout 2006, promoting the album and cross-promoting the Six Feet Under season five DVD release. The re-released 2006 U.S. album features four bonus tracks: "Broken Biscuit" (from the Don't Bring Me Down EP), "Sea Shells" (the B-side to "Breathe Me" in the UK) and two remixes of "Breathe Me" by Four Tet and Ulrich Schnauss.