After his excellent Landshapes video documenting the wrestling community of La Paz, Ian Pons Jewell has definitely taken to Bolivia. He has now shot the video for Naughty Boy’s La La La there – and has caused something of a political furore in the process.
Featuring a delightful young lad with a Chow Chow puppy, a bizarre set of characters and a Wizard of Oz-like journey of discovery, the characters illustrate the theme of the song by covering their ears and singing ‘la la la’ when faced with verbal abuse: the boy who escapes from the haranguing of an older man, is handed his dog by a shaman, then recruits ‘Cement Man’ and a dancing wool-covered traffic cop, and then this small band head off from the city to the salt flats, and an unlikely destination…
And a combination of the song and the little boy’s ear-covering and ‘la la la’s’ has already been a hit in Bolivia – with quite serious implications. And it surely will not be long before it blows up over here too because the song and the gesture is as catchy as measles in Swansea…
Ian Pons Jewell: “I decided to stay on after the Landshapes video, opportunities started arising and I started to really fall in love with this place. I wrote to Sam Seager [at EMI] to let him know I was here and with a crew, able to shoot, and he sent the Naughty Boy track.
“The video has blown here. Viral. Everyone has seen it, everyone raving about it, political memes have sprung up with the boy´s ‘la la la’ gesture being used as a sort of middle finger stuff up to talking policitians, people are doing it in the universities instead of telling someone to shut up. It’s played on TV, radio… mad! So am staying out here, getting a visa, and setting some things up such as a fixer company, to open Bolivia up to UK productions.”
Naughty Boy
La La La (ft Sam Smith)
Prod Co: Studio Murmur/Foqus & Gran Angular
Director: Ian Pons Jewell
UK Producers: Tim Harrison & Dobrina Manolova
Exec Producer Bolivia: Claudia Marquez
DOP: Doug Walshe
Art Director & Costume: Ameena Kara Callender
Make Up: Paola Romay
Editor: Gaia Borretti
Post Producer: Serena Noorani @ The Mill
Colourist: Luke Morrison @ The Mill
VFX: Morgan Beringer
Producers Bolivia: Alely Amazonas & Adriana Aguilar
Assistant Director Potosi: Yamil Del Villar
Assistant Director La Paz: Nestor Lira
Exec Producer Foqus: Rafael Esteves
Casting: Macarena Estevez
Potosi Mine Producer: Helen Rios
Assistant Camera: Ghandi El Chamaa
Focus puller: Adrian Mamani
Costume Assistant: Roxana Toledo
Art Assistant: Elizabeth Lisazo
2nd Art Assistant: Ivan Quiroga
Gaffer: Policarpio Torrez
Best Boy: Jaime Arcani
DIT and Translator: Jorge Bueno
Logistics: Marcos Rossel
Cast: Franco Miranda (child), Alejandro Angelo (hotel man), Justo Limachi (shaman), Alex Terán (Cement Man), Valentín Tuscu (heart seller), Paolo Vargas (Traffic Cop & Choreographer) Carolina Zabala (Aerobics Instructor), Simón (dog)
Commissioners: James Hackett & Sam Seager
Label: EMI
Special Thanks To: John Wesley Hotel, Star Gym, Marcelo Muñecas, Louis Ellison