First, thanks for joining us today Thora. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to dive deeper into your innovative work with artists like NANNA, Of Monsters and Men, Ólafur Arnalds, and SOHN, exploring the unique visual storytelling you’ve brought to their music videos.

I want to begin by talking about your work on the music video Godzilla for NANNA. What really caught my attention about this video was that fact that you found ways to make the ordinary extraordinary. Let’s kick things off by first watching the video before jumping into the questions.

Being from Iceland you have some of the most breathtaking environments at your disposal and I see in many of your other videos you take full advantage of these environments and use them as your stages. But in this video you didn’t. Instead you shot in places like a grocery store and a run of the mill parking lot. Yet you found ways to make these ordinary locations interesting. I think what fascinates me about this is that many filmmakers feel frustrated with not having access to epic landscapes and weather like you have in Iceland. Yet, you have access to them, but didn’t use them for this video. Instead you opted for everyday locations. You would bring, what many would consider dull locations, to life by using simple visual ideas. For example, you turned an ordinary parking lot into a beautiful light show (2:20) or you’d inject a bit of magical realism into an everyday grocery store (2:03). These are locations that virtually everyone has access to. Was this a bit of a challenge to yourself to get away from the epic locations at your disposal and try to use everyday places or was it something else?

Yes and no… I’m aware that we here in Iceland are very privileged, where it’s easily possible to make things look like the Moon or something out of Blade Runner, but I think being from here makes me probably use it in a different way. I would not be artistically satisfied just to shoot something in nature; it has to make some greater sense for the theme or story in the video. However, I do like to mix it up in a creative way – like making it feel like there is one step from the car wash onto some epic lava with how I shoot things or with VFX by placing buildings in different environments. I like the combination of the ordinary and the absurd.

On a similar note, another thing I liked about this video was its simplicity. With the exception of only a couple of shots, this video focuses on only one person. On paper, a treatment for this music video might come off the page as a bit dull (i.e. Nanna walking through a parking lot and a grocery store etc.). However it’s anything but dull. Did you find the concept a challenge to communicate using words?

Yes, this video is probably the simplest one I have shot. But, I think it needed just that. I have worked with Nanna a few times before, so we know each other, and we had a good conversation about what she wanted for the video. It was her first solo song, not with her band Of Monsters and Men. I wanted to create that feeling of loneliness and not belonging and being in some way confused in your own world, starting in realism but going slightly more into surrealism. Then Nanna is such a great performer; it’s nice to be intimate with her and create that melancholy.

How are you shooting the strobe light scene at 3:04 and the spotlight scene at 3:06?

It was all done in camera. We shot this in a lava field close to Reykjavík. Not many lights. One gaffer was physically moving the light beam 😉 and then we had a strobe light. In one part of the spotlight/light beam I did use vfx to make the black bigger and make her smaller in it so it would feel a bit more epic or like she is in some void.

How are you achieving the shots at 4:30? Are these special effects?

The scenes combine practical and visual effects. Physically, people hidden in cars manually controlled the lights, and we used a special machine to create in-camera sparkle effects. However, the sky lighting and lamp-post illumination were added through visual effects (VFX).

Filmmakers are always curious so I have to ask. What gear did you use to shoot the video?

We used Alexa mini camera and size superspeed lenses and framed for 2.35:1 aspect ratio

Now I want to talk about the music video you did for Ólafur Arnalds and SOHN called “unfold”. Let’s first take a look at the video.

How did you approach creating a video without lyrical guidance, and did you find it more challenging?

Actually, it felt liberating. Without lyrics, the focus shifted to capturing the pure emotional essence of the song, allowing more intuitive visual interpretation based on the music’s feeling.

I love your lighting at 0:23 where you’re backlighting the dancers. I’ve noticed this lighting style a few times in your body of work. Can you describe this lighting setup in a bit more detail for us?

Well I do like backlit shots, but I would have to point here to my talented DOP Thor Eliasson for more details on the setup.

In this music video, you jump between reality to dreamlike environments. For example, at 1:49 the dancers all fall down, at 3:13 a body is being lifted from the floor and at 3:24 a body is being lifted from the water. Tell us a little bit more about how you come up with the ideas for these little visual flourishes.

I wrote ideas for two music videos for Ólafur Arnalds, this one here Unfold was written first but it ended up coming out after the other one Re:member, so we play a lot with the connection between them. For me it’s one big story and the original idea was to put them together in one longer film. And I love that sort of world building so I wanted to look into that end of the world feeling with a focus on the last generation of teenagers. A little bit of nod to Children of Men in a sense I guess.  I always remember a small scene where the youngest person alive, Baby Diego, had died or something. The event was just on their tv and they were watching it and I loved that idea. So for Re:member I wrote his story. We always called him Baby Diego (hahaha) and he was some celebrity in this world, as he was the youngest one alive, and it was his birthday. Simple, but the idea has a lot of complicated meanings. What it means to be in love as a dying generation or species. A bit long for me to get to this whole idea (haha), but this part in Unfold is insinuating some virgin Mary feeling and rebirth. Also, the shot at 3:37 shows her pregnant, helping to push that idea further.

On the topic of the shots where you’re defying gravity (i.e. lifting the body off of the floor or out of water), how did you accomplish this?

In a very Icelandic style – using a crane and the ice cold sea. We simply hid her wetsuit and just dipped her in and lifted her out of the water. It was a very cold day in January. The actress in that shot is now a famous Icelandic popstar. She was a total trooper for this shoot. I think we did it two times and it just had to work. Also, we were waiting for the right sunset for this shot, so we didn’t have much time. But it worked out beautifully in the end.

Speaking on the topic of lyricless videos and shot conceptualization again, you shot another Ólafur Arnalds music video called “re:member”. Let’s take a look at the video below.

I love this video. What struck me most about this video is that the images (such as the burning car at 0:32 or the concept of the youngest man alive) would likely not be the initial images or concepts that most directors would come up with when first conceptualizing a video for a song like this. Tell me a little more about how you come up with your initial image ideas for a music video. How do you fight through the initial stock images that might flood your mind when first listening to a song for the first time?

I go over this a bit in my answer above. But I’ll add to that. I looove the first steps of a journey in coming up with ideas. Listening to the songs again and again and looking at different images. I look at films, photography and paintings. But reading books gives me the most ideas.

Your color grading on this video is spectacular. Can you tell me about your color grading process in more detail? Is it something that you plan way before you ever start editing, or is it something that you only start to think about once the music video is finished being shot?

Yes, my Director of Photography (DOP), Thor Eliasson, and I work very closely together. We always have a few images in a folder that represent the look and feel of how we see the end picture. He did some tests in grading before, and then we worked with a very good colorist here in Iceland, Luis Ascanio.

In many of your videos including your video for “Visitor” for Of Monsters and Men, you use dancers as a visual element.

I love the dance sequence starting at 0:35 in this video. Movement, in general, just seems to be of big importance to you. Even in the slower music videos you direct, movement plays a big role too – through dance, through character movement, through camera movement or through the movement of light and shadow. Tell us a little bit more about your approach to movement during the pre-production process. How is movement planned into your projects?

Yes I love dancing and not that sort of typical dance you would see in a music video. Instead, I like to use dance as an expression of feeling. The Man in “Visitor” is a very famous Icelandic actor and I knew he was a good dancer. He was so brilliant at it. These shots were not choreographed moves (although we did have a choreographer on set). His performance was just coming from pure emotion. I plan movements ahead, but also give space to allow movement to happen. It’s always the best feeling when you are on set and the talent has started and the lights are on and everything you see is working like you thought it would (or sometimes even better)!

Lastly, if you could give a younger version of yourself three pieces of creative advice with regards to filmmaking, what would those three pieces of advice be?

First, try different things. Second, don’t take yourself too seriously as an artist. Ohhh, and third… you think its gonna be hard, but it is definitely harder than you could ever imagine but never give up!

On behalf of both ourselves as well as our audience I just want to say thanks for taking the time to chat with us today Thora. To our audience – To check out more of Thora’s work you can head over to her website here.