“This story is mostly about me” Elena Ilinykh about video clip to “Music” by Sia
Elena Ilinykh about starring in the video clip to “Music” by Sia. Elena told about difficulties they had to face while filming in Alaska and why she could not even imagine that her video would ave such a tremendous success.
source: championat.com dd. 26th May 2021, by Yana Levhina
You can watch the video on the official YouTube channel.
How the idea was born
Elena Ilinykh: Sergei [Polunin] really wanted to make some dance video for me. The idea arose about a year ago, back in quarantine, there were different thoughts on this topic. Back in sports, I wanted to skate a program or exhibition program to the song “Bird Set Free” by Sia – this is one of my favorite songs. I was always touched by her voice, her words, what she brings to the world, and I wanted to transfer it to the ice. Therefore, when the discussion of the video began, I suggested making it to Sia.
I was told that it would be impossible to get the rights to her music. But I sent a request to the Universe, and after a couple of days my manager said that we had Sia’s music from her new album and we were given permission to use it. Then the staging process began, everything was completely on Sergei. He had different ideas, he described me one, and I was delighted.
Personal story about everyone
Elena Ilinykh: Seryozha started from what is close and understandable to me. He sees that I really love ice, this is my life. In the video, the girl is closed in some conditions. She, despite the circumstances, can achieve what she wants and be where she wants. This story is mostly about me. But it seems to me that every person, having watched our video, can find something about himself. Sometimes we are limited by some circumstances, we do not always see a way out, but we just need to eager, live, dream. Then everything will definitely work out.
About difficulties in creating a clip
Elena Ilinykh: The video creation process turned out to be very time consuming. It was necessary to find an operator, a director. While in America, we could not find the right person for a long time. Fate brought us to Phil Lee, who works with Western and Russian stars, shoots videos for them. We were very lucky that he was inspired by our idea and agreed to cooperate. It was very important for us to find a person who understands what we want to convey.
The second difficulty was finding ice. We needed a location with a frozen lake, and by that time everything was melting. Then we thought about Alaska, but this is not the most popular place, so it is difficult to find a good guide there quickly. We didn’t want to do something mundane and trivial. A man who knows Alaska very well called us crazy when he learned that we were flying there only for two days. He was sure that we would not have time to cover two locations, because Alaska is absolutely unpredictable: there may be a downpour, snowfall, storms. It was necessary to set aside time for the weather, but we did not have this time at all. We decided for ourselves that we would do everything in two days, and in the end so it happened.
On the first day we went to an ice cave. It was difficult, because I used to skate on a flat surface, there small stones were sticking from under the ice and you could stumble and fall headlong. Plus it was terribly cold, and it was necessary to shoot a lot. I was filmed for ten minutes in a light dress and then I was warming up. So we filmed for five to six hours.
On the way to the cave, we saw a lake from afar. We originally had a different location planned for the second day, but I thought this location would be perfect for us. I have a very funny video where Seryozha walks on this lake and everything is cracking under him. We were warned that if the ice is black, then you shouldn’t step on it at all. If it is white, then you also can fall through, but there will most likely be air and a second layer of ice. This also did not inspire confidence (laughs). So on the video I tried to skated around these black pieces of ice so as not to fall under the water. In general, the whole process turned out to be very interesting and exciting. It was an incredible journey.
How the video became Sia’s official music video
Elena Ilinykh: When the video was ready, we showed it to Sia’s management at Warner Music. I thought that Sia would just post the news on her social networks, as the stars usually do. But when she wrote that it was a full-fledged music video and posted it on her YouTube and Instagram, I could not believe it. I still can’t believe it, because for me her music is something incredible. Sia is one of my favorite artists, her work is very close to me. And the fact that she liked our video is very important to me.
I like that initially we had no idea to shoot a video for Sia, there was no order. Everything went exclusively from Seryozha. He wanted to try himself as a director and stage something for me. He had an idea, he started working on it, and I wanted this particular music. As a result, everything came together, we managed to realize creative ideas. And it turned out very cool! As our operator said, when you do something honestly, with creativity and with all your heart, you get back energy.
About congratulations from the stars and fans
Elena Ilinykh: I am very glad that this video touched many. I don’t really understand what is happening yet (smiles). Famous personalities, publications note me. There have been no contacts with Sia herself yet, but I hope that I will be able to communicate with her and personally express my admiration for her music.
Dolce and Gabbana congratulated. They liked the idea of our video and helped with the choice of the outfit. When the video came, they sent a video where they said hello to us and said that they really liked it. It is always nice to hear good words from such people. The fact that they personally recorded a video for me is just “wow”.
It seems to me that we succeeded with this a bit unusual art for the show industry. It’s somehow cleaner, more soulful. We didn’t have a task to do something with the “wow” effect to impress anyone. We just told our story, and it’s very cool that people got it. I don’t like to disclose plans ahead of time, but I think that we will still surprise you.
Related topics: Elena Ilinykh
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