Radiohead “The Numbers” Director Talks Making of Video Short
Today, Radiohead kicked off their world tour in support of their ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool, playing their first live show in four years. Recently, the band launched a series of artist-created vignettes interpreting the album. Also today, Radiohead shared a video vignette for “The Numbers,” which is directed by Oscar Hudson. Hudson spoke to Pitchfork about the 30-second clip, how it came together, and what it might mean. He also shared the full credits, which you can see at the bottom of the page.
Today’s vignette is: The Numbers – Directed by: Oscar Hudson www.oscarhudsonfilm.com
A video posted by Radiohead (@radiohead) on May 20, 2016 at 6:59am PDT
Pitchfork: Congratulations on the video.
Oscar Hudson: Thanks. It’s been a bit crazy. I forgot to turn off notifications from Instagram and my inbox exploded. I got the thing saying “Radiohead mentioned you in a tweet” or whatever and then my inbox just started going bbbrrr, and I was scrambling around, trying to sort it out.
How did this come about?
Phil Lee, who’s the creative director at XL Records, just got in touch. We’d met a few weeks before about the possibility of doing some films together and I didn’t dream that he might ask me about a Radiohead thing, but I guess he was in a good mood. [laughs]
How did you end up doing it for this particular song? Were there any instructions?
They sent me the piece of music, the 30-second clip that’s on the blip. And that was it, really. That was it. That was the entire brief right there. All I got was the 30-second clip. I didn’t even hear the whole song. It was before the album had been released, so that was all I had to go off.
How long ago was this?
It was very recent. We shot it a week ago. On Thursday, I think.
What are we looking at here? There’s sand coming down, and there’s a man sweeping up—what’s going on?
He’s just tidying up the room. He’s just sweeping up dust, you know. [laughs] He’s got a bit of mess to tidy up. And then obviously there’s sand falling through the ceiling. I didn’t want to try and do anything literally, and I actually couldn’t if I wanted to, because all I had was that ambient section of that track.
The only piece of information that I did have was that the song was called “The Numbers.” I had this idea—I don’t even know how directly my thinking was like this, but time is kind of the way that numbers fill rooms, sort of. [laughs] So I thought I’d try to fill the room with time in that way. It’s kind of like an hourglass.
But then it’s got a little bit of interest in futility, and him tidying up, making this little mound of dust whilst being unaware that he’s got this huge torrent of sand behind him. Yeah.
I saw an Instagram comment saying that the sand might be falling on a bed, with someone in it. Is there supposed to be anyone in that bed?
No, no. I did think about that. I thought it would be quite fun to have some legs kicking around in there. But I didn’t want to put anyone through that. It’s three tons of sand! A lot of sand.
Where did you shoot it, and who’s the actor?
We shot it in a lovely little studio called Cloud and Horse. It’s a set, obviously. Well, I think probably obviously. [laughs] And the actor is called George Finlay Ramsay. He’s excellent.
Anything else in the works with Radiohead?
For now, this is it. I would obviously fall over myself to direct more stuff for them, but I’m trying to be cool about it. [laughs]
Were you a fan of their work before?
Oh, of course. I’m just about young enough to have grown up with Radiohead, like, always having been there. They’re one of the bands that are just there. They don’t seem, to me at least, they don’t seem to have emerged as any part of a movement. They’re like this omnipresent force in music and it’s completely insane that I got to do something for them.
How old are you?
I’m 26. But yeah, it’s pretty great. I’m a happy boy today.
What did you think when you heard the full song, “The Numbers”?
Oh, it’s great. I think the album’s wonderful. I really like the album. [laughs] I’m trying not to be extremely, unrelentingly positive about everything, but it’s difficult.
Were you like, “Oh no, I interpreted that 30-second clip all wrong,” or anything like that?
No, I think it works. It’s all twinkly stuff. Sand is kind of twinkly as it falls. But it was quite fun going into it a little bit blind like that. By the time—obviously the album has been out a bit now—but I think I did hear the full track before we did the shoot but after we planned everything. I think it was just a few days before the shoot itself. It was amazing, it really was. It all happened really quickly.
Anything else you’d like to say?
I don’t always want to say exactly what it is for me. I prefer reading everyone’s comments and seeing what they think it is. But yeah, you know, it’s a moment in time. No beginning in it and no end really. It’s a middle. [laughs]
Full “The Numbers” vignette credits:
Sweeping Man: George Finlay Ramsay
Director: Oscar Hudson
Production Company: Bad
Producer: Callum Harrison
Exec Producer: Aaron Z. Willson
Production Assistant: Mel Giles
D.P.: Ruben Woodin-Dechamps
1st AC: Spike Morris
Camer Trainee: Nai Sukanant
Gaffer: Josie Williams
Production Designer: Luke Moran-Morris
Set Dresser: Sakara Dawson-Marsh
Set Builder: Dexter Turner-Ramsay
Set Builder: Fenton Fielder
Art Dept. Assistant: May Kindred-Boothby
Director’s Rep: OB Management
Video Commissioner: Phil Lee
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