Photos Courtesy Ace Norton

It’s been awhile since our last interview, but trust us, we’ve not forgotten. In fact, this week we bring you a trifecta of interviews from our main man Mr. Ace Norton. It’s not a full videographical history on him, but it is for his latest pieces of work. We’d like to bring you his entire videography, but alas it might take us a few years to cover anyways. Plus, he’s probably finished two more videos as you read this, so we better get going, lest we all fall behind.

Up first is a lovely gem of a shot for Simian Mobile Disco’s “Hustler”. A fine piece of work that brings to mind such classic literary films like “Much Ado About Nothing” or “Age of Innocence”. Yeah right, who are we kidding. This has to be one of Ace’s most disgusting works to date, and we mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Check this gut-wrenching video out and stay for the interview. There might even be snacks at the end, that is, if you still have your appetite!

SRO: So Ace, exactly how long did the shoot take and where did it take place?

Ace: One 17 hour day at glorious Glendale Studios in Glendale California. My producer, Charles Spano, has made a point of telling everyone he knows to never shoot there. I think he’s a little bitter because the stage manager ran over his foot with a fork lift.

SRO: Ouch, I can see why. Could you give us any word on why “Hustler” needed a 2nd video?

Ace: No idea, I didn’t really ask. I got the track in the mail and i was immediately hooked, so much that i ended up writing 4 different treatments. My other ideas were much more literal:
One was about these records with human legs selling their tunes to deadbeats in need of a cheap fix for music. I called it record prostitution. The band ended up picking the idea that was the least literal. They had great foresight and in the end, it all matched up quite well.

SRO: Record Prostitution. Hmm, sounds like a good band name. Were you at all aware of fellow Partizan-mate Saam’s highly popular original version?

Ace: Not until i booked the job. The label sent me the link and i was floored. It’s incredible. Saam is insanely talented. One of the best filmmakers around and an all around great guy.

SRO: Looking at the video, is it safe to say you were “inspired” by a certain Carls Jr. commercial with a certain Heiress?

Ace: Absolutely, I wanted to make a food porn. But I wanted it to go deeper. I wanted to make a statement about the gluttony of wealth and “consume”-rism. Poke fun at our obsession with celebrity, weightloss, and a world which has become so image conscious.

SRO: True that. Now it seems to us that there’s a certain likeness to Chris Cunningham’s “WindowlickerSuper NSFW!!“, in which there are good looking women with distorted faces. Were you
conscious of this or was this a “freak-y” accident?

Ace: Well we wanted their faces to resemble their torn up, flesh eaten, acidic, insides. We were inspired by photographs of meth addicts and women with plastic surgery – the “cat woman” and Michael Jackson, specifically, were two points of reference. People say it resembles the Aphex Twin’s video and obviously I can see why, but it was not my intention.

SRO: What were some of the, um, fluids spewing from the ladies and what techniques did you use to help propel the projectile vomit?

Ace: It was water with food dye. Essentially, each girl was assigned a different color of vomit which corresponded to their outfits- black, red, blue, and pink. There’s actually a girl in white toward the beginning, but the budget couldn’t afford to put her in prosthetics. My rationale, is that one of the girls probably ate her before she could transform into a monster.

In theory this whole gizmo was a great idea, but on set it didn’t work. The spraying was inconsistent and the streams just dribbled down their chins. At hour 16, we were already overtime, we hadn’t shot the vomiting sequence yet, the girls were getting cranky and all the production costs were coming out of my pocket. In a last minute brainstorm, I realized the only way to sell the effect (and make it look good) was to actually put the liquid in their mouths and have them spit. We shot those sequences at 800 fps, which suspended disbelief and cheated it as if there were more vomit than there really was (which was about a cup full at most).

SRO: Damn. Well,I guess in closing, inquiring minds would like to know, what would you like people to take away from this particular piece of work?

Ace: I put those poor girls through hell. In one 17 hour stretch they had to engorge themseselves with smelly and painfully disgusting foods. They had to be put into prosthetics, which is an excruciatingly tedious process. And to top it off, they had to vomit all over each other’s faces, with skin dying food color. Love or hate the video, these girls deserve some riiiispect.

Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler
Directed by Ace Norton

Via Partizan