Rottingdean Bazaar - fashion design and artist duo James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks - have made a brilliant music video directing debut for South London band Dry Cleaning, where vocalist Florence Shaw becomes the commanding presence in her own miniature nightclub.

Shaw's face pops into view on stage of the club, framed by its curtains to perform Scratchcard Lanyard - which is the least mundane way to perform a song that celebrates the ephemeral and humdrum. This surreal comic masterstroke commands the whole video, not just because the set design of the club, and Shaw's deadpan delivery are so great. Turns out that its all part of a proper band performance too. 

We spoke to James and Luke of Rottingdean Bazaar about the experience making the Scratchcard Lanyard video.

Did you make the tiny club yourselves?
RB: We found the basic structure of the club about four years ago in a flea market near where we live. We had been using it and characters from it in stills photography. Recently we refurbished it by adding a stage, curtains, working lights, new props and made it function with the body by adding a hole and a supporting stand. 90% of the light in the club and on Florence came from the miniature lights themselves.  

90% of the light in the club and on Florence came from the miniature lights themselves.

And is this your first attempt at filmmaking?
We work as artists and come from a background of fashion design, creative direction, styling and art object making. This was our first time directing a film-based project. The last couple of years we have focused a lot on still image making but we have always been interested in film.

One of the photographers we work with a lot, Annie Collinge, had often been saying to us that certain still ideas we suggest might lend themselves to moving image. We have learnt so much doing it, and are keen to do more in the medium.

How did you get involved in the project, and come up with the idea? 
The last year or so we had been thinking that we would like to try and make a music video. The band emailed us out of the blue and we asked straight away if we could make a music video for one of their new songs. When we found the club years back, we felt then that it could be good for moving image. So we remembered that thought and proposed the idea.