In a behind the scenes interview with Lachapelle, Florence Welch sheds some light on how their collaboration came together.
“David was always the direction in which I envisioned making a music video for this song because this song for me is, I think it’s one of the brightest and most obviously positive messages of the record,” Welch said. “It’s big and it’s colorful. I started thinking about color and all the different colors have different images in my head. This rainbow idea came up. It was just something about [David’s] work and this song. That was a kind of ‘in my dream’ scenario.”
Lachapelle is famed for his pop culture influenced vision and, as co-director of “Spectrum,” his influences are clearly in display. The video is one part Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, one part The Little Mermaid, one part ancient Egypt and two parts Black Swan embellished with a small twist of Saturday Day Night Fever in the gold jumpsuit she unveils halfway through the video.
“I guess I grew up being obsessed with musicals,” Welch said. “What we’re kind of making here is a visual cacophony. Controlled chaos, as I wanted it to be…you have the tragedy and you have the triumph and every song is about…”
“Rock opera,” Lachapelle finished for her.
Lachapelle’s co-director is famed choreographer John Byrne, who has worked previously with Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani and So You Think You Can Dance. Byrne choreographed as well as directed the video and his work shows — especially in the ballet scenes, an area where Byrne was formally trained.
-Courtney E. Smith, CBS Local
