Profile with Chicago Director Jack Massucci

Fan favorite music blog, The Ugly Hug recently sat down with Chicago-based filmmaker Jack Massucci to discuss his music video for acclaimed Chicago indie band Uniflora. The interview spans multiple questions relating to the productions humble resources and conception.

Read the Interview Below:

Ugly Hug: Who was behind this Project?

Jack: I shot, directed, and edited the whole project but it was extremely collaborative with the band. It also would not have been possible without my friend Lucas and his family lending us their home and my friend Kaitlyn helping with odds and ends that I was too busy with–as well as shooting the band with a leaf blower.

Ugly Hug: How did the story come together? What were some points of inspiration?

Jack: The initial concept was wildly different from the product that you see. We had a very limited budget of time and no money. It just kind of became a creative playground where we bounced ideas around on set. I knew I wanted to meld some French New-Wave influences with early Warhol stuff. The shots of them with the red lighting & white cut outs are inspired by Velvet Underground promotion photos. One of Nico and Lou Reed has been my phone background for like a year so that just kind of clicked. The montage of their closeups in different colors is directly inspired by a dinner scene in a Godard movie. We shot the entire project in two and a half hours and I spent the whole shoot just improvising stuff. I'm incredibly grateful to Uniflora for being so kind and trusting. In the editing room it really came together and I had a ton of fun playing with the X-Rays, abstract cut-outs, and all sorts of other eccentricities. It came together so perfectly, I think we released it like two days after shooting it. I had so much fun editing it I was sad when it was done. Also that song just rips so hard.

To read the rest of the interview, visit the Ugly Hug here.