PROMO: MOBY: NATURAL BLUES

David LaChappelle's photography is the stuff of glamour and fantasy - brilliantly creative, witty, computer-enhanced fashion and celebrity portraiture. However, his new video for Moby's Natural Blues is a surprise in several respects. Stylistically it is a far cry from LaChappelle's sexy, sometimes shocking, and shockingly colourful photographs - even if it is clever, beautiful and thought¬ - provoking. As he reveals, it is literally the stuff of nightmares.

"The things that I'm known for is only what I've been doing for the past few years," he says. "I used to shoot only black & white, and I got into colour as a reaction to the work of photographers like Herb Ritts, Peter Lindberg, Ellen Von Unwerth and Bruce Weber, who always used black & white. But I don't have anything to prove with colour any more. The idea is always more important than anything."
Natural Blues includes a looped sample of an ancient blues spiritual. "What I heard was someone coming to terms with the end of his life," he says. "This makes you think. We're in the prime of our lives now, even if we're mostly too busy to think about it. I suppose the lucky ones will be the ones who get old, but what kind of fate is that going to be?"

LaChappelle's conclusion is fascinatingly grim: an old people's rest home that resembles a prison, where the "residents" are chained to televisions. Moby is there, as a very old man, a tragic figure watching his own past on the TV. "When I was a kid my mum worked in a convalescent hospital, and I used to visit the old folks," says the director. "I remember a woman in her nineties who used to be a concert pianist, having to make do with playing the piano on a table-top." If such memories contributed to inspire the video, they were not the most significant ones. " I had this very real dream a few years ago that I was this really old guy, parked in a cinderblock hallway, teeth falling out, sitting in piss," says LaChappelle. "I always hoped it wasn't a premonition, and I told Moby about it."

Moby was very keen to work with LaChappelle, even given the latter's relatively limited experience as a director. And for it to happen on a relatively limited budget (Lachapelle claims) it was necessary for crew members to work on the project as a labour of love. For example, make-up man Tim Consadine donated his services, even though the prosthetics worn by Moby had to be meticulously planned weeks ahead of time.

LaChappelle spent two days shooting the footage of "young Moby" on video. "The idea was to make it look like memories," he says. "I've read that the things you remember at the end always have something to do with love, so for Moby it was his love of creating music, his girlfriend, his parents. But we threw out a lot because it ended up looking like behind-the-scenes footage."
Eventually, however, there was enough wistful material to make it work, and for a loop to be made for the TV screens the night before the final shoot day at the "rest home" - actually a former prison in LA, in which every touch of comfort was removed. For this 35mm-shot element LaChappelie says, "The cinderblock look was absolutely crucial."

Ultimately, a touch of glamour is added to this sad scenario: an angel, played by Christina Ricci, descends from on top of the TV to carry Moby away. This is a luminous image which does have the quasi ¬religious quality of some of LaChappelle's photography. But apparently her involvement had as much to do with the artist as the photographer/director. LaChappelle had a book launch party during the first part of the shoot, where Ricci met Moby. She is a big Moby fan and agreed to be in the video, although LaChappelle reveals it was absolutely touch and go whether she would be involved. "We got confirmation the morning of the shoot, and even then we had the little boy who was originally going to be the angel on standby. He was my little insurance policy while they sorted out the bullshit," he says.

Ricci's cameo completes the triumph. But as well as the actress, Moby (as an old man) is tremendously expressive in his sadness throughout. Moby may be about to experience Fatboy Slim-sized success thanks to this and other videos, but unlike Fatboy, Moby's own presence is central to this process.
LaChappelle describes videos as "a relief" after photography, with the ability to develop narrative and the passage of time. "I definitely want to do more videos, but I have to be choosy," he says. "It has to be a special song to listen to it constantly for two weeks of your life."


Production : Venus/HIS, director : David LaChapelle; producer :Skot Bradford; DP: Pierre Rouger; prod manager : Eric Katigback; 1st AD : Paul Norman; prod coordinator : Julie Hough; 1st asst camera: Faith Brewler; 2nd AC : Jon Fox; gaffer : Rudy Polart ; key grip: Greg Hoffman; VTR : Barry Walton; production designer: Kristen Vallow; art director : Chris Dileo; Stylist : Scott Free; prosthetic make up : Sharon Gault ; hair :Chris Gangi; location scout : Rusty Hughes. POST: n/a COMMISSIONER : Richard Bell at Mute (UK) and Stacy Canter at V2 (New York)