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Luke Losey

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Luke Losey (born 9 January 1968) is a film director, lighting designer and photographer. His work has been seen in avant-garde and mainstream media.

Background and early life

Losey is the son of the film producer Gavrik Losey and the former British ballerina Sally Chesterton, and the grandson of the film director Joseph Losey and the fashion designer Elizabeth Hawes. He is the nephew of the actor, Joshua Losey, and the brother of Marek Losey, who is also a film director. He grew up in Paddington, London, where he attended Hallfield Infants and Junior School in Royal Oak. He then attended Hampstead comprehensive in Camden, North London. Suffering from dyslexia, he left school without qualifications.

Early career

As a child he was obsessed with science fiction. In 1975 a chance viewing of Kubrick’s 2001 and the gift of a Brownie camera led to him becoming obsessed with capturing images. After leaving school in 1984 he worked as a runner on film sets and for production companies. He worked on Derek Jarman’s film Carravagio as the floor runner.[1][2] He spent much of the late 1980s working as an art department runner/assistant on films, music videos and ads. Involvement in the early rave and squatting scene in north London led to him getting involved in lighting and film projection.

In the early 1990s he met the electronic band Orbital. With video artist Giles Thacker he created the visual elements of Orbital’s live show, a fusion of carefully prepared visuals and lighting that flew in the face of the staid fractal influenced imagery of the day, with wry observations on everyday life.[3]

In 1998, Losey co-directed a music video for Orbital's single The Box, which starred Tilda Swinton and was inspired by time-lapse animation. The promo won a silver spire for the Best Short Film at the San Francisco film festival,[4] and was nominated for the best video award at the 1998 MTV awards. It also closed the Edinburgh film festival, opened the London film festival, screened at Sundance and was seen at almost every festival that year.[5] In 1999 Losey created a second music video for Orbital called Style, with Jonathan Charles as director of animation. Style also uses stop motion animation throughout and is a surreal take on Kafka's The Metamorphosis, influenced by the work of Jan Švankmajer. Both The Box and Style continue to be widely shown.[6]

Later work

Luke directed many music videos in the late 1990s and 2000s, including work for William Orbit (directing the video for his 1999 version of Adagio for Strings)[5] and Mercury Rev.[7] After a period directing TV adverts, Losey moved with his young family to Australia, where he continued to direct and pursue photography. However, he periodically returned to the UK to design live shows for bands, including The Libertines, Turin Brakes, The Verve,[8] and more recently Magazine and Mott the Hoople. In 2009 he shot the video for the cover of Gang Of Four’s Damaged Goods by Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey’s side project The Hotrats.[7] Luke joined Bare films in May 2013

His most recent commercial work has included a number of internet viral campaigns, a return to photography and advertising work and several short films, most notably i in 2010, a two-minute short of an eyeball featuring industrial sounds, which won the Best Sound Design award at the Hamburg Film Festival and was shown at the Rushes Short Film Festival[9] and the Ann Arbor Film Festival,[10] and The Promise in 2011, also shown at the Ann Arbor Film festival.[11] The Promise garnered critical acclaim but its dark subject matter – a slow-motion depiction of a woman being executed – limited its distribution. Losey, who is now UK based, exhibited work at the Latitude Contemporary Art Exhibition in 2010.[12]

Recently he directed a major 3D advertisement for Ralph Lauren and viral/cinema ads for Mulberry and Nokia.

In late 2013 he directed a short teaser film of Jessica Albarn's fairy tale book The Boy in the Oak. The film was narrated by Jude Law with music by Damon Albarn.

A script is in development from an idea by Losey called the 'Boy who loved dinosaurs', written by Klaus Fried. Part ghost story, part road-movie, this is the redemptive tale of a metaphysical connection between two men a continent apart and the tragedy that bonds them. Losey is currently researching a drama called Subject 8[13] with producer Liam Garvo and Coral Bark Productions, penned by Justin Villiers.[14] This short film will be set in 1975 and explores the rise and fall of the Institute for Neurological Research, Leningrad. In the 1950s the institute was the world's leading research facility for ESP and parapsychology, but in the mid 1970s, after years of insupportable claims, the institute was discredited and fell into decline. This project is in the early stages of production and fundraising.[15]

In June 2015 Losey directed a kickstarter financed dramatic short film starring Jonathan Pryce entitled 'One Last Dance'. The film is being edited with a view to festival release in Fall 2015.

References

  1. ^ Peake, Tony (2000). Derek Jarman: a biography. Overlook Press. ISBN 1-58567-066-9.
  2. ^ Bersani, Leo; Dutoit, Ulysse (1999). Caravaggio. BFI modern classics. British Film Institute. p. 85. ISBN 0-85170-724-6.
  3. ^ "Orbital taking ambient techno to the stage". Billboard. 25 May 1996. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  4. ^ "The Box". San Francisco Film Festival. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  5. ^ a b Bass, Tracy (Spring 2002). "Unseen! Unclean! Unsung! Music videos converge on - screen". Vertigo Magazine. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  6. ^ Sunday Herald
  7. ^ a b "Hot Rats' Damaged Goods by Luke Losey". Promonews.tv. 9 June 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  8. ^ "The Verve". Avolites Online Newsletter. 1998. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  9. ^ Armstrong, Owen (August 2007). "Rushes Short Film Festival". Vertigo Magazine. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  10. ^ Mosher, Mike (24 September 2008). "BohemiA2n Like You: The 46th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival in Michigan". Otherzine. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  11. ^ "The Promise". Ann Arbor Film Festival. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  12. ^ "Latitude Contemporary Art Exhibition & £10,000 LCA Award". Altsounds. 15 June 2010. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  13. ^ Subject 8
  14. ^ Coral Bark Productions
  15. ^ Subject 8 on IndieGoGo

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