{"id":162,"date":"2021-08-03T05:05:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T05:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shadowedplaces.net\/183a\/?page_id=162"},"modified":"2021-08-03T05:05:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T05:05:55","slug":"director-alan-ferguson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.shadowedplaces.net\/183a\/director-alan-ferguson\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Alan Ferguson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Below are quotes from Alan Ferguson, the director of the A Little Less Sixteen Candles<\/em> video, about the project:<\/p>\n

From Rolling Stone<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Director Alan Ferguson \u2014 who worked on Fall Out Boy\u2019s last few videos, including the self-mocking clip for Infinity\u2019s first single, \u201cThis Ain\u2019t a Scene, It\u2019s an Arms Race\u201d \u2014 has seen Wentz\u2019s volatility up close. \u201cPete is the nicest, most loyal, most giving dude in the world,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd he\u2019s also got a dark side that really makes him charismatic.\u201d For the final Cork Tree video, the mini-horror movie \u201cA Little Less Sixteen Candles,, A Little More \u2018Touch Me,\u2019 \u201d Ferguson created a vampire character for Wentz based on his black moods. In the opening scene, Vampire Wentz jumps off a cliff to get away from the rest of the band.<\/em><\/p>\n

From Sequential Tart<\/a>:<\/p>\n

One review at the time of this video\u2019s release described the impact it would have by stating, \u201cConsider this step one in a transformation of Fall Out Boy from a rock band into true matinee idols\u201d, a prophecy which proved true \u2014 the band\u2019s steadily-growing popularity bloomed suddenly into something even larger.<\/p>\n

Often it\u2019s the truly audacious, out-of-left-field music video which lingers longest in public memory and propels its performers furthest; Michael Jackson\u2019s mini horror movie Thriller<\/span> is the obvious example, but similar could be said of Guns n\u2019 Roses\u2019 wedding-and-a-funeral November Rain<\/span>, the cheerleaders and ennui of Nirvana\u2019s Smells Like Teen Spirit<\/span>, or the gothed-out funeral ballet of My Chemical Romance\u2019s Helena<\/span>.<\/p>\n

A handful of the Fall Out Boy videos directed by Alan could be argued as the band\u2019s seminal MTV<\/span> moment. There\u2019s Dance, Dance<\/span>, a love letter to eighties teen pop culture; the whirlwind tour through a tabloid version of the band\u2019s imagined life in This Ain\u2019t A Scene, It\u2019s An Arms Race<\/span>, or Thnks fr th Mmrs<\/span>\u2019s monkey-themed love triangle. When you put Fall Out Boy and Alan Ferguson together, audacity pretty much seems to be the name of the game.<\/p>\n

A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More \u2018Touch Me\u2019<\/span> is arguably the boldest in a bold line-up, however. Lasting twice as long as the song itself, the video tells the story of a gang of vampire hunters \u2014 Fall Out Boy \u2014 trying to protect a city overrun with rival undead gangs. One of the hunters, played by Pete, has been turned into a reluctant vampire by the most ruthless of the gangs, the Dandies.<\/p>\n

Cameos from across the Fueled By Ramen<\/span> line-up make appearances as vampires who tangle with the hunters, from bands such as The Academy Is \u2026, Gym Class Heroes, and Panic! at the Disco, along with various members of Fall Out Boy\u2019s management and road crew. The video feels like a glimpse into a fully realized schlock-horror world; no mean feat for six minutes of screen time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first video I had done for Fall Out Boy was Dance, Dance<\/span>,\u201d Alan says, when asked about A Little Less Sixteen Candles<\/span>. \u201cAnd that one was heavily narrative. It had the story arc, and people responded to it really well. Fall Out Boy was doing really great, and that record blew up, and the previous record blew up \u2026 it was almost like it was their time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn talking about doing the next video, we all had a sense that we could take it a little further than we might usually be able to. There are moments in time when certain bands or certain acts get hot, and they can kind of do something a little different. I was kind of feeling that way about it. I was a little cocky \u2014 I guess we were all feeling a little cocky.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it came time to talk about the next video, one concern that the record label, the management and Pete all had was that when you listen to the song, it\u2019s poppy and doesn\u2019t have much edge to it. We wanted to put some edge on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, as when I did Dance, Dance<\/span>, I immersed myself in Fall Out Boy\u2019s world and looked at all the history and all the pictures and everything like that. What I do with any group is find out what they\u2019re all about and what they like, what they\u2019re attracted to and drawn to.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I noticed about Fall Out Boy was that they were attracted to things like the Nightmare Before Christmas<\/span>. The symbol of Clandestine Industries \u2014 Pete\u2019s clothing line \u2014 is a bat. I was talking to Fall Out Boy\u2019s manager, Bob McLynn, about that bat fixation, and we started talking about how some of Pete\u2019s favorite movies are vampire movies; The Lost Boys<\/span> and some older vampire movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called Pete and we agreed, it\u2019s gonna be vampires. I listened to the song and I was trying to make something to suit the song, and I came up with this idea about Pete having a relationship with a girl, and he was a teenaged vampire. He could never see her during the day, only at night \u2014 it was like a little romantic comedy, and it really related exactly to the lyrics of the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked it a lot. It would\u2019ve been really cute, but after I started to work with Pete a while, I said, \u2018This is just too sappy and too cute. Let\u2019s do some hard-ass vampires!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember exactly the position I was sitting on the couch. It was 2:30 in the morning. I was like, \u2018We need to have gangs of vampires. Like the movie The Warriors<\/span>. I took this concept of kids dividing themselves into cliques that\u2019s so prevalent when you\u2019re in high school, and people will do it their whole life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I went \u2018Well, what kind of cliques would it be if there was this town full of vampires?\u2019 That night I didn\u2019t go to sleep until 9 o\u2019clock. I was like, \u2018All right, there\u2019s got to be definitely some vampires from the hood, and there\u2019s definitely got to be some vampires that are punk vampires, because Fall Out Boy\u2019s linked with the punk-pop scene. Then I made that a little harder, and made it Sex Pistols-influenced punk.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, early in the morning \u2014 I remember, the sun came up \u2014 the idea of the Dandies came. British vampires with a really strong fashion sense. I started to draw them, what a Dandy looked like. I went online and found all these pictures of the top hats and things like that. I remember the next day, I was so tired, but then that night I woke up and started to write the stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called Pete and I said, \u2018Pete, I\u2019m really excited about this thing, and I\u2019m going in this direction with it, like these gangs\u2019, and he was like, \u2018Cool, let\u2019s go all the way with it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them that I wanted to have them as vampire hunters, and he loved that, too. But if you look at The Lost Boys<\/span>, those cool vampires were actually the evil vampires themselves. I wanted Fall Out Boy to be sympathetic, so with Pete being a vampire it\u2019s more like Blade<\/span>, where he\u2019s a vampire but sworn against other vampires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different tales like that throughout the vampire folklore. There\u2019s one anime film called Vampire Hunter D<\/span>, and that was a big influence. It\u2019s about this guy who\u2019s actually a vampire \u2014 he\u2019s a half-human, half-vampire \u2014 and I love that film, visually.<\/p>\n

\u201cPete\u2019s got a dark side. Pete\u2019s the most generous, beautiful guy in the world, but then he\u2019s got this dark, moody side that sometimes he goes into. You just won\u2019t see him for a little while. He\u2019ll kind of retreat a little bit. When we were making Dance, Dance<\/span>, I saw some of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cThe overwhelming thing is he\u2019s got that great presence, that charisma, but like every other great, charismatic, interesting personality \u2014 James Dean or Marlin Brando \u2014 they had that little Thing, y\u2019know?<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Let\u2019s play up on that Thing\u2019. And that was a central theme in Sixteen Candles<\/span> \u2014 I was trying to write a character for Pete that was based on his dark side, and the whole idea of the choices you make in life. He really opened himself up to me; I\u2019d ask him questions and we would develop things together in terms of what\u2019s in his character that I could put in that character.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the thing just expanded and expanded, and I wanted to get all these ideas in it! It was going to take longer than three minutes and thirty seconds to tell this story! I didn\u2019t really tell that many people before I did it. My favorite moment I\u2019ve ever had in a conversation with Sheira Rees-Davies, the director\/producer at Anonymous Content<\/span>, was when I said \u2018Sheira, this thing\u2019s gonna be six minutes long!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even tell the label, really, but I knew this thing was going to be epic. Everybody asked, \u2018How are you going to fit all that in?\u2019 I\u2019d answer, \u2018I\u2019ll fit it in, I\u2019ll fit it in!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cPatrick \u2014 the composer of the band, and the lead singer \u2014 he wrote an interlude section to open the song out and extend it. I had a section in it that was without music, too. So it just built to the point where we just went for it \u2014 and surprisingly, MTV<\/span> played it! They actually played it!<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I used to sit and watch music videos, the one that really stuck in my mind was Thriller<\/span>. Michael Jackson was at that stage where he could do something like that, and people would just pay attention to it. I guess we were just cocky enough to believe that maybe if we made our video halfway interesting, people would play it and people would be interested. I didn\u2019t know if it would happen, and we ran into some stuff, but ultimately they played it \u2026 and they played it a lot! It went to number one on TRL<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Below are quotes from Alan Ferguson, the director of the A Little Less Sixteen Candles video, about the project: From Rolling Stone: Director Alan Ferguson \u2014 who worked on Fall Out Boy\u2019s<\/p>\n

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