LONDON — The Pussycat Dolls recently released their first new track in a decade. Directed by Bradley & Pablo (www.bradleyandpablo.co.uk), the React music video takes place in an industrial setting featuring water, fire and strobe lighting. According to the directing duo, the project came together rather quickly.
"The project came in to us quite out of the blue,” they note. “The Pussycat Dolls came to us after having performed the track live on X Factor. They wanted to bring over the water element into the video and of course the choreography, so we rolled with that and came up with this multilayered set that functioned like a self regulating water cycle, looping much in the same way a toxic relationship might.”
The group consists of Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Nicole Scherzinger, Jessica Sutta and Kimberly Wyatt. React was shot in 6K at 4:3 using a Panavision Millennium DXL2, equipped Primo 70 (27 & 40mm) lenses.
“We edited this with our trusted, long-term collaborator Chris Roebuck at Ten Three (www.tenthree.co.uk) in London,” recall Bradley & Pablo. “We knew he’d be perfect for this.”
While visual effects didn’t play a big roll in the video, the grade helped create the stylized look.
“Greg K. at Black Kite did grade it beautifully, and together with the painterly lighting from our DP Danny Hiele, gave the piece its slick, sophisticated look.”
Like many music video projects, time was one of the main challenges.
“The time we have to prep and the time we actually have to shoot,” explains the directors. “The short days put a lot of pressure on everyone - crew and artist - to nail each set up in as few takes as possible. We do secretly enjoy the pace and pressure though.”
Robin Antin and Mikey Minden were creative directors on the project, which has more than 6M views on YouTube already.