The sweaty gym film I got to make
Behind LNDR's 'Do Your Worst' campaign
At the start of 2024 I had this thing stuck in my head - I really wanted to make this sweaty, expressive film in the gym. Like properly get in there and create something with all the nuance I'd been observing.
I'd been floating between different gyms over the years and started noticing these moments that fascinated me - the ways people move when they're in their own personal world – headphones in, but equally on show and expressive. But when I looked at what was out there, all these gym campaigns just felt so... staged. No real energy to them, you know?
I nearly wrote off the whole year thinking something in this world wasn't going to happen for me commercially (I've got this whole personal short film I'm writing about the Gym too). Then right at the end, the opportunity to put a treatment forward for this brief - literally everything I'd been thinking about all year came to me and my agent.
I had all these references swimming in my head.
Northern Soul by Elaine Constantine, I’m in awe of her work. If you haven’t seen Northern Soul, I suggest you do. The way the lighting has this warmth, and highlights the sweat, but it doesn’t feel harsh and you can see these tinges of blue. Love!
TikTok, it’s kinda a goldmine for performance and people showing very real parts of their lives - in this case, the gym. I found all these scenarios of gym apparel failing, mixed with the grit and intensity of working out.
Challengers (obviously), the sweat! All I want to do is show more sweat.
The performance in this Lola Kirk music video really enticed me. It feels so matter of fact, and so unabashed. This is part of my youtube deepcuts, deep dives.
And, Love Lies Bleeding. While the plot of this film is kinda bad. The gym-working-out-training scenes are next to none. And I just loved the energy and sexiness in them.
And bringing it all together, being on set is so fun. Like very hard-hyper-fixated-dehydrating-complete-focus-problem-solving-teamwork-high-energy kinda fun.
I made a comment on my instagram post saying I'd gush over the team here on Substack. I cannot reiterate enough how much the team makes all the difference on campaigns and film sets like this. It’s not even cliche, it’s just a straight up fact. It's an ALL CAPS, THN-Q from me.
And, seeing how the film (and this is just the 1st of 3) have been received by their audiences…
Reading comments like these afterward is pretty special. Not because they're talking to me specifically, but just knowing it clicked with people, that they felt something real in it. That's always the goal - to make something that resonates but keeps its integrity.
I shared the film above via LNDR’s IG. It does look hella nice in the 16:9 versions on my website (and you can see the unreleased versions too)
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Ok, What's next, it’s 2025? My notebooks are full of terrible handwriting of details, scenes, and nonsensical notes. It's always about breaking down barriers between me, the camera and the subject. But, I want to get closer, let scenes-moments breathe more. And MORE sweat, more of those awkward real moments, more expression. It's not too much to ask, cause I know that's what's real and what's felt.
To finish,
Brick vs Face is a New Zealand punk/hardcore band that I think broke-up around 2009. I still listen to them regularly, and a lot in the car of the last couple of months. Mostly for lyrics like this: “Wearing black clothes don't make you a black sheep. Chasing the latest trends week after a week. You're a walking billboard just as two dimensional.” You can enjoy my nostalgia as well too.
You can follow my work at benclement_, Vimeo, and see a bunch of new work at benclement.world
Also follow goodsport_magazine if you don't already. Issue 06 is out and shipping worldwide.
Next time, I’ll talk about some experiences of shooting a few campaigns on the top of mountains last year.
Thank you, have a great day. XX - BC
Goosebumps from the LNDR video and smiling ear to ear at all the references :)
Super nice work!