Swedish House Mafia decided to break up at the height of their success, and they filmed a documentary about their final world tour, made by director and collaborator Christian Larson. We look at the film (with trailers and clip footage) and discuss the impact of the group and capturing the last tour for a global audience. It is one of the most grand and epic music documentaries of the year, and we look at it first on the world’s only all documentary talk show–BYOD.
Watch new episodes of BYOD live each week on Tuesdays at noon on TheLip.TV, or tune in for the archived replay starting here on the following Thursday.
ABOUT BYOD:
BYOD is hosted by Ondi Timoner, director of “DIG!,” “JOIN US” and “WE LIVE IN PUBLIC,” and has the rare distinction of winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance twice. Each week the show explores a different documentary filmmaker or aspect of filmmaking, with special guests and a live Q&A– diving deep into creative process and the business realities of producing and distributing films. Ondi shares her insider views, opinions, and personal stories, welcoming audience participation. BYOD aims to entertain, inform, and elevate documentaries in general by bringing attention to films and film makers that deserve exposure.
GUEST BIO:
LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND follows global music sensation Swedish House Mafia as they complete their “One Last Tour,” the largest worldwide electronic music tour in history with over 1,000,000 tickets sold worldwide in just one week. The film is directed by Christian Larson, considered by the team as the “fourth member” of Swedish House Mafia. He’s been with them since their early days, shooting YouTube clips and videos and tour footage, and directed their last documentary, 2010’s Take One – a celebratory record of 253 club dates and gigs.
LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND had it’s premiere at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival and received sold out screenings in March across the world including LA, NY, London, and Amsterdam to name a few. The film begins a limited U.S. theatrical run March 27th through April 4th.
Christian Larson grew up drumming, dancing and filming skateboarding in Sweden and it was this background that helped carve his reputation of a rhythmic visual style.
Starting out making music promos, he went on to be an editor for renowned Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund on various projects like the iconic music video for Lady Gaga and Beyoncé “Telephone”. Other editing works include music videos and commercials for Daft Punk, Britney Spears, Duran Duran, Mercedes and Dior as well as the feature film Small Apartments starring Matt Lucas and Billy Crystal.
As a director, Christian’s work includes music videos for Kylie Minogue, Tinie Tempah, Nero and Swedish House Mafia, as well as commercials and editorials for Wallpaper Magazine, Absolut Vodka, Hoss Intropia and Roche Bobois. In 2010 he made the documentary “Take One” about DJ-trio Swedish House Mafia that reached cult status in the electronic dance music world, dubbed “Spinal Tap for the acid house generation” by The Times UK. In 2012 he wrote and directed “Valtari”, a short film with music from the Icelandic band Sigur Rós and choreography from world renowned choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkoui. The film received numerous nominations and was awarded a Grammy for Best Video at the 2013 Swedish Grammy Awards as well as Best Choreography at the 2013 UK Music Video Awards.
Christian’s directing projects have reached over 200 million views in total on Youtube. His first full-length feature film “Leave The World Behind” is officially selected to have its world premiere at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
EPISODE BREAKDOWN:
00:01 Welcome to BYOD.
00:25 Introducing Christian Larson.
01:25 Filming the huge farewell tour of Swedish House Mafia.
05:35 Dealing with a band that is breaking up.
06:49 LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND, Trailer.
08:54 The drama of the film and production.
11:08 Capturing the musical performance of electronic music.
13:49 Production of the film and the essence of live shows.
18:18 The mixed discussion on deciding to end the group.
20:25 Tricky camera work (the spider cam), and more.
24:47 Bring interest beyond the fan base.
28:13 LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND, clip.
ADD’L LINKS:
http://leavetheworldbehind.com/
https://www.facebook.com/swedishhousemafia
https://twitter.com/swedishousemfia
https://twitter.com/chrissyjames
