The kings of album films are back: Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso return with a long anticipated 13 minute film, teasing the tracks from their new album FREE SPIRITS. The duo is known for hilarious promos and this time they’ve geared up to weaponize therapy talk to cure their burnout in a couple days in Sting’s private health clinic – yes, Sting. Therefore not only funny but also extremely relevant to this blog as Sting famously said: “I want my MTV”
If you have seen promos by Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso before, you’d have anticipated that a 13min album film is not going to fall short of excitement. The two have first blown me away with their album film for BAÑO MARÍA in 2024 and I’ve been craving more album films ever since. Danny L Harle’s recent film for Cerulean is a powerful example of performance focused visuals, whereas Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso remain unmatched I think when it comes to narrative.
They kick things off with a zoom call with Sting, who is convincing they’re stressed out marketing and exec team that he can cure the duo of any past and present trauma and mental problems. Sting has been featured in a couple previous music video single releases and I think it’s so funny to see their extended collaboration that stretches beyond the usual “ah omg it’s this guy” cameo – don’t worry, there’s still a couple of those in FREE SPIRITS.
Beautifully written and directed by Ferina and captured by DP Shane Bagwell who is behind some amazing music videos (I wrote about his video for American Football here) and, I hate to admit, some pretty wild commercial work as well – check out this denim spot.
Unfortunately, it’s frustratingly a question of a juicy budget if you’re able to commit to more long form and narrative concepts as they take much more time to develop and produce. Sometimes artists and their creative teams manage to create micro versions of these narrative-focused projects, like Doechii’s spoof sitcom for DENIAL IS A RIVER, because they open up the door to a “What if?” universe.
Anyway, I love Sting as a therapy-cold plunge- red light-laugh yoga-botox injecting guru and I honestly would have liked to see him featured more. But I guess he’s busy on boarding loads more exclusive celebrities that depend on his healing powers.
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