Directing duo Broken Antenna recently shot two music videos for Chuck Strangers’ latest Album Glory of the King’s Hand. Myles & Gustav behind Broken Antenna have a long history in music videos, specifically for Hip Hop artists. Together with DP Thom Neal (you can actually watch the the two videos back to back on his website) they chose the legendary Panasonic HVX200 camcorder. I love the softness of the old 3CCD sensors so much and it’s such a welcome change to the razor thin depth of field of full frame sensors. The two videos live under one narrative roof and reminded me of a more relaxed version of Uncut Gems (2019) with a visual language coined by surveillance tech and ICE agents body cams. Watch them in order!
As soon as I watched the videos, I reached out to Myles, who I had the pleasure of working with a couple of times in London and Berlin over the years. The following interview is an edit of the questions I sent him.
How did you get to meet Chuck Strangers?
Genevieve at Lex Records reached out to ask if I’d like to work with Chuck on a video for his upcoming project. Knowing his music already I was up for it. I always want to talk to artists before working with them, just to see if working together is a good fit. But this time, before I could even ask, Lex told me: Chuck has to talk with you before writing up ideas. And I was like: yeah.
We had a phone call and spoke about life, music videos, film and culture, and everything clicked. He’s a good dude, and we have a similar sense of humor and outlook on the world.
Gustav and I wrote some ideas together. I sent over three ideas for his single “Everyday”. And he came back saying that he liked 2 of them and one would suit “G-Pack”, which by chance is produced by one of my boys Morriarchi.
Did you always have a unifying narrative and visual language in mind?
You know what, at first they were supposed to be quite different approaches and had more individuality in terms of their narrative elements. But the timings were tight to produce the two videos and Chuck suggested that we should make a double video, which was a great idea. I adjusted the concept so the two could exist as one video (although they are separated on YouTube, it is clear how the narrative runs).
The visual style though was always the same. DP Thom Neal and I wanted to shot the video on a HVX 200, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because we didn’t want to the film to be super clean as it doesn’t fit the realism style that I like, and also to pick up something more fun that we wanted to use. We spent ages looking through different cameras tests and film trailers that it had been used on and we were inspired by its look from Prince of Broadway by Sean Baker.
Of course It’s a much faster format to shoot on than film, which would have given us a similar feeling, but I would say that our main reason was to really test it and try to prove it to ourselves in a film making sense. Almost Dogma95 style, not all of the rules by any means, but putting story telling and what happens in the film first, with a focus on the characters.
I am a big fan of concepts that span over just one single music video release. What do you like about it? And are there any more to come accompanying the LP release?
Same, I think when you like something, getting more of it is a proper treat. So many great music videos have ended with “to be continued” that let me down growing up. What happened after Gucci Mane – So Icy???
I think that when working with artists more than once there is something that we usually connect on, so when we work together again, the themes kind of keep coming back. They almost show the thing that we as two humans really connect over.
I am not sure if there will be another video for this LP with Chuck, but it was a pleasure doing these films with him and I’m excited to work with him again, he’s a cool guy.
The visual language reminds me a lot of the classic Safdie joint “Uncut Gems” – long lenses, drifting shots and especially in “Everyday” the sense that something bad is going to happen any second. The style is also totally present in other projects of yours: I am thinking of your video for Joe Armon-Jones & Hak Baker – “Wrong Side Of Town”.
I just dig in when I make stuff and try to just do what innately feels right to get the best out of a scene. DP Thom Neal is such a G, a sick collaborator when it comes to shooting and always has a way of engineering the emotions that you, as a director, are after visually. I love that music videos can be so many things. I feel like when you have your initial brief and thoughts, the videos can go on so many different journeys. It is as simple as applying your style of film making to a script. I love where it can take your mind.
There’s a hilarious bit in “G-Pack” when an officer kicks someone in a minion costume. Was there actually someone in there?
Man, we had to shoot it 3 times, I felt so bad. The producer’s 7 year old son was in the costume and of course he was loving it but with any stunt, I just want people to be safe. He does martial arts so was falling as he was trained onto a crash mat. The front of the costume had a mesh on the mouth and he actually ended up cutting his gum trying to force fizzy Haribo cola bottles through. He was like Dr. Lecter.
I think the minion scene’s humor lives in the same universe as the tongue-and-cheek “Twisted Toys – Share Bear” ads you guys did a couple years ago. Now, in 2026, unchecked power of big tech, mass surveillance through phones, household devices, security hardware like body cams for ICE agents has drastically increased. How do political and social issues influence your work?
They underpin so much of the work that I want to make. That’s what makes film a form of expression, when you can get out a piece of personal work and it means something. I guess like your examples, I don’t think that to make a point about something being negative, it needs to be sad or too direct. Even “Wrong Side Of Town”, which is about gentrification, has a playful beat and edit style. The “G-Pack” video is a comment on the power of cameras in society and our trust of what we see on things like body cams, but throughout the video, the way that the body camera sees things and what we see as the viewer shows us a different side to the story.
Going back to “Share-Bear”, the films were made for 5 Rights and film-maker Beeban Kidron and her team there do amazing things.
What projects are you excited about right now?
Recently I’ve been on my shit, trying to do different things. I’ve just made a short film called “Colette”, written and produced by Jack Hannon starring Lucy Heath, which is premiering at The Shortest Nights Festival. I just made a feature documentary with Joseph Bird Jr & Raf Fellner called “7 Days In May” that follows pop star Ryan Paris on a trip to collaborate with Mac Demarco in LA. I’ve also made a short film starring Brian Nasty with an original score by Joe Armon-Jones that I need to get out into the world. Gustav and myself who do Broken Antenna are starting to plan some film events.
I’m looking forward to doing another video with Hak Baker. The project doesn’t exist yet, but when it happens it will be our 10th together. I need to give him a call. I miss him.
Finally, what really annoys you in the filmmaking world?
Ah man that’ll take too long. But I hate the bit when you start a production, and somehow every idea you had has to change. I’ll tell you what I like though, I love working with people, friends and my family, pushing ideas, coming up with creative solutions. Telling human stories that might give people new perspectives and make people feel something they didn’t expect to when going into watching something of mine.
Make sure to check out Broken Antenna’s work! If you like interviews like this, please consider subscribing below.
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