“Purple Skies” By Diamond Thug
‘Purple Skies’ follows the relationships between two brothers. It is an exploration of loss and grief, as well as an ode to life, love and youth.
A few years ago, I arrived in Johannesburg, and along the expanding concrete highways, I was met with swarms of delicate butterflies. There's a phenomenon in South Africa called the annual butterfly migration where thousands of brown-veined white butterflies fly across the country from places like the Karoo towards Mozambique and northern KwaZulu-Natal. This phenomenon is a beautiful tragedy in that their flight is actually an emigration and not really a migration, as they only fly one way and then die at the end of their journey.
And then last year the world was hit so unexpectedly by the Covid-19 pandemic and the immense hardships, hurt, frustration and loss that has come with it. I treated on the 'Purple Skies' music video during these intersections. I wrote it with loss in mind. I wrote it for my father, I wrote it for Charlton and Toufeeq (the talent in the music video), and I wrote it for everyone and anyone who has lost someone close to them.
This music video was a passion project with a very small budget. It was therefore only possible through the crew who came together to make this through care and a mutual understanding of the project - a reminder of why we are all in the film industry and why we love doing what we do.
Charlton, Toufeeq and I have been waiting for an opportunity to create something and when this music video came along, we thought, "this is it!" Charlton and Toufeeq are brothers, not biologically, but through a life-long friendship - and so their performance is as honest and raw as it gets. I was also drawn to the seemingly contradictory nature of having two muscular, male break dancers move to the gentle and slow paced track.
Meghan Daniels - Director
Credits
Starring: Charlton Taylor and Toufeeq Baatjies
Director: Meghan Daniels
Music by: Diamond Thug
Management agency: Aloe Aloe
Music label: Kudukudu
Executive producers: Danilo Queiros and Tourmaline Berg
Producer: Meghan Daniels
Director of photography: Nick Burton-Moore
1st AC: Dale Burns
Camera operator: Dylan Boerstra
Loader: Tafadzwa Pasi
Stylist: Erin Simon
Hair stylist: Marchay Linderoth
Editor: Tomas Wells
Colourist: Kyle Stroebel
Colourist facility: Refinery
VFX artist: Nicholas Ellis-Brown (Iconic Digital)
On set assistant: Sarah Hugo-Hamman
On set photographer: Tara McAuliffe
Supported by: Panavision
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