There are some human achievements that, due to their against-the-odds ingenuity and brio, justify the continued existence of our species on the planet. Examples include the moon-landing, the eradication of small-pox and the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Aoife McArdle has her own, similarly Olympian, claim to fame.
The Tyrone native has succeeded where many, many have failed. Hired to direct the film inserts for pop trio Keane’s live show, the 27-year-old visual artist managed to pull-off what would appear to be an almost impossible task. She made the ruddy-faced, officer-class, trio look like rock stars.
“You’re right,” she laughs “I think we did succeed in making Keane look cool. No one else has managed that, as far as I can see.”
Born in Killyclogher, near Omagh, educated in Dublin and trained professionally in Bournmouth, McArdle has spent the last few years earning a reputation as a promo and short film-maker of much promise.
To date, as part of the Mini-Vegas collective of young, (London-based) directorial tyros, she has helped produce videos for the likes of Plaid, Bloc Party and The Test Icicles, and has also been responsible for one of the films shown during Live 8.
While thus far, and as you’d expect from any young hustler on the make, McArdle has taken on a varied work-load, there is a consistently dark, visually-arresting quality to her work that suggests the presence of a genuine, independently-minded sensibility.
She’s quick to blame her folks.
“My dad brought me up watching ‘40s film noir,” she reveals. “And my mother loved Paris, Texas and Taxi Driver, so I was kind of exposed to and consumed by those kind of edgy, outsider films from an early age. That was lucky. I’m sure they shaped my taste. I was always inspired by experimental music too in a visual way. I remember the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane having a really profound effect on me as a child. That scene where Bette Davis is wandering around, out of her mind, eating an ice-cream with her mascara running is so iconic, tragic and surreal all at the same time. I was enthralled by that. Any time art or cinema makes me experience all that at once, I think I’m watching something worthwhile. “
Her aesthetic preferences have bled directly into her promo work. Mixing animation and freaky visuals, Bloc Party are one of the bands who have never looked as intriguing as when Aoife got her hands on them.
“I just didn’t think there were enough videos with any real empathy with the song,” she says. “And I wanted to make videos that somehow tuned into something lyrically in a clever way or improved upon the song or just looked good. So many music videos look so shit and generic and no one seems to make an effort to make performance videos challenging any more.”
The brief for the Live 8 promo was, she says, “to make something that would force people to take action”, to that ends, the Mini-Vegas contribution to the event was a grueling, emotionally-devastating film that made it impossible to take the presence of Razorlight and Velvet Revolver seriously in its aftermath. Difficult as it was to watch, one wonders what it must have been like to film.
“I’m pretty good at detaching myself when I’m making something,” McArdle admits. “Just keeping the end in sight it just seemed such an important thing to be working on. A privilege really. I just wanted to make something simple and arresting that did justice to the harsh reality of the subject matter. There’s nothing more real and nasty than being forced to watch a child dying of malnutrition before your eyes.”
With more promos, short films and a potential feature on the horizon, we can expect this unflinching attitude to inform McArdle’s work for years to come.
“I’ve always had a dark sensibility,” she smiles. “ I’m into Lynch, Cronenberg, Ellroy, Faulkner. I mean I thought Paris Texas was the most romantic film I’d ever seen back then only because it was tragic. The guy not getting the girl is so much more admirable and real in my mind. I like it when people walk away from the great love of their lives.”