Mark Daley and Belinda Davis are photographers and filmakers creating dreamscapes one can only hope to find themselves in during a lucid dream. Homely and nostaglic I know I would feel safe wandering through suburbia, feeling content with the mundane. Deerhouse makes me want to melt into the background of their beautiful films and stare back at the people watching.
They're going to be taking over a little cave in one of the back rooms at Love Love on Friday night, see you there!
1. Tell us a bit about what you do?
We make films, all kinds, including narrative and experimental shorts, video installation art, concept videos, tone poems.
2. And on your days off?
We go out to breakfast, go on picnics with friends and family, make films and watch films.
3. How would you describe your work?
Our current work is concerned with spaces, landscape and a sense of place. A lot of our films bridge together forms and so we privilege the union of tone, image construction and music in whatever project we undertake.
4. What do you find is the most exciting and rewarding aspect in your working process?
Starting out with a concept and running with it, and watching it evolve throughout all the phases of filmmaking to become something unto itself. It is rewarding to throw out ideas and start again, and we are lucky because we act as each other's sounding board
5. What motivates you to create?
Each other, our incredibly talented group of friends, and most importantly there is something inherent that drives us, it's always been there.
6. Who inspires you at the moment?
It is ever-changing but some current inspirations; Small Change dir. Truffaut, Dirty Beaches, Young Magic, James Benning, John Baldessari, Khalil Joseph, Louie, Murakami
7. What’s next in terms of using different media/challenging yourself?
We want to expand our practice in installation art, and play further with live projection, surfaces and spaces. We also want to go back to narrative filmmaking and take with us all the lessons of music and image making we have delved into in the last 6 months.
8. Who would you most like to work with (living or dead) and why?
Mark: David Byrne/Tom Waits, because I've been listening to them most of my life and have loved following their work as it has evolved throughout their careers. I want that for my own work.
Belle: Patti Smith, because of a number of personal reasons.
9. If you had an unlimited budget what would be your dream production to make?
We would make a feature length film. It would involve the road at home and abroad, we would shoot on film and we would bring our favourite people to work with along for the ride.
10. Where do you see yourself in 5 years and what would you like to be doing there?
We will be making films full-time, for ourselves and commissioned by others. It will be a grand time, and we will live in Paris. We will also have a dog.
11. Describe what you’re working on for us in 3 words!
Mama's found footage.
12. What was the best/worst/weirdest advice your mother gave you?
Mark: Dead people have stories too, because she loves family history.
Belle: Always be yourself and put burns in milk (it works!)
13. Do you have a website?
deerhousepictures.com
