The Hoxton relaunched its city guide platform, The Localist, to give guests a way into the cultural convergences of whichever city they find themselves staying in, so they can tap into a more authentic, interesting flavour of the cities they’re exploring. To kick things off, we started on home turf in London for Record Store Day 2024 with Sonny Rooney, aka Pinky Perzelle, one of The Hoxton’s Neighbourhood talents and a DJ and producer from West London.
Starting at The Hoxton Holborn, Sonny takes us on a journey into the city through his musical eyes. From Denmark Street, where he tells tales of dream guitars, we plunge into the heart of Soho to crate-dig through classics at Rough Trade, before finally arriving at the world-famous Phonica Records for a short Q&A with co-founder Nick.
Our vision for the creative direction was to make the film feel like a coffee table book. Like a Taschen title. Partly inspired by The Hoxton’s neatly stylised interiors, which range from modernist ’70s vibes to Prohibition-era 1920s art deco. But the creative direction was also partly inspired by the film’s backing track, ‘No Games’, a smooth, smoky, sultry-sounding release from Sonny and Eda Eden. The song itself sounds like a coffee table book. So we leant into this with our blocky opening montage, handheld shots throughout, fade and wipe transitions that feel like turning a page, and crash zooms for when you notice a new speck of detail in a picture and pull your eye right into the book to be sure you aren’t seeing things. In the colour grade, we wanted a consistently natural-looking picture that accentuated our locations, allowing the viewer to absorb Sonny’s words and insight. Like any well-designed book should.
Big team effort, as always.
Director: Damola Oladapo (@damolastayup)
DOP: Ola Shoyinka (@Ola_Shoyinka_)
Editor: Jamie Robertson (@jjro_)
1st AC: Olivia Prendergast (@thatwentsouthsofast)
Gaffer: Will Sharp (@Will_Sharp_)
Sound Recordist: Jacob Evans (@jacobevans.sound)
Storyboard Artist: Duane Uba (@duane_uba)
Colourist: Anibal Castano (@castanoanibal)
Stills Photographer: Mohamed Ahmed (@mohamedragahmed)