Andy Hylton is a respected director known particularly for music videos. He has worked with the likes of Jamie Cullum, So Solid Crew, and even the modfather himself, Paul Weller.

You've been working as a director largely within the music industry for a number of years now and worked with a pretty impressive list of people – how did you first get into it?
I started doing photography, got into documentary film-making which I studied at college, and then made a short film. The short film was called Vinyl, it was a really low budget little film, but I took it to Norman Cook at Skint Records, and said that I wanted him to do the music. He said that was ok, so I hooked up with them, and then they offered me a music video to do – Indian Rope Man. After that it was all about building up more show-reel pieces and I've been doing it for 12 years now!

12 years is a long time, you must love it then!
No *laughs* I hate it! Ha ha. Only joking, I have found a real job that I really enjoy, but there are lots of other jobs that would pay more. It's certainly about the love of it a lot of the time.

What advice would you give to someone looking to get into directing?
Pick up a camera I guess and just make stuff. It's so easy now and you can edit at home. It's so different to when I first started, it was all shooting on film, in fact video was like a dirty word. We didn't shoot on video as it looked cheap. So it was all shot on 35ml and super 16 ml. So I kind of built my way up that way. Now we're using a lot of digital video cameras which in a lot of respects are even better than film, especially what you can do with these phantom high speed cameras, we used to do that on 35ml but video you could never slow the picture down.

Would you say that's it worth doing a course or do you think that the best route is to just go in and get your hands dirty?
I think it's whatever route you find works best for you really. Mine was doing photography and then a love of film. If you have a love of those, or of music, or maybe you're more into cinema, shorts and features, then you've just got to write, or produce.

What's your recipe for a great music video?
Get a good camera man, a really good cinematographer, find a good location and a good editor. Try and shoot near a window, or on a sunny day when you don't need additional lights.

How long does a music video take to make?
Getting the track, to shooting, editing, delivering it is normally about 2 weeks. A week to get the track, write the idea and hopefully book the job in. And a week, day, 2 days to shoot, 3 days to edit...about 2 weeks.

What is your role as director – apart from to shout at everyone of course and yell “cut”!
No, I never shout at people actually! I lost my temper on a shoot last week, but it's the first time I've ever really done it. My job I suppose is to keep people motivated, have an idea/direction as to where the video is going to be going, coming up with references to lighting, colours... themes, moods, how we're going to approach it, choosing locations and choosing particular talent that I'd like to work with like cinematographers, or editors – be the “face” of the project. A lot of the time I could step back into the shadows and let the First Assistant Director do all of the shouting at people, motivate them, I just whisper in his ear what I want the next set up to be...

So on set you're a bit like the Wizard of Oz!
Yeah! Behind the curtain! Like just now we just did a shot and everyone rushed around the monitor to have a look at it and I just kind of walk around the outside and peek over their shoulders.

You were saying you were on another shoot last week, how many shoots do you do roughly a month?
2-3 a month, then you can go through a month or 2 of not working, or as happened with me 8 months of not working. If I'm not earning any money doing anything else then I'm pretty reliant on music videos. But recently it has been really good. Not only things come to me from my rep, I also create my own sources I do art installation, video installation work which is interesting. I try and teach...

Wow, what do you teach?
Just recently I was teaching 6-9-year-olds on how to make films at a school in in Enfield.

Is teaching something that you would like to do more of?
Yeah, I've got kids that age so I'm use to working with little monsters, trying to motivate them!

Do the kids get really into it?
Yes, they do which is really cool and nice to be a part of.

What inspired you to originally get into directing?
My father. He was really into showing me science fiction, movies, so I grew up watching Stanley Kubrick films, John Carpenter horror films, Star Wars was a big influence... photography I suppose a lot of Jazz, Blue Note...

Any desire to go into more the movie side?
Oh, yeah, totally! I'm always writing!

You write as well?!
When I started you had to be just a director and writer, but now you have to be an editor, and a camera man sometimes, and I get involved with the styling and art direction.. Another thing about the director is that they have to come up with a concept. So you get the music, listen to it a hundred times and then have to write the concept.

And is your concept sometimes a lot different to the one that the artist has?
Yeah! I guess that's maybe sometimes what gets you the job as it is different to how they see it though sometimes they do want it the same. I've always tried to not emulate any other kind of person though there are a few, Spike Jones, Chris Cunningham, Jonathan Glazier, who I think are amazing visual artists. They kind of show you another level of what you could achieve and pushes you further so you might you know, give a nod. For this video [Encore's 'The One'], we originally had elements of Radiohead's 'Street Spirit' by Jonathan Glazier where it's a very slow motion, people falling through the air, and someone doing something normal speed whilst someone else is falling in slow motion so that was a kind of influence.

The music industry constantly changes and artists go in and out of favour depending on chart positions – can similar be said for directors?
It's easy for a director to be in and out of favour at any given time a bit like the music charts. I do 3-4 videos in a row and am quite busy, next month I might not be working and then it picks up again.

What do you like most about your job as a director?
It doesn't always feel like a real job, it's more like playing a lot of the time and kind of like film school as well. When I was at university studying documentary, I never got to use steady cam, crains, or shoot out of helicopters, or all this kind of thing. Now I can come up with ideas and say we want to shoot someone on a mountain...or, I shot one in Mexico last summer and we were shooting under water - we had people riding bikes under the sea!

Sounds fun and very creative!
Yeah, it was and also it was something I had never done before. Budget, equipment, etc, aside, you're only limited by your own creativity. It's not a 9-5 job, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thanks Andy, we'll leave it to you the expert to say, but we think that's what you'd call a wrap!

More information on Andy Hylton can be found on his website, Andyhylton.com. Take a look below to view Andy's show-reel: