“How ‘Bout I Love You More”
Video Shoot Diary
by Colin MacIntyre (Giant Dog Owner)


It all started while I was talking to a sheep farmer in Bedfordshire called Randy. I was doing a photo shoot on his farm when I thought that it was time to get a giant dog in wig made to do some photos with. It could be modelled on the existing dog in wig, or Trudie Mark 2 as she is known. Initially, I’d thought that it would be good to get the dog made for promo shots that could be used on this album and singles’ releases. The photo shoot on the sheep farm was on the day after I’d finished recording the album in London, and a few days before I went off to Bearsville Studios in Woodstock to the mixing sessions. Around this time (late March), I was aware that “How Bout..” was going to be the first single from the album so I was starting to think about what I’d written and what the song was about and what the video could be about. I think the best videos around are the ones that represent the song’s ideas or central theme and I was starting to think about the giant dog again.

The ideas behind the song are to do with man’s, and woman’s, evolution in digital and mechanical craft. It’s about innovators like the Wright Brothers and Leonardo – and trying to find the connection between his early drawings for helicopter flight and people’s subsequent fear of flying. The song is trying to decide whether evolution and advancement is always for the best – i.e. we can now make tools, but we fight and bomb with them. We can now fly, but we can crash. We can drive but we have accidents and road rage. Anyway, as the song goes – fuck all of that, how bout I just love you more! By now, the dog was being designed and built by Julie, my cousin, in Glasgow. I was thinking that the dog could be a time-travelling machine – it is going to be 3 metres high and I can sit in it – or a tardus. This idea was developed and evolved by the video director, Alex Smith. He did Coldplay’s “Yellow”, and has done loads of The Darkness and Idlewild videos, as well as many more. I liked his ideas of turning the giant dog in wig into a rocket. It was decided, I was going to space sitting inside a giant dog wearing a wig.

Alex called me while I was, by now, mixing in Woodstock, upstate New York. We seemed to click on the idea and he told me he imagined me as being a cross between Flash Gordon and Wilbur Wright for the modern age. It was time to put a dog in space. Before I got back from America there were some odd situations when I had to go up to the top of the hills above the studio in the Catskill Mountains in order to get a mobile phone signal (dodging the flying turkeys and bambi’s as I went..) so that I could text Julie back in Glasgow stuff like, my seated position height, and what colour the dog’s wig should be. She had her own design and was going with it. It was vital for her to know my seated height as I was going to be sitting in the dog. She had hired a space in Glasgow to use and apparently the dog’s head was so big that passing strangers had to help her lift the head up onto the body. I was more concerned about dodging the flying turkeys on the way back down the hill for now..

When I got back to London a week or so later (having finished the album!) the dog was ready and was on its way down the M1 in the back of a lorry in order to make its call- time for the video. We were filming on Friday 16th April. We were filming at the Record Company’s office complex in south London. Alex was there to meet me and I climbed into the Russian Astronaut’s suit that he had for me. He seemed to have it all in his head about how this dog sitting in front of the building was going to be blasted to space and I was happy to sit in it and do as directed. The dog looked brilliant and massive! It was a hot dog-day and it was boiling inside the spacesuit. I had to lip-synch through the helmet’s visor and it was hard to breath. I’d get to the end of each pass of the song and desperately try to get the visor open so that I could live and breath. We didn’t want to end up filming an episode of “Casualty”. Some of the office staff were coming and going and wondering what a guy dressed as an astronaut was doing sitting and singing inside a giant dog with a wig on – some people have no imagination!

Lulu passed by at one point. Lulu in space? No Take That-type duet was discussed (between Lulu and the dog obviously..). Alex was struggling with the unwanted sunlight. Because a lot of the effects will be added later he was using a blue screen behind me and the dog. I just kept trying to stop fucking up the lyrics. I felt like Flash McGordon. We did loads of shots while I was singing and Alex seemed happy with how it was all going. We decided not to approach Lulu – although it was funny that she was literally shouting. We then did some shots where I’ll be floating in space. I had to swivel on a rotating chair over the blue screen on the ground. It was 5ish by now, and all the offices were leaving for the weekend. I just kept providing the entertainment. I must have looked like an idiot but he was getting what he wanted. I was pouring with sweat and my pelvis was hurting. Now I know how hard it is to pass the space exams. It was starting to feel like a Russian Astronaut in the test programme – surely not usually performed with Lulu around.

One of the last shots was filmed by Alex while he was sitting in the back of a wheelbarrow being pushed by Jim, his trusty assistant director. He was wheeling towards the dog, which was by now lying on its back. The other thing of note during the day was the rumour that Michael Jackson was dead. He had apparently filmed his own suicide, or so CNN’s website was reporting. News travels fast in space. This was the office talk on a Friday afternoon. It’s only now, writing this, that it occurs to me that he’s still alive. Flash Gordon, I’m not so sure about. I had the weekend off. The first since I began recording the album some weeks ago. I was technically still in space (home of Michael Jackson..), as we were to film my re-entry back into the earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday of the next week. I was spending the weekend awaiting my re-entry on my giant dog in wig rocket – try explaining that to your gran when she phones..
The last thing that I remember before I left on Friday was the look on Alex’s face after I told him that I come from an Island and I cant swim - as he had just described how we were going to film my re-entry - it was to be splashing into the English Channel...

Wednesday, April 21st.

We left London at 10am for a beach area on the English Channel near Chichester, on the south English coast. Jim was driving and Alex and Will (today’s assistant and stunt double if needed..) were navigating. I was still trying to waken up and secretly in awe of their apparent detailed knowledge of Dr Who episodes and their ability to eat mini jaffa cakes at this time. We had a laugh on the way down and then lunch at the local pub. I think they were more worried about me having some accident in the sea than I was. I felt safe in their hands. The first shot was of me in the space suit and flying a kite. We had a brilliant wind so it was no problem to get the kite going. There was an old lady in a parked car observing us. Jim and Will had to then dress up as my rocket launch assistants. Bright blue boiler suits and white facemasks. I looked normal next to them! And the old lady seemed not to give a shit about any of us. The giant dog was by now back in its Glasgow home (soon to be my new pet in my garage I reckon..). What do giant dogs with wigs eat??

After the flight shots we went down to the sea. It was time. The channel was roaring and throwing up huge waves. There was no sign anywhere of Lulu. And Michael Jackson was okay; well, he’s alive. Alex went into the sea and in his full underwater-camera-and-wet suit-gear; he got the shots that he needed that didn’t have me in them. I sat up in the car and kept warm, waiting on some inspiration to hit me while reading my learn to swim in a day in the English Channel manual. I had no wet suit. I had to go into the sea wearing my astronaut’s suit. This was my re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere. The next bit you’ll have to ignore if you want to completely believe the authenticity of the video when you see it – as if believing that a giant dog in wig can be rocketed into space with a guy sitting in it isn’t hard enough as it is! Because I didn’t swim. I can’t swim. I can barely even float, with or without Lulu. When my moment came, I ran down towards the guys where they were filming, and walked into the English Channel with Alex, I don’t know why I was thinking of Randy. I only had jeans on under my spacesuit. It was the coldest thing I’ve ever felt. I don’t remember Chris Martin having to do this…
I lay down in the sea with my backside on the seabed. Alex was trying to gently coax me in. Then he said, just do it! Everything (everything!) from my shoulders down froze. There were jellyfish swimming by me going faster than I was. And then he got the shot he needed. We got out of the channel. We warmed up again in the local pub. I was half expecting Dr Who to be lounging in one of the armchairs opposite us.

Michael Jackson is still alive. Flash Gordon’s place in flight aviation is safe. Lulu is still shouting. But I went to space! Thanks to Alex and his team of flight innovators. Forget digital or mechanical – we put a giant dog in a wig in space! And you will see it in its afterlife as a touring sideshow. I might change its name to Randy.

Colin, April, 2004 (now dry, and learning to swim)


The Making Of . . . A Dog In A Wig!