Delphino Productions – Chat Box Interview

Yo

Yo what are you saying bro?

Im good how are you? 

I’m bless man, I’m bless. I just came back super late because I went to some squat rave init

Oh is it? 

First time in like twelve years bro. What are you saying man, how are you doing? 

I’m good, I’m good, chilling bro. Having a quiet day today. It’s good to have a catch up man. 

Yeh definitely bro I think its good to have those lazy days. How did you come up with the name Gulkara?

It’s basically two Cornish words that I stitched together. Obviously being from Cornwall I wanted to create something that will always have that personal connection. It’s the words for create or creative and then love put together but I forget which way around it is.

I guess, to be honest man that’s the only way you should really be creating init, with love. I don’t think you should be creating in any other way because if you create any other emotions man I think it can get a bit cloudy bro.

Yeah definitely. So that’s where that’s where it came from.

Yeh man it’s good to have like when you make shit your own personal meaning to it. Even if people never see it in that way as long as it means something to you. That’s what’s up man. That’s how I’ve been feeling recently with my videos and shit man. I’ve just been feeling like, I don’t know man I’ve been feeling burnt out bruv I’m not gonna lie, super burnt out bro. I watched a video that was like 10 signs of burnout and I ticked like six of the criteria for burnout and I didn’t even clock bruv I was like fucking hell man.  

It’s tough man but it happens to everyone. You’ll probably bounce back when you’re ready and it will feel like things are going really well for a while, then it’ll probably happen again but that’s all just part of being a creative I think.

Yeh definitely man definitely. And also like I don’t know as a creative bro your taste starts changing as you get older man. You know what I’m saying? Like you’ll always have the things that inspire you, that get you gassed to create. But you start watching new films and like looking at new photos, listening to new music, and you’re like what bruv I didn’t know this was possible.  

Yeh I know! I think for me personally my style has started to change. Maybe over the last year or so. I don’t really care as much about effects and I want to focus more on composition and lighting rather than running and gunning and chucking on effects. But obviously, there’s a time for everything and it really depends on the projects. 

Yeah because ultimately that’s the goal. I think personally and I think a lot of people agree if you can pause your video any moment yeah, it looks like a screenshot you know what i mean?

Definitely, every frame is a work of art.

Every frame, exactly, every frame is a work of art. If you can get to that level I think you’ve succeeded man. 

It’s a long process to figure out and there’s no definitive way to get there but you’ve got to figure out what works best for you. 

Yeh man. How long have you been making videos now? 

Since college so like six or seven years now. 

Okay, sick man. No looking back now.

It’s weird though because a lot of the time it feels like I’m not progressing but then you do look back at some older work and you can see how far you’ve come. But then also, I don’t know if you get this but at the start of a project I’m really gassed with how things are, then halfway though I just start hating it. Then looking back like months or even years later I look back and think that wasn’t too bad you know? 

Yeh I guess its a form of imposter syndrome man. Do you know what I’m saying? Because you’re there like fuck what am I doing, is this even worth it and you keep having these existential questions and it’s just every single project is like that. I feel like it’s never going to get easier, it’s just how much your tolerance to powering through it, that’s what increases. Because bro, you’re literally sacrificing a piece of you every time you make a video. I mean if you don’t feel that way I feel like you’re not you’re not doing it right because you need to have that feeling like you need to put everything you have into what you’re making. I know a few filmmakers that they’ve got their formula in that they could just pump out videos and like no shame to them man like get your money I’m gassed people are getting paid for this shit. I’m really happy because we all love videos init but that’s not me. I don’t want to follow a formula man and sometimes you’ve really got to think and meditate on your process and realise am I following a formula or am I trying to make every video as unique as possible? 

I think that’s one thing about your videos especially I mean, they are some of the most creative ones I’ve seen right. Especially coming out of the UK and I think for me personally that’s what makes them so special. I try to keep each one a bit different from the last but it’s sometimes hard to keep things fresh. Where do a lot of your ideas come from? Because I would say you have a style with the stop motion and the low frame rate stuff but they’re all still so different.

I really appreciate that man because this is literally what I think about twenty-four-seven. Like all the time I’m thinking about this shit man. Like it never stops. To be honest man I used to consume a lot of music videos like a lot a lot a lot of music videos that’s all I used to watch bro I realise like damn this shit is really impacting my style man because a lot of artists I like they don’t consume the same art that they make. You know, and I thought about that and I was like wait a second and I thought back to the first video I made. The first music video I made was Null and Void by Lord Apex in it 

Still a crazy video.

Appreciate it man. I remember at the time I made the video split screen and I looked at it and was like no. Because I wanted to make it inspired by The Streets Has It Come To This. I think it’s that video. Basically, it’s a split screen video and I wanted to do something inspired by it and when it came to it and I finished editing that split screen bro it looked trash man, fucking trash and I really had to ask myself what resonates with me what do I actually like and I realised like sacred geometry and just like nature and life itself. But that was that time, but now bro the thing that inspires me the most is still life bro. Photography. Still life man because you know I’m quite privileged right, because my uncle’s a photographer init you know so I was raised around my uncle and seeing his influences and seeing photography and this wide array of artists that do it. It’s insane man how people can capture so much emotion, so much life in one frame you know. It’s just like I don’t know man I really don’t. Like I know I do that stop motion stuff I just can’t see my style you know I used it a lot but a part of me doesn’t want to move away from it but like I don’t know man I’m changing a lot I’m not going to lie. 

But I think that’s what’s so good about it. You don’t have to you know keep yourself in a box because what you do can vary completely from project to project. There’s no rules to follow.

Exactly but you battle yourself. Every project you battle yourself init you’re like oh shit how is the viewer gonna receive this but then like Rick Rubin, he said the viewer always comes last. You know about that right?

Yeh yeh yeh, have you read his book? (The creative act)

I need to read it but a lot of people said good things about it. 

Yeh, it’s insane man, really changed the way I think. It makes you look at each step of the process of creating like a piece of art itself and you appreciate what you do even more. 

I always think, because you asked me what inspires me. I always think about people, filmmakers like ourselves but back in like the sixties and back in like the forties you know. I always think about like what inspired them they didn’t have access to the internet you know what I’m saying bruv. They didn’t have access to the internet. People had access to cinema. Going to the actual screen sitting there and engulfing it as it is like that’s the best way to watch a movie bro, in the cinema you know, as a filmmaker you love it like we all love going to the cinema bro. I just think about like filmmakers that came before us and like their point of reference, where they got their ideas from. 

Everything was off the dome! 

Yeh in a way it was you know but at the same time like everyone’s inspired by something. And that’s why I think like if they didn’t have rapid access to the Internet, they were most probably getting inspired by books by paintings by life itself you know because the sixties was a mad time for cinema because a lot was changing. Well, the sixties, seventies, eighties like all the decades are important for cinema but you know, I love. I love like old Japanese cinema man those guys were really pushing it. I swear down those guys were really really pushing it man.

Have you seen the original Godzilla film? They went crazy with that for the time.

It’s so good man. Like I’ve seen so many music videos that have been inspired by Godzilla. There’s a Beastie Boys video that Spike Jonez directed, you’ve probably seen it man and they’re like they’re in Tokyo in it and they’re like fighting this massive monster it’s so sick man. 

What I’m trying to say is that I feel like they were just not afraid to try stuff even if it did look cheesy a little bit dated like just the courage to be like fuck it, we ball.  

Now because there’s so much different stuff out there its so hard to find that original, unique idea unless you’re trying something completely new.

Bro, mate that’s literally it. There’s so much content being uploaded every minute. Every single day. It’s literally information overload. 

I think that’s often why we get so burnt out. Or you get creative block. Because you consume so much and you just don’t know what to do next. 

Exactly. I was watching a video about information overload and too much stimulation. The guy was talking about how we don’t give ourselves time to just do nothing. Just sit and just ponder like not even on your phone, just sit there just even like staring at a tree for like an hour. You know we don’t give ourselves enough time to do that. 

Totally man. So obviously your uncle was a photographer. Is that what sort of kickstarted your career or was there something else? 

Well I was I was quite blessed to receive like he gave me a little HD camera init this was when I was 14 like yeah 12 years ago. Menta.l But  I’ve always been skateboarding so I started off filming skating and just going like South Bank every weekend on Saturday and just staying there for like 10 hours a day to shoot skating. Yeh I’d go South Bank a lot I’d also go to different spots in London and I just yeah man I just basically started filming skating and that’s where my passion for filmmaking started growing and then I ended up stopping for years man because Ill just be real with you I just started like abusing weed and you know what I mean abusing it differently bro I was smoking so much every and it just I just became kind of like docile and I wasn’t really here like I was just kind of in a high in a daze all the time. I’m like it was good I don’t regret it but you know. If I hadn’t had that period in my life I wouldn’t have gotten back into filmmaking, so it’s pros and cons in it but yeah man that’s basically how I started like shout out to my uncle I couldn’t do it without him. I’m not afraid I’m not afraid to say these things like a lot of people have a helping hand and they’re very ashamed, they feel quite embarrassed when they have a helping hand. It’s like bruv why are you embarrassed, like why are you trying to act like you come from nothing like no, no just embrace yourself. If you’ve had a helping hand you should be counting your blessings man. 

For real bro. There’s nothing wrong with it. So what are some struggles you’ve had to face in the industry? 

First of all, I’ll start off by saying like we’re in the UK like obviously you’re in Cornwall so it’s a bit fucking tricky. But in London you really have no excuse in it to like meet people. You really just have to place yourself in places but in London there’s like bro how many events happen in London on the weekend like hundreds, there’s always a little pocket or something you like that you can be there, and place yourself there and it make yourself be known so I’d say connections is not the hardest. It hasn’t been the biggest struggle but at the same time like like I just said if you live in Cornwall like yourself a bit more difficult man you know to expand. But like if you bruv like when you start landing big clients because I know you will init. Its going to even more impressive G because you’re like you’re from Cornwall so that adds to your story. You know what I’m saying? 

Yeh man exactly. I dont think I’d change it. I love it here and I think I’m exactly where I need to be right now.

People that live by the sea or that live in smaller towns like their attitude towards life is much calmer than people who live in London. This is one of the things I’ve struggled with. There’s so many creatives in London. There’s so many people doing stuff and I’m so gassed that people are doing things like it’s great to see people making money off their art, but at the same time you’ll meet a lot of people in London a lot of artists and then you might not see them for ages and you see them again and some people will try to act like they’ve never even seen you once bruv. It’s like Yo, you know who I am. I know who you are. Why this attitude? People fronting on a different level man and I like they only really care about you, they start caring about you when you’ve done something for someone who’s popular. This is just the way it init. I’m just stating the way it is but it’s just it’s been hard to deal with that bro because like whenever I meet people I want to be myself with them all the time and its just difficult to be that way with certain people you know like the older you get you just realize like why am I gonna compromise my myself like my unfiltered self for these people that don’t even care. That’s been one of the hardest things man to realize in it I’ve had to realize that like you know you just got when I say you’ve got to be yourself you really got to do some soul searching. You’ve got to ask yourself what does it mean to be yourself and like when you find out who you are and your content with who you are you shouldn’t have to change for anyone man. 

Na for sure man. I feel like when you’re truly yourself. You’re making art that you like. You’re happy with your circle. Eventually, things will start to fall into place. Like if you’re making stuff that you like, someone will relate to it and there’s going to be people that fuck with it. 

Exactly it’s got to resonate with you first and foremost. It has to resonate with you. Another thing yeah that like has been tricky as well bro it’s like when certain people want to work with you not because they want to make something new but because they want to make something that looks like something that already exists. There’s nothing wrong with that man, I can’t blame people for that like you know you might see something sick and be like look at this like let’s try and do something but it’s it’s like yo like do you want to create something individual to this certain song or do you want to make something that already exists. You know you got to ask people that question because I don’t know man. Sometimes you have an idea right and you can’t, there’s no reference for it there’s no reference and the persons asking like do you have a video reference or do you have a photo reference and you’re like uhhh no. 

I spend a lot of time searching for things that are in my head, like I’ve probably seen it somewhere before or it’s got to have been done already. I guess sometimes it can just be that original idea that you’ve got to roll with and see what you can do. Do you have any cool projects coming up that you’re excited for? 

Yeh man I’ve been working on like full-length graffiti video. It’s probably the biggest project I’ve ever worked on in terms of like how long I’ve been filming it and I haven’t even started editing it so but its literally two hours of footage that I’ve captured two hours. That’s probably like the main project that I’ve really been like you know working on. I mean the biggest project I’ve been working on.

Is that like a documentary or sort of thing?

Look, I love graffiti man. I’ve been around it pretty much my whole life. I was born in Sau Paulo and in Sau Paulo like those dudes that do graffiti, they literally climb the side of buildings just to put their name on the side of a building. They’ll climb the windows and in Sau Paulo it’s just high-rise buildings everywhere and it’s just covered in graffiti the whole city is covered. But it’s a blend of graffiti and street art because to me those two things are different. 

Yeh for sure. 

Those two things are different you know. But the beautiful thing about over there is the graffiti writers don’t violate the street artists, like they don’t go over some mad mural. like someone would do a mad mural that’s beautiful like crazy colors they won’t go there and tag over it. Here in London yeah pure disrespect. No one gives a shit. A lot of grafiti artist hate street art. They hate it but I can’t hate it bro, I’m a filmmaker you gotta love it all you know what I mean. Basically, this video is purely graffiti and it’s basically following these writers as they do that thing in it. There’s a lot of risk, a lot of risk bro I’m not gonna lie. 

That makes it exciting!

Yeh man, I don’t know. This risk of like capturing it and being there at the moment and your hearts beating and you’re like trying to focus on the angle. This is this one of the most exhilarating feelings ever man. To be honest though, I don’t know how the videos gonna be received and I really don’t and frankly, I don’t care. 

That’s it just put it out. It’s personal to you, something you’re passionate about you know that’s that’s the important thing. 

But I don’t know when this video is going to be done I might be working on it for five years for ten years you know this is the great thing about personal projects man. No one can tell you when it has to be uploaded, no one can tell you how long it has to be these are all your own parameters that you set for your project you know, and if you don’t have a personal project like it’s super important to get one man. Something that you’re not making money from something you might not get anything from but the thing you do get from it is fulfilling your soul. 

That’s it and I feel like you learn the most about yourself on those sorts of projects.

Yeah, exactly man exactly. It’s the most fulfilling thing and like yeah just you know it’s bigger than us in it like what we do is bigger than us. We’re carrying on a culture we’re carrying on the art of filmmaking and a super important man and it’s an act of love in it and that’s the way I see it man.

What is it like going back to Brazil for the Biana video? It looked like a crazy project but what was it like being in the middle of it? 

Bro it was one of the most eye-opening like experiences in my life bro. You know obviously, I’m from Brazil init I was born in Sau Paulo but we went to we went into Rocinha, which is like the biggest favela in the whole of South America. This favela is massive like ridiculous. Not in a bad way it’s just ridiculous how big it is. Just seeing how people live in these communities because when you’re there you don’t call it a favela you call it a community which it is, Its a community. Everyone there is helping each other out. You know like people there, when someone starts being successful they’ll go back to their community and they will like support people there but just going there man and meeting these like kids that we filmed with and these people that live there just listening to them and seeing their energy and like they’re lust for life and you know. Obviously a lot of them, they wish they had more because you know it’s tough out there bro. Fuckking tough. But like they’re happy just being alive. They’re happy being alive and they’ve always got maximum energy and you know some of the kids were telling us stuff when people go do videos there like they feel like they don’t treat them as nice. They feel like they just use it for the aesthetics and when we went we wanted to make sure that we wanted to show this community as much as possible. We wanted to have these kids in it being themselves and showing their energy you know. That’s what we wanted man I think they really appreciate that you know what I’m saying.

I guess that’s why you’d want to go there. To capture the energy. 

But yeh man shout out everyone I work with man. I’m so grateful for everyone that’s worked with me and people wanting to work with me you know. We’re very blessed man because some artists, they live their whole life creating and they don’t see any traction their whole life. The most blatant example is Vincent Van Gogh. He died and he didn’t have any traction during his life. It was only after he died that people started paying attention. It’s crazy. It makes you think like, what makes someone carry on creating?

That’s why it’s so important do do what you love man. So important. You just don’t know what can happen from it. It might be nothing but if you was doing what you love it doesn’t matter you know. 

One thing I’ve learned like is that its all about what it means to you, at the end of the day what it means to you. That’s all it is really. In my perspective, it’s what it means to you because people will always interpret what you’ve made, in their own way.

Yeh exactly.

You know what’s sick like you know when people make a piece of art like a masterful piece of art and someone’s made a YouTube video about it like a hundred YouTube videos made about it and they’re like what does it mean and then people are breaking down the meaning.

And they’re all different.

Then someone asks the creator and they’re like na I just liked the way it looked.

Bro, I did graphics at college for one year. Every time I did something I had to explain why I did it, where I got your inspiration from and shit like that, and a lot of the time I just did something because I liked it you know. I thought it looked cool so I drew it or whatever and then I would get shit grades because I couldn’t explain why id done something. Sometimes there isn’t a deeper meaning.

Yeah I mean sometimes there’s a certain power to know what it means to you but at the same time like it doesn’t always have to be that deep. Grades don’t determine shit anyway. They don’t determine anything like honestly. To be honest though man I think maybe in the future I’d like to be a teacher though. Maybe, but I feel like I don’t know anything. That’s how I feel I feel like I don’t know anything. I don’t know but I feel like still feel like a baby in this thing like I’m still at the start.

You can teach from experience though.

I guess so but I still feel like I’m at the start, its kind of good to have that feeling because you’re just open to learning. You know what I’m saying? 

One hundred percent. There’s always something to learn. 

Do you think in the future you’ll make films? Like full-on feature films?

I think one day I’d love to. To be honest, before music videos that’s what i wanted to do but then i sort of fell in love with making music videos. But I always have ideas for films in the back of my mind. I love Sci-Fi, like old Sci-Fi films.

Yeh man, old films, like old Sci-Fi films are fucking sick. Even the obvious examples like Blade Runner. The first Blade Runner is amazing. Most Sci-Fi films now use CGI and you just think back to when CGI wasn’t readily available. The ingenuity that artists use to create certain worlds and creatures you know. It’s just beautiful. Even if we look at anime like Paprika by Satoshi Kon inspired Christopher Nolan like heavily for Inception. It’s mental man.

The concepts in anime in general are crazy.

Oh yeah yeh anime, bruv like in the future man when I’ve got like a decent budget and time I wanna do animation bro like hire animators and work on an animation because animation man if you’re good at drawing and you can animate, it has no limits to what you can make. Filmmaking yeah is beautiful but when it comes to filming videos it’s limiting because you have to rely on time, you have to rely on lighting, you have to rely on the location, the people but when you’re an animator it’s all done on paper on the computer like you’re creating that world. You know it’s like in it because you like I’ve seen you doing animation before.

Yeh man. There really are no limits. If you can get down whatever is in your head onto the page then it’s crazy what you can do with animation. I would animate all day every day but it’s so time-consuming and there’s people that can animate a lot better than me.

Yeh, but bro even rotoscoping. oh my days I love rotoscoping you know like like when I did one of my first videos was like when I was all rotoscope whe i did Loophole.

That Sam Wise video was nuts. I think that’s the first video that I saw of yours. It was when I was just starting to do a bit of rotoscoping but yeh man that ones crazy.

I did it with um an ex-partner in it. She basically did like the fish did like more of the free hand stuff and I rotoscoped the whole thing and like yeah man it’d be like I was working a job at the time and I’d wake up early to animate for half an hour, go to work, come back home and was straight on it. It was literally like that for seven months bro. Took a long time, a long time you know how it is.

But it’s rewarding.

There’s nothing like it man there’s nothing like it. That long time it takes to make something bro is, I don’t know it just it hits different you know I mean.  It hits differently bro it’s different because you spent so long on something and it’s just like you you know if during that time you’ve changed so much and you’re still making this project. But yeh man it’s been sick chatting to you, it’s been good. Respect man I appreciate the time in it and I appreciate the questions as well man.

Yeh, likewise bro!

Yeah, we’re both filmmakers and I feel like it’s just good when you have a conversation instead of it just being an interview it’s like a conversation.