Uncle Friendly's raucous roaches
The director returns to music videos after a six-year hiatus with a sweaty fever dream for Genesis Owusu, who just wants the bugs to GTFO.
Credits
powered by-
- Production Company AIRBAG
- Director Rhett Wade-Ferrell (Uncle Friendly)
-
-
Unlock full credits and more with a Source + shots membership.
Credits
powered by- Production Company AIRBAG
- Director Rhett Wade-Ferrell (Uncle Friendly)
- Editing ARC EDIT
- Managing Partner Adrian Bosich
- Producer Martin Box
- Creative Director Ady Neshoda
- Writer Rhett Wade-Ferrell (Uncle Friendly)
- Writer Kofi Ansah
- DP Jack Saltmiras
- Art Director Imogen Walsh
- Editor Graeme Pereira
- Colorist Edel Rafferty

Credits
powered by- Production Company AIRBAG
- Director Rhett Wade-Ferrell (Uncle Friendly)
- Editing ARC EDIT
- Managing Partner Adrian Bosich
- Producer Martin Box
- Creative Director Ady Neshoda
- Writer Rhett Wade-Ferrell (Uncle Friendly)
- Writer Kofi Ansah
- DP Jack Saltmiras
- Art Director Imogen Walsh
- Editor Graeme Pereira
- Colorist Edel Rafferty
From the opening moments of Uncle Friendly's claustrophobic promo for Genesis Owusu, you might be forgiven for thinking it will be a cerebral meditation.
However, as soon as Owusu (putting in an excellent performance) is pitted against his cockroach foe, the serenity stops and the creativity bottled up in Friendly's six-year music video hiatus is unleashed.
Relishing in the surreal storytelling, the AIRBAG director (real name Rhett Wade-Ferrell) amps up GTFO's battle of rage and resistance with some crunchy camera moves and a flagrant disregard for homecare.
But what of the bug? “Seeing as we live in Sydney," explains Wade-Ferrell, "we figured capturing a cockroach wouldn’t be hard, but the week before the shoot the cockroaches of Sydney must have heard what we were planning because no one saw a single roach that week.”
“I kid you not, at 5am the day of the shoot I’m texting the production designer five minutes before I go to set and we don’t know what we are going to do because no one has caught a cockroach. And I turned on the coffee machine and this big perfect beautiful cockroach walked out of the back of the machine and literally stopped right in front of me. I was already holding the coffee glass so I just put it over him and he got the job.”