We recently caught up with St Mary’s alumnus Declan Whitebloom to talk about his time at St Mary’s and his career as a director in Los Angeles.
Declan studied Geography and Sociology at St Mary’s, graduating in 1989. Since then, he has directed music videos for Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, One Direction, Rita Ora, and Jess Glynne, as well as many other top musicians. He has won numerous CMA, VMA, and MTV awards for his directing.
Here’s what Declan had to say about how St Mary’s prepared him for working in the music and film industry, as well as what it was like working with the world’s biggest artists.
Why did you choose to come to St Mary’s?
I have gone to Catholic schools my whole life, and St Mary's seemed like a natural segue for me. When I went to visit it didn’t just feel like a cold, faceless place. The first time I came to St Mary’s was really the deciding factor. I grew up in Sussex and the location of St Mary’s in Twickenham felt like a very natural place for me to go. It felt like home from the from the get-go.
Even though I was always interested in film, at that time there wasn’t the accessibility to film courses like there is now and I didn't have that art background. At school, I was good at geography so decided to do Geography and Sociology at St Mary’s.
Did you live on campus during your time here?
I stayed on campus for the first year in Old House. I can strangely still remember the room, Room 223. After my first year, I stayed in the surrounding area of Teddington, Twickenham, and Feltham.
I have visited St Mary’s a couple times when I come back from America, and look back on it fondly. I’ve been able to wander around the grounds and show my kids around. Coming from Los Angeles, where nothing is particularly old, and getting to show them the Gothic buildings and this beautiful campus makes them think I went to Hogwarts.
How did you find your time at St Mary’s?
It was really interesting because it was a human geography course, and we studied topics like urban areas and transport. I was never much of a physical geographer and was much more interested in people. That probably plays into how I got into film as it's about people, which also plays into the sociology side.
I found the geography course really compelling. We went on quite a few field trips such as to Holland for a week. The whole thing was very hands-on, and I felt very connected to people, places, and real things which really resonated with me rather than just abstract concepts.
I really enjoyed the sociology course too. I got to do a bit of criminology, and as part of that we went up to the Old Bailey and watched a court case. We also went to a young offender’s facility in Feltham and got to talk to some of the people there.
Overall, I felt that the course was great in making the subjects feel very alive and not just this disconnected approach to education.
How did you find campus life at St Mary’s?
Coming from living with my parents to all of a sudden being given this kind of freedom was great. I found that I loved the social life at St Mary’s - I was even a DJ during my time there.
I was very much active in the social scene. I found that even from freshers’ week it felt like there was a community. There were bands that would come and play on campus, but then of course you're very close to London so could go see gigs in town. Living at Mary’s felt safe, yet opportunity was on the doorstep.
After you graduated, how did you make that pivot to becoming a director?
So, after graduation I actually went into the West London Institute and did a teaching qualification there. I taught at the same secondary school that I went to, and was living back in my old bedroom with my James Dean poster on the wall. At that time, my brother was living in Los Angeles, and he said you can come and stay on my sofa if you like. I went over there, and I never came back.
In LA, I started at the bottom and became a runner on film sets. I did that for a while and then I graduated into the art department on various projects in film and TV such as commercials and music videos. I then became an apprentice editor followed by an assistant editor. Ultimately, I went into editing music videos, and I edited 300 music videos including Britney Spears’ first videos (…Baby One More Time, Oops! I Did It Again) and some Oasis videos.
Then the Disney corporation came to me as they wanted to start turning their movies into music videos too. They were making a movie Freaky Friday at the time with Lindsay Lohan, and I gave them some suggestions. They then asked if I could do it, so I directed my first ever video.
From there it just snowballed, and I ended up doing lots of music videos for all the Disney people from the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato, and them into people like Taylor Swift. When you work with Taylor Swift, and I have done four times now, people start to notice.
Since then, I’ve also done musicals and directed my first feature film called Stowaway which was much more of a serious thriller. A few years ago, I was involved in the creation of Banksy’s Dismaland installation, where we used the guide that I was directing a film and my crew needed to build a set, thereby allowing the elusive street artist to build a massive, sinister twist on Disneyland.
When it comes to work, I’m happy to try anything. I’ve now got more films in the works, as well as some commercials.
How has St Mary’s helped you in your career?
My time at St Mary's doing social sciences really sparked an interest for me in people and places. Being able to understand people is something that has carried through my whole career.
St Mary’s made me particularly good at being able to organise myself which has been hugely important. Doing geography, you’re given a set of instructions that you must execute, and that transfers to when you’re making a film or commercial. I do think that my degree from St Mary's definitely set me up for my career in an unexpected way.
Something I did do at St Mary’s was an extra ATV production class outside of my course that only lasted for a semester, but within that I got to make a music video.
I’m so thankful for my time there, even though I didn't end up doing pursuing a career in geography or sociology. St Mary’s was fundamental to my development as a person.
What was it like working with Taylor Swift, one of the biggest stars of our time?
I’ve worked with Taylor on three of her videos (Ours, Mean, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together) and we first met when she was about 20. From the get-go, she was always such a smart person. There was no team of people behind her controlling her or telling her what to do, it was all her.
She had seen a previous video that I’d directed for another country, and she called me up. We got into these lengthy conversations, and we became these good collaborators for a while. She was always respectful, and she is exactly what she appears to be. There's not this front where she's posing as someone else. I think she's a phenomenon and I love what she’s doing.
We did Mean first and then Ours in Nashville. Then, the biggest one was We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, which is still voted as one of the best one-shot videos.
We built these sets on these stages where they shot Gone with the Wind in Old Hollywood. We shot it 17 times. During the take she’s actually getting changed five times with all these Velcro dresses that snap off, all while she’s going from place to place. The sets were built in a circle which took a lot of doing, but she was wonderful. Taylor loves to experiment, and it was just a great experience.
I did a Toyota commercial with her after that, and she was still lovely. I feel like if I saw her now, she would stop and chat even though it’s been almost 10 years since I last saw her. I couldn't be happier for how incredibly successful she has become. She’s now directing all her own stuff, but I was very fortunate to be a part of her journey.
What does the process of directing a music video look like?
It really depends on the situation. Sometimes, the artists have an idea of what they want to say with the video and other times they have no idea at all.
With One Direction, for example, they had a set budget and knew they wanted to shoot at the beginning of December, but then we were able to come up with ideas and send them over. I came up with this idea inspired by The Beatles running around in A Hard Day’s Night, which they liked.
The process is basically that I listen to a song, and it speaks to me in some sort of way, or I read the lyrics to get into what they're trying to say with it. It’s always interesting finding a strategy of how to encapsulate a song through visuals. For example, I worked with Demi Lovato on the song from Frozen (Let It Go) and I watched the film to find themes that I could embody in the music video without looking exactly the same.
Some artists don't have a lot to say because they are handled by managers who have strong ideas. I've had to learn over the years to be adaptable and gauge how much creative input I’m able to have on the project.
How easy is it to interpret what an artist is trying to say?
Musicians spend a long time with their song, and they often mean something to them. I have to really try and walk in their shoes, so I'll listen to the song but then I'll also look on their Instagram accounts and at their old videos to find out what they like and what interests them.
It's an ever-changing process where you're trying to interpret what they want, without them actually telling you what that is. It's a little bit of a detective work in a way, and again goes back to the people skills I learnt at St Mary’s.
Taylor Swift is known for putting Easter eggs and clues throughout her work. Did you do much of that with her?
Before we shot Ours, I went to her apartment in Nashville and Taylor had just got this tiny kitten. She introduced me to this cat, and I thought she's really into cats so let’s put a cat in the video. I quickly realised that Taylor also had this interest in layering in extra information in her videos, so we started doing it and she's only done it more over the years.
With Taylor now, the whole Easter egg thing has become so important. She recently brought back Joey King and Presley Cash who were in the Mean music video that we shot together for one of her videos (I Can See You). People love the Easter eggs, and I can say that I was there at the beginning of that process.
What advice would you give to any current students?
I would say to students that you should enjoy it and make the most of the opportunities offered to you in this moment. University is this wonderful time where you are developing into your own individual person. It's a great time to experiment with your life while still having that protection there.
It's important to study something you love and to really put time into your learning too. St Mary’s is a wonderful doorway into adulthood that you'll never have again. Just be in the moment, enjoy, and soak up all the opportunities that are presented to you.