The Prefab 77 boys recently got the chance to go to Brighton to do a massive wall on the side of a shop. They chose to do the ‘Enemy of promise’ piece, and it looks epic. They had a lot of last minute set backs, like flu, the unavailability of a decent camera and the original plan of using a cherry picker had to be abandoned. I caught up with Marc to find out more, so hit the link to see some more photos, the interview and a dope timelapse.
1. How did the opportunity come about, to do the wall in Brighton?
We’ve recently had a bit of interest through the gallery, Art Republic, who have a Brighton gallery, and one of the guys there wanted us to do something in Brighton, so sorted us the wall out off his own back, which was super nice of him. Basically it’s impossible for us to turn down an opportunity like that, walls that size are super good fun to do…
2. What problems did you face while doing it? Because I know there were a couple of last minute snags.
Mainly access, we hadn’t even considered scaffolding (which is how we eventually did it) and the area was heavily pedestrianised, one way, with a phonebox and a bin right in the way, double yellow lined, basically impossible for a cherry picker. We luckily found an independent scaffolder who was more than happy to help us out last minute. And it made it much easier, taking our time etc.
3. How did you capture the time-lapse? I hear it was far from easy.
We initially wanted to use a DSLR to capture frames every few minutes, but lack of preperation meant we couldn’t and a MASSIVE lack of Brighton based camera hire places ended that dream. In the end we used our own digital camera, perched on a ledge 15ft up the side of an opposing shop, with a power lead running off an extension down a busy Brighton street… stuck a 16gb SD card in it, and set it away. It left us with 5 hours of video to compress down to 2 minutes, not easy. Good fun though.
4. How much did inter-Prefab outbreaks of swine flu affect the trip?
Haha, not too bad actually, 2 of us were in agony for 48 hours straight but we battled on !! Sleepless nights, stomach cramps, inability to keep any food inside your body!
5. Will we see Prefab back in Brighton any time soon?
Definitely, who knows when but it’s an amazing place, cool people, very mixed cultures, great shops, wicked cafes, awesome beach / bars / clubs. Very unique, so sorry we’ve never been earlier!
