Interview with the Director - Josh Sondock

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in film making.

After a brief stint as a baby, Josh Sondock began producing and directing. His illustrious career started at age 9 when he and his brother created their own version of the MTV show, Jackass. Josh was the director and primary stuntman. After slowly discovering that films could engender feelings far more meaningful than nausea, he turned filmmaking into a profession.

Sondock’s award-winning directing portfolio contains commercial work for clients such as Audemars Piguet, Golden Goose, Knickerbocker MFG. & Next Gen alongside music films for artists including Ashe, Jeremy Zucker, Chelsea Cutler, QUINN XCII, Nick Leng, Gavin Turek, Orion Sun & many more.

With an efficacious background as a 5-times-Vimeo-staff-pick-winning producer, Sondock has produced content for brands such as Apple, Zara, BMW, Calvin Klein, Pantene, Pepsi, Meta, Amazon, Honda, Converse & Unicef as well as videos for artists such as The Rolling Stones, Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco, Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, The Strokes, Glass Animals & A$AP Rocky.

His directing work has received critical acclaim, thumbs-ups, (and a few thumbs-sideways) from Vimeo Staff Picks, booooooom, Director’s Library, Director’s Notes, Berlin Commercial Awards, Sarasota Film Fest, Lower East Side Film Fest & many more. He garnered a Staff Pick & UKMVA nomination for his most recent music video, Beetlebugs, was shortlisted for the ‘23 Creative Circle, won the Best Alternative Music Video award at the ‘22 UKMVAs, & took home the ‘23 Cannes Young Director Award (YDA) for his music video Morning / Midnight.

Sondock loves taking outrageous concepts very seriously.

NOTE: He still does his own stunts.

How did Beetlebugs come together as a project?

We made beetlebugs strictly because we wanted to! There was no release date or plan, and the song was just one of many works-in-progress that Nick sent to me. I scrounged together the money, along with help from some of the production companies that I’ve been represented by (KODE & RiffRaff), and we were off to the… very slow races.

Music videos are interesting because you have someone else, Nick Leng in this case, providing you with a soundtrack you have no control over. What is the experience like in taking someone else’s art and putting your own flair into it?

Funny enough, when working with an artist like Nick, the soundtrack actually CAN change. Nick added and removed sections for the video when we felt we needed a bit more time to tell the complete story. That being said, I think the format of music videos is great because the song already dictates a story or a tone — you can work with it or against it, but it fundamentally must be the backbone of the concept. In this case, the working title of the song, originally it was written like “beatlezbugz,” which was just the vibe like labeling the mp3, ended up becoming a story about a literal beetle… but this was just by accident.

Speaking of constraints, looking at your work both in music videos and things like your HOW TO: series, you’ll condense entire stories and worlds into small packages. Is it hard to leave things on the cutting room floor?

That is the nature of short form. I like to make sure that each setup has a world in it. Though I’m not always successful, I like to put a ton of intentionality into each scene or sequence, but then also take a big step back. In this case, I did the first couple rounds of editing myself — usually this results in a very straightforward edit that lacks intrigue and fails to use footage as texture, merely requiring I stick to the original narrative arc. This is why I find it deeply helpful to have an editor or co-collaborator who is able to see the footage without a complete understanding of it’s intention — you end up with a final cut that splits the difference between the intention of the piece from my POV and the consequence of the piece from someone else’s (in this case, my wonderful editor Gwen Ghelid)!

Between the real beetles you used, shooting on film, the endoscopy camera, the hand drawn animation – it seems like you were almost trying to challenge yourself with really difficult conditions. Do you naturally feel a drive to push out of a comfort zone in your work?

I’m not currently in therapy, but if I was this would be a big topic. I seem to conflate the ideas of doing something hard and doing something good. Easy and good feel like contradictions (they’re definitely not for the record — will work on this).

You’ve mentioned the challenge in “actually releasing the damn thing”. What advice do you have for other film makers who might see your work and need that kick up the ass?

PLEASE DON’T FORGET: We’re all just piles of molecules floating through a chaotic abyss of nothingness and the universe will implode blah blah blah.

Are the beetles still with us, or have they gone to that great music video in the sky?

They’re still with me (both emotionally & physically). I couldn’t bear to let them lose or kill them, so I’ve been feeding them fresh fruit in a terrarium in my kitchen for nearly 2 years. They are HEARTY mother-fuckers. Excellent pets.

What projects are coming up next for you?

Making a short film about a father who tries to prepare his son for his inevitable death by sharing all his bank account passwords with him. What starts as disbelief turns into paranoia.

Do you have any message for our Melbourne fans?

I’m sorry that I went to New Zealand & didn’t go to Australia as well. I’ll make up for it one day.