Today, Myles Whittingham is known as the man behind directing a number of big videos such as Giggs’ banger “187” and more recently, the video for French Montana’s hit “Writing On The Wall” featuring Cardi B and Post Malone (which has currently been viewed over 24 million times on YouTube). However, Myles’ career in filming started out on the other side of the camera, appearing as an actor in popular UK dramas, as well as in the music video for Roll Deep’s classic track, “Badman”.
So how did Myles go from starring in videos to directing some of the biggest videos in the world? He “took the leap” to chase his dreams, he tells me. Despite the success of the “Writing On The Wall” video, Myles Whittingham isn’t slowing down any time soon as we caught up over a quick phone call while he was on his way to another shoot.
From making the transition from acting to directing and advice to up and coming directors, to telling me he only quitting his job three years ago, we chopped it up with Myles to look at his journey thus far.
We all know you as a talented director in the scene but you started out in the filming industry by acting in music videos such as Roll Deep’s “Badman”. How did you initially get into acting?
“I’d always loved acting – acting and football were the two things that I loved. I remember I saw a guy I went to school with who was a few years older and he was in ‘The Bill’ at the time. Not knowing anything at all about the process I asked him how he got into acting and he said ‘You need an agent’, so he sent me his agent’s ‘The Harris Agency’ contact details. I had to audition for the agency and I ended up getting in so that’s how my acting journey initially started.
“I had a few small roles in ‘Doctors’, ‘The Bill’ and, as you said, the Roll Deep video and with that, I was working with legendary director Jake Nava who’s done stuff with Beyoncé, that video was everywhere at the time! I’d get stopped 24/7 for being in that video so it’s been crazy to do a 360 from acting in music videos to directing them.”
What sparked the transition from being in front of the camera to being behind the camera?
“At the time, I was studying Engineering at Brunel University but my passion was for filmmaking. A few things were happening for me that year such as Doctors, I was in a few commercials and I didn’t wanna wake up as a 40-year-old engineer and have regret that I didn’t chase my passion so I decided to take a year out to figure out what I was gonna do.
“So I took time out, acting was going well but I also wanted to have qualifications because I didn’t want to pursue something without having anything academic behind me. So because I was actively acting at the time, I decided not to go to drama school and instead I went to a film school so I could learn the other side of things.
“With acting, I always had roles where I was the bad guy and I felt that there’s other narratives for black actors and people from our world that need to be told. That’s a big reason why I wanted to direct – to tell other stories, I’ve always wanted to mix socio-realism with genres you don’t normally associate them with.
Would you say going to film school is a must for up-and-coming directors?
“For me, film school definitely helped me to learn the craft of directing. I was around so many talented filmmakers and broadened my knowledge tenfold. However, it’s not a must because you can learn through doing stuff by yourself. There are music videos which are being shot on iPhones for big artists. So I wouldn’t say you necessarily need to go to film school as you can practice on your iPhone, downloading clips. I’m not trying to dismiss film school – 100% it definitely helped me and my personal journey – but everyone’s journey’s different”
Would you say it’s easier for directors to get exposed nowadays because of social media?
“The best thing about it is you can just reach out directly to people. Before Instagram, how would you even find contact information for up and coming artists who’s style you love? How would you find their manager? Now, on Instagram, you can find people and show them your work. It makes the world smaller, which is a good thing.”
When you first got into directing, who did you draw inspiration from?
“I love Spike Lee films! When I was at film school I used to watch loads of those. They’re not always the same, it’s not always the same narrative and I like how he told tales from the hood but he still used the great techniques and devices. He added his own style to it and I like seeing the effects he brought to cinema.”
In the past few years, we’ve seen you work with Giggs quite a bit over the years, directing videos such as “Linguo” and “187”. How did that relationship come around?
“Giggs’ manager, Buck, is like my brother and we’ve known each other for years and through that I’ve known Giggs for years. As well as being his brother, I’ve always been a massive Giggs fan and always wanted to shoot for him but I didn’t want it to be just because we were friends. So I was just perfecting my craft and learning and shooting other videos waiting and hoping it would happen, but the reality was I wasn’t ready at the time. But I remember the joy when I got the bird call from Giggs.
“The first video we done was “Who’s Dat” and I think Giggs liked the process because we were friends and because I was super transparent and he might not have had that before when shooting music videos and I got what he envisioned. Then over the years, we’ve just come to get each other even more so the process is even better now.”
Also with Giggs, you recently done the short film for “Essence”. Do you have more plans to create more long-form content in the future?
“Yeah, 100%! That’s something I definitely want to do. Being in film school, that’s my background and as I was saying before, I want to tell different stories. I definitely wanna explore other genres.”
You recently directed the video for French Montana’s huge collaboration with Cardi B and Post Malone. What was the process like shooting that video?
“I’d spoken to French Montana and we had like a few loose ideas and back and forth’s on FaceTime and over the phone. But I’m the type of person that loves to flesh things out in person so I ended up going out to LA then I linked up with French for a few days and we went over the ideas that he had. I came back home and then a couple weeks later it was like ‘Ah sh*t, it’s gotta happen tomorrow’ because of everybody’s schedule and then I had to go straight back out there and go straight it. It was kind of a crazy period but you’ve just gotta make it work.
“French Montana, Cardi B and Post Malone were all super down to earth, they were all warm, friendly guys. It was like working with people I’ve worked with already. The shoot was great and the energy was good. It was an honour to work with them all. It was a great process.”
Your work has been recognised internationally now so you’ve definitely made your mark in the world of directing but would you ever consider getting back into acting?
“It’s something I would do but at the moment, I’m just focused on directing the projects and eventually trying to create worlds in different videos and films. I still have love for acting – never say never – but at the moment I’m just focused on directing.“
What would your advice be for up and coming directors?
“My advice would be to commit yourself to what you wanna do and never give up. Go out and learn your craft. The one thing I would say is shoot as much content as you can, just filming anything and learning how it goes taking that footage back and editing it in different ways. If you haven’t got the footage that you like, you can go onto YouTube and rip footage and bring that footage into your edit and see if you can re-edit videos. The more hours you put in, the more you’re gonna learn.
“Things don’t happen overnight. Once I left film school, I was working a full time job for years and I only quit my job three years ago. I was working in advertising for a media agency but it wasn’t my dream, you know? I wasn’t progressing as much as I could have because I was working, and at the same time, work was suffering because I was directing. Once I made the leap, that’s when I progressed more. Not everyone can [make the leap] but if you can, do as much as you can and put your full heart in it and you can make it happen.”
Photos by: @__kqm