Worthing passes for New York in Knopfler music video

It was made by Worthing-based film-maker Chaz Parvez and features Horsham-based Holly-Marie Michael who also appeared in Chaz’s short film Beneath the Cedar. The song is called Take One For The Team.

“The way it came about was that the first film I did three years ago was called Psycho Chromatic,” Chaz explains, “and it was the story of a haunted guitar. It was the first thing I did out of lockdown.

"I thought I would give it a go and I thought I'd have a bit of fun and get in contact with some of my guitar heroes to see if they would donate a guitar plectrum. I sent off some letters and emails and I sent off a stamped addressed envelope to David Knopfler. I'm a big Dire Straits fan but I didn't hear anything back but then literally a year later I got a letter and I thought I recognised the handwriting.

"It was my own handwriting on the stamped addressed envelope and it was from him. He said ‘I am very sorry. Your letter originally came to an old address but here is a plectrum!’ And he said if I wanted some music for the film then he would do it. I gave him the bad news that the film had been done a year before but then last summer I did a little eco film about the linkage between ecosystems and well-being and I asked him if he would provide the music and he very kindly did. It is a film called Vital Threads and I was thinking 40 years before when I bought Dire Straits’ debut album I never thought I'd be writing one day at the end of the film I made ‘Music by David Knopfler.’ The music fitted really well and it was a pretty big deal in my normal world and I just said if you ever had a song and wanted a video I would return the favour. He told me that he had this new album coming out and there was this song that he would like a video for.

“We shot it in Worthing within the last couple of months and the two main characters are Mike Kelson who lives in Kent and has done a lot of TV and video work and is an old friend of mine and Holly-Marie Michael, who is from Horsham and was in my film Beneath the Cedar.

“I had a Zoom call with David and he asked me to do it and because the song had such a good narrative about someone that had been dry for a number of years but then had fallen by the wayside, about how drink can come back and bite you on the bum, the lyrics were quite meaningful which made it much easier for me.

"We were able to discuss it but the main thing was trying to keep it simple. It is supposed to be in New York so I use some New York library footage and then the rest is in Worthing.

"There is a great place that we used called The Whisk(e)y Rooms in Worthing which is a lovely venue and were really accommodating, and some of it was down by the railway and we also used an underpass.

"We spent a few hours in the bar where most of the action happens and the rest of it was just going out street guerrilla style getting the film when we could.”

Available on YouTube.