User:Luke Losey

Luke Losey (born 9th January 1968 at St Mary’s hospital, London) is an award winning film director, lighting designer and photographer. His visually arresting work has been seen in avant-garde, theatre and mainstream media.

Background and early life
Luke Losey is the son of film producer Gavrik Losey (Little Malcolm, If, Agatha, Babylon) and former British ballerina Sally Chesterton; and the grandson of Palme d'Or winning director Joseph Losey (The Servant, The Go-Between, Don Giovanni) and fashion designer Elizabeth Hawes. Luke has one uncle, actor Joshua Losey, and one brother, film director Marek Losey. He was raised in Paddington, London where he attended Hallfield Infants and Junior School in Royal Oak and then Hampstead comprehensive in Kilburn, North London. He left school without qualifications in 1984, and he is dyslexic.

Early career
As a child Luke was obsessed with science fiction. In 1975 a chance viewing of Kubrik’s 2001 and the gift of a Brownie camera led to him becoming obsessed with capturing images, especially sunsets.

After leaving school in 1984 Luke worked as a runner on film sets and for production companies. He worked on Derek Jarman’s film Carravagio, as the floor runner. Luke spent much of the mid to late 1980s working as an art department runner / assistant on films, music videos and ads. Involvement in the early rave and squatting scene in north London led to him getting involved in lighting and film projection, taking advantage of the abandoned buildings left from post war London. The squatting and rave scene summed up the DIY ethic of that time.

In the early 1990s Luke met UK electronic band Orbital. With video artist Giles Thacker he created the visual elements of Orbital’s live show, a fusion of carefully prepared visuals and lighting that flew in the face of the staid fractal  influenced imagery of the day, with wry observations on everyday life. A break away from the scene that was seen as radical at the time, it was much lauded and copied.

In 1996 Luke and Jes Benstock co directed a music video for Orbital's single, The Box, starring Tilda Swinton and inspired by time-lapse animation. The promo won a silver spire for the Best Short Film at the San Francisco film festival, and got nominated for the best video award at the 1996 MTV awards. It also closed the Edinburgh film festival, opened the London film festival, screened at Sundance and made almost every festival that year. Luke then created a second music video for Orbital in 1998 called Style, with Jonathan Charles as director of animation. Style also uses stop motion animation throughout and is a surreal take on Kafka's Metamorphosis, influenced by the work of Jan Švankmajer. Both "The Box" and Style continue to be widely shown.

In 1996 Luke formed avant-garde / electronica collaboration Pressure of Speech, with cult music producer and engineer Mickey Mann and DJ Stika. Pressure of Speech recorded two albums (Art of the State and Our Common Past, Our Common Future), both of dark electronic folk music with strong political overtones. The live shows moved still further away from the happy upbeat ‘E’ related imagery of their peers into a darker more challenging show that took its visual cues from the conspiracy, paranoia and growing uncertainty about our environment. Pressure of Speech was John Peel’s favourite band for a time.

In 1997 Luke was one of the four key artists who curated and collaborated a multi media installation that spanned 18 rooms in the basement of Shoreditch town hall. Entitled Incarceration, it dealt with all aspects of the title from imprisonment, zoos, disability and mental illness Using the tools of contemporary media Incarceration was seen as an antidote to the hedonistic Brit Art of the time, most specifically the Sensation exhibition at the Royal academy. Incarceration was the culmination of two years work and was seen by thousands of visitors.

Later work
Luke directed many music videos in the late 1990s and into the new century, including work for William Orbit and Mercury Rev. After a period directing TV adverts Luke moved with his young family to Australia, where he continued to direct and pursue photography. Periodically returning to the UK to design live shows for bands including The Libertines, Turin Brakes, The Verve and more recently Magazine and Mott the Hoople.

Luke’s most recent work has included a number of internet viral campaigns, a return to photography and advertising work and several short films, most notably i in 2008 which won the Best Sound Design award at the Hamburg Film Festival, and The Promise, which garnered much critical acclaim but its dark subject matter limited its distribution. He is now UK based.

Up coming projects
Luke is currently working on his first drama with producer Liam Garvo, called Subject 8. Subject 8 explores the true story of the rise and fall of The Institute for Neurological Research, Leningrad. In the 1950s the institute was the world's leading research facility of ESP and Parapsychology, but by the mid 1970s, after years of insupportable claims, the institute was discredited and fell into decline. The story takes place in 1975 and is in the early stages of production.