Soft Boy Forever: An Irish Hip Hop Story
A suburban nightmare set in the childhood hometown you never escaped.
2021 | The Academic 'Kids (Don't End Up Like Me)'
Official Music Video
Capitol Records, Universal Records.
Nominated for BEST INTERNATIONAL ROCK VIDEO and BEST COLOUR GRADING at the 2021 UK Music Video Awards.
Nominated for BEST DIRECTOR, BEST NEW DIRECTOR and BEST MUSIC VIDEO at the 2022 Kinsale Shark Awards.
directors HOPE KEMP & RONAN CORRIGAN
commissioner: MICHAEL WHITHAM
director of photography ADAM SINGODIA
line producer: CHRISSIE GALLAGHER
grade VLAD BARIN - CHEAT
1st assistant camera: PADDY CASSIDY
gaffer: RORY HARKIN
spark: CHRIS MADDEN
colour producer: CARLA THOMAS
colour assistant: THOMAS KUMELING
prop builds: DENIS RUSH - TEMPLE PROPS
props master: ORLA GRIFFIN
cast and special effects make-up: SHAUNA TAGGART
band make-up artist and hair stylist: JEN QUINN
cast stylist: ERIN ROSE
band stylist: GRACE MOORE
locations manager: ROBERT BLAIR
covid compliance: JOSHUA CARLIN
Press
"Having directed two videos for The Academic last year, Hope Kemp and Ronan Corrigan have given their directing partnership a new name - TEARJERKER - and now directed a third one for the Irish band.
With a theme of being stuck in the small town you grew up in, TEARJERKER's follow-up to Anything Could Happen and Acting My Age is a series of mundane situations, where band frontman Craig finds himself inserted in surprising places - inside a vending machine, and inside a washing machine in a laundrette, lying in a freezer in the supermarket, and so on.
In fact, with splendid work by DoP Adam Singodia and colourist Vlad Barin evoking several cinematic visions of suburbia, this small town is a weirdly alluring place to visit."
"**** - Irish indie outfit The Academic ruminate on the horror of being stuck in one's hometown forever in the band's latest track 'Kids (Don't End Up Like Me)'. The band's chugging sound provides a solid foundation for singer Craig Fitzgerald's yearning vocals as he laments: "Anything I have just runs and goes / and when I say I shine, I barely glow."
The accompanying promo from directors TEARJERKER also leans into this small-town ennui, with the band members trapped inside various appliances (a vending machine, a shop freezer, a washing machine, etc.) while life continues without them. Vlad Barin's nostalgic grade is particularly strong, bringing a poignant, memory-softened sense of longing to the action."