How ‘Alone Together’ Directors Told Charli XCX’s Story

The new documentary “Alone Together” chronicles the making of Charli XCX’s newest album, “How I’m Feeling Now,” in the course of the pandemic. The solely drawback was, the pop star had already livestreamed each step of the recording course of to her followers. So how do you make a compelling behind-the-scenes movie when everybody already is aware of the total story?

That was the problem going through administrators Bradley & Pablo, whose “Alone Together” premiered on Friday because the closing evening movie of SXSW. The documentary exhibits how Charli XCX made her experimental, electro-pop fourth album in simply six weeks as a DIY undertaking. Along the way in which, she shared her progress together with her loyal followers (or “Angels”), and even included their suggestions and recommendations into the music. In a lot the identical method, Bradley & Pablo went past making Charli the only protagonist of their doc, as an alternative looping in a number of of the followers who labored together with her and highlighting their tales alongside hers.

“[Charli] already is super transparent and open, but for her fans, when you’re living that, you don’t really see it in all its glory. It’s our job to find our perspective on that and present it to the world,” Bradley advised TheWrap. “I think we saw something in it that Charli wasn’t even aware of at the time — the scale and the reach and the importance of doing this project with her fans in this open way.”

“Luckily Charli was very honest and open and pretty diligent about filming herself most of the time,” Pablo added. “She was pretty open with how she was feeling; putting the camera on herself at times when a lot of people may not have.”

“Alone Together” is Bradley & Pablo’s directorial debut after the L.A.-based duo have constructed a profession directing music movies for the likes of Harry Styles, Lil Nas X and Lizzo. They’ve labored with Charli XCX relationship again to her “Vroom Vroom” EP and located themselves simply 5 minutes up the street, however seemingly miles aside, from her in the course of the pandemic.

And they already confronted an uphill battle, because it wasn’t till the eighth day of Charli’s recording course of that they even realized it was one thing that wanted documenting. Ultimately, they combed by means of over 4,000 clips and interviews with followers over a 12-month modifying interval.

“We were already catching up, trying to figure out in our heads what the story was going to be, plus trying to get her to start documenting it in a proper way,” Pablo stated. “The big thing was structure — really nailing in what we wanted to say and what was the theme of the film beyond Charli making an album. How do we weave all these interesting themes and nuggets into a cohesive narrative?”

“Alone Together” at instances pulls straight from Charli XCX’s Instagram Live appearances, throughout which she chatted with followers and workshopped lyrics and beats in actual time. At one level, she talked about how she felt “warped” by being caught indoors, however commenters on the livestream efficiently satisfied her to make use of the phrase “exhausted” as an alternative. The collaboration solely grew from there.

“It’s putting yourself into a very vulnerable position, really. That process is often very private and something that people would often guard, so I think it’s a very brave thing that she would open that up and also probably ended up creating an album that will mean so much to people who felt like they were part of that project,” Pablo stated.

“She took the parameters and boundaries of the pandemic and the challenges of isolation and turned them into opportunities,” Bradley added. “By the position she was in, she connected with people that she never would have connected to had it not had been through this situation. I think that inspired and drove her music and the amazing album she actually came out with.”

Charli XCX’s “How I’m Feeling Now” earned spots on a number of best-of-2020 lists and…