Press Archives - Page 2 of 12 - Trunk | Animation Production Company
Rok Predin’s brilliant concert visuals
On 21, Mar 2017 | In Press | By Pip
Trunk’s director Rok Predin is no stranger when it comes to creating concert visuals. His backdrops for Keith Urban, Sir Elton John, the Queen’s jubilee concert and for Bingo Player’s latest tour have reached a combined audience of well over 30 million. But his latest work is far more personal and intimate. He has created a series of eighteen visuals to be used as a backdrop at his father Zoran’s recent concerts.
Zoran Predin is one of Slovenia’s most respected singer songwriters, and with a string of hit singles to his name, has worked with one of Croatia’s most talented and respected pianists Matija Dedic on a bestselling album, “Footprints in Memories”. This album is a celebration and catalogue of well-known regional songs. Working together Matija and Zoran paired back the compositions to create a classical, yet minimalist sound that perfectly captures the emotion within the tracks. Following the success of the first album they have created a sequel that has also been well received, and which they are now touring.
The pair performed songs from both albums in two concerts one in Ljubljana on the 14 of Feb, the capital of Zoran’s Slovenia and the second on the 28 of Feb in Zagreb the capital of Matija’s Croatia, and this is where the audiences got to see Rok’s backdrop for the first time.
Rok was asked to create eighteen pieces of work in all, one for each track. The team wanted to add a visual depth to the show, and ask their audience to re-imagine these old songs with their fresh compositions in a new light. Rok answered by creating an open, abstract approach to the visuals, giving a dream like quality to the whole performance. The visual sensibility changed the whole context of the shows. They in essence allowed the audience to re-connect to these songs they have loved and listened to for years, in their own special way, and all at the same time.
Each tableaux created references specific lyrics or encapsulates the feeling of each song. Rok notes “Most ideas come from the lyrics themselves such as the image of a burning rose which is from a song that deals with heartbreak and jealousy, other visual elements are more open, creating surprising juxtapositions that establish an emotional response”. The haunting and beautiful images all have a particular look that captures the visual handwriting Rok has grown up with. The artworks feel like they have taken strong influences of the past, but have a futuristic air to them, and it’s this timelessness quality that allows both audiences young and old to come together and enjoy these heritage tracks.
Rok continues, “ I approached each visual in terms of a theatre set or photograph, I wanted to introduce a bit of magic and surrealism to the songs and to have my loops come from unexpected places for the audience to enjoy”
As to working with his father he notes, “We have always had a great relationship and it was humbling to have him trust and appreciate my input to something which, as a creative, I understand is so important and personal”
Cut to one of Zoran’s most famous songs, ‘Wait for Me’, which also features on the album, Rok has put together a montage of the visuals.
Directed by Rok Predin
Produced by Richard Barnett
Animation: Rok Predin, Leslie Dart, Layla Atkinson, Sara Šavelj
Compositing: Rok Predin
Illustration: Sara Šavlej
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Trunk animates Julian Lennon’s Saltwater 25th Anniversary
On 09, Jan 2017 | In Press | By Pip
Trunk Animation were delighted when Julian Lennon’s art director Dick Carruthers commissioned them to create a new video for the re-working of his chart topping single ‘Saltwater’. It is 25 years since Julian’s world-wide hit drew attention to man’s negative impact on the environment. While the hole in the ozone layer he sang about in 1991 is slowly being healed the song’s central message is sadly as relevant today as then.
In their treatment they wanted to avoid clichéd imagery of famine, stranded polar bears, and melting glaciers to instead show that, although we may now be more aware of the various environmental crises the world faces, mankind is increasingly disconnected from the world. The video features a solitary character- a girl staring into her phone (a device that was in its infancy when “Saltwater” was initially released.) She remains glued to her phone throughout the piece, drifting obliviously over a landscape that encompasses themes of desolation and delight. During her journey she is unaware of the decaying world but she also misses beautiful moments emphasising the song’s call that we have to be more aware of our fragile environment.
Trunk’s directors Layla Atkinson and Jock Mooney joined forces for the first time to co-direct the piece. While both had worked for each other on various projects this was the first time that they had collaborated as joint directors. They both enjoyed the process of combining their skills and experiences.
Jock and Layla combined hand drawn illustrations, textures, scanned photographs, vector graphic elements and 3D characters to create a mixed media collage. They wanted to create a psychedelic landscape alluding to themes in the song. Layla notes, “We used a range of visuals that were driven by the song, for example when Julian sings of walking on the moon we used Jock’s drawing of an astronaut, yet at other times we used less obvious correlations such as a cracked baby’s bottle to convey the emotion of a hungry child”. These subtle devices mixed with more literal images successfully created the abstract and surreal landscape they were trying to construct. Jock notes, “ The video has multiple layers and images that on repeated viewing reveal themselves”
Fellow Trunk director Rok Predin lent a fresh pair of eyes and his immeasurable skill in compositing and 3D rendering to pull the video together. A full range of software was used including Cinema 4D, After Effects, Flash and Photoshop to deliver the film. Producer Richard Barnett notes “ Last Christmas we created a lyric video for Kylie Minogue and James Corden, a light festive song that captured the season’s themes. It seems fitting that we finish this tumultuous year with a far more mature and melancholy song that asks bigger things from us as we head into a time of uncertainty. Julian’s stunning new arrangement is powerful and orchestral in feel and the finished video captures that depth and complexity beautifully”.
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Credits
Track: Julian Lennon ‘Saltwater’ 25 Years
Directed by Layla Atkinson and Jock Mooney
Illustration: Jock Mooney
Animation: Leslie Dart, Rok Predin, Simona Ciraolo, Layla Atkinson
Compositing: Rok Predin
Artworking: Mehmet Ulusahin
Producer: Richard Barnett
Commissioner: Dick Carruthers
Production Company: Trunk Animation
Trunk embarked on one of their most challenging jobs for Shirley Collins.
On 08, Nov 2016 | In Press | By Pip
Director Layla Atkinson noted, “ Putting all your eggs in one basket and stepping off a cliff while exhilarating is also quietly terrifying” This perfectly sums up the creative direction behind Trunk’s latest project. The London based animation house has created a video for national treasure Shirley Collins’ (MBE) new album Lodestar, her first for 38 years. The internationally acclaimed folksinger’s version of “Pretty Polly” is set in the Appalachian Mountains in the 1700s. This beautiful ballad, which she discovered with Alan Lomax in 1959 during a tour of North America, set Layla and Trunk on a journey that would require turning a mountain of cardboard and timber into forests, meadows, clouds and rolling hills, building a film set, bringing in tons of camera equipment and packing Trunk’s small studio with eighteen animators, scene movers, puppeteers, lighting and camera operators on the hottest September day in the last 100 years.
Shirley had set only one stipulation within the brief; she wanted the video to incorporate a very special kind of puppet, a jig doll. These puppets come to life when jigged on a vibrating board and have been popular street entertainment for hundreds of years. These dolls fixed not only the look of the video but the spirit and direction that it would take. Layla notes “ My initial thoughts were to shoot the puppets on green screen then add in the backgrounds using After Effects but the prospect of spending a chunk of the summer sitting in a hot room, staring at a screen and trying to key out puppets and then creating “handmade” artwork in Photoshop did not seem that enticing. After listening to the song a couple more times I gratefully ditched the green screen idea and, inspired by the timbre of Shirley’s voice and the stripped back music, decided to create something different. I wanted to use rough cardboard and simple drawings inspired by American folk art combined with beautiful lighting to form the video’s aesthetic handwriting. I then decided to make my life harder still by keeping the camera locked off at all times and shooting scenes in real time with no edits or cutaways so the final piece would feel more like watching a play than a film.” This low-tech and theatrical approach perfectly captured the feel of the song. Shirley Collins and commissioner for Domino Records Bart McDonagh loved the idea and the project was given the go ahead.
This decision was to raise many challenges that would have to be overcome but there was a firm belief that the process would create a dynamic, chaotic and fluid working atmosphere that would allow something beautiful to emerge. After talking to small world genius director of photography Peter Ellmore, it was also decided to shoot on film rather than digital. Using film felt totally within the spirit of the idea and compared to digital photography it gives a much softer and forgiving drop off within the depth of field. However, it also meant that each scene could only be shot six times and there would be no chance to see the rushes before the sets were dismantled.
Once Layla had created the animatic to tell the story of Polly’s adventure, she worked with stop-motion expert John Harmer, artist Jock Mooney, puppeteer Garry Rutter, plus a small art department team to build and paint the sets, elements and puppets. Everything was crafted and painted on cardboard including hundreds of trees, each individually painted and stuck on their respective backgrounds.
All the landscapes were created by moveable planes attached to timber runners sitting on fixed blocks that could be independently moved by two operators. Each set was to have four separate planes which all had to move at different speeds and at different times to create a charming parallax movement. A methodology was worked out where the song provided the seconds count that dictated when and which planes would move to ensure the sets reflected the action of the song. This meant during a shot one plane might have to travel four meters at two and a half centimetres a second while another plane would have to travel two meters at five centimetres a second. Meanwhile elements were bought into frame when needed by puppeteers and sceneshifters to match the song’s narrative.
As well as choreographing a ballet of moving scenes, people and elements, other beautiful low-tech solutions were utilised. In one scene the face of the song’s hero is seen in close up with his eyes moving from left to right, accomplished by a slider behind the cut out eyes reminiscent of B.B.C’s early Captain Pugwash cartoons made in the 1950s.
Director of photography Peter Ellmore along with gaffer Jonathan Yates built and managed the lighting rig as the sets had to be dynamically lit during the filming. This was seen to great effect during the battlefield set with flashes representing cannon blasts. After a few dry runs to iron out any problems, for example it was discovered a lot of grease would be needed to ensure the timber rails would move smoothly over their blocks the filming began.
Over two days of filming a group consisting of animators, students from Goldsmiths, old friends and colleagues all pitched in to help move scenes and elements with producer Richard Barnett calling time. With the heat from the lights and the outside temperature hitting 34 degrees it felt at a times like rowing in the bowels of a Roman galley but the atmosphere and spirit that Layla hoped would come together certainly did. The filming finished just before midnight on the second day.
Layla notes “ I knew it would be a bit of a nightmare and a challenge, I did constantly wake up panicking at 4am wondering what an earth was I thinking to attempt something like this, but had faith in the people around me. It was brilliant to be torn away from the computer and to get to work with my hands again, to constantly problem-solve, to be covered in paint and to finally see how everything came together”.
Jonny T at Glassworks graded the finished film.
Shirley Collins loved the final film stating “Isn’t it absolutely gorgeous: sweet, charming, full of innocence, and it made me laugh out loud! Quite quite perfect..” Praise indeed.
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computer arts feb1
Credits
Music and vocals- Shirley Collins
The Instrument- Ian Kearey
Drums- Alex Neilson
Commissioner- Bart McDonagh
Director- Layla Atkinson
Producer- Richard Barnett
DoP- Pete Ellmore
Gaffers- Jonathan Yates, Adam Bell
Illustration- Jock Mooney
Art Department Head- John Harmer
Art Department- Layla Atkinson, Rebecca Manley
Art Workers- Adrian Leak, Shirley McNicholas, Leyla McNicholas, Victoria Szelachowska, Lucy Blackhurst
Puppet Makers- Bernard Pilgrim, Garry Rutter, Richard Barnett, Jock Mooney
Puppeteers- Garry Rutter, Rebecca Manley
Scenery Shifters- Fiona Mckiernan, Mehmet Ulusahin, Luca Paulli, Rok Predin, Kieran Letts, Hannah Wilson, Violeta Paez Armando, Alec Kronacker, Pip Piporo
Rigging- Richard Barnett, Chris Heinhold
PR- Pippress.com
Grade- Jonny T at Glassworks
Lighting- Panalux
Lab- Kodak
Record Company- Domino Records
Thanks to- Rocket Van, London Diamond Drilling, Jack Wood at Glassworks, Flints, Bernard Pilgrim, Jane Pfaff, Karine Gama and Kelly Amundsen at Panalux, Kodak, Chris Harvey, Duncan Martin at Pro-Motion
Trunk creates eight delightful films for financial app Jenius.
On 19, Sep 2016 | In Press | By Pip
Trunk has created eight wonderful short films that explain the multiple functions of a new app called Jenius, from the PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional Tbk (BTPN), based in Indonesia. Mobile financial management is an indispensable part of life when your country has a quarter of a billion people spread over fourteen thousand islands and the nearest bank or ATM can be a boat ride away. With the Jenius app a user can use the $Cashtag to turn a customers name into an account number then using Send It they can easily transfer money, using Pay Me they request payments, using Split Bill they can send and receive payments amongst friends and Dream Saver allows users to set saving targets.
Working with Leo Burnett’s Jakarta office Encore Pictures contacted Trunk with an outline brief and initial script. The client wanted the films to have a simple clean graphic style but needed Trunk’s expertise and experience to turn their ideas into cracking shorts. Directors Pete Mellor and Layla Atkinson worked on the scripts defining the essence of each, embellishing, polishing and injecting them with humour and ensuring they could be animated.
Pete notes “the initial scripts whilst containing a clear idea that needed to come across lacked a certain pace and seemed quite dry. We infused them with more humour and characterisation, for example in one script to highlight the ability to make a payment with one click the clients had the hero fall out of a tree and end up in hospital, with only one finger working. We embellished this by making the fall far more dramatic and humorous with nods to the Simpsons and after the hero has made the payment his troubles continue with a collapsing bed. We also wrote unique comical call-backs that appear under the tag line text at the end of each film. Having a deep knowledge of animation was also crucial ensuring that the scripts could be animated within the clients time-frame”
To create the clients clean graphic look executive producer Richard Barnett bought in Peepshow Collective’s Spencer Wilson. His illustrations had been used to great effect on a set of films Trunk had created for Kaspersky. Once the client had seen examples of Spencer’s work and the new scripts they were delighted. Although, there were some aspects that had to be altered: one of Pete and Layla’s scripts contained a scene set in a nightclub which involved lots of alcohol a big no no in a predominantly Muslin country. With the scripts signed off a team at Trunk was pulled together and spent the next four weeks working like devils to deliver the eight films within the tight deadline.
The resulting films have a wonderful feel and pace. The client’s colour palette was augmented by Spencer ensuring the films worked beautifully together while matching the Jenius brand. All the films have a voice-over yet they also had to work without one, as Indonesia has more than seven hundred regional languages. Pete and Layla’s direction ensured all the animators work knitted together seamlessly ensuring a singular hand dominated.
Richard notes: “This was a great project to produce especially as we once again worked with Spencer and Pete from Peepshow Collective who we had worked with on the Kaspersky and the Car Buying Service projects. It was also great to work for an Indonesian client, as back in 2011 we were honoured by a visit to the studio from his Excellency Yuri O Thamrin the Indonesian ambassador. The meeting left us with a soft spot for Indonesia, so you can imagine our delight when out of the blue Leo Barnett and Encore pictures in Jakarta commissioned us for this job”.
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Credits:-
Animators: Nick Brooks, Alex Potts, James Turzynski, Harry Slinger-Thompson, Philip Askins, Simona Ciraolo
Illustrator: Spencer Wilson
Music: Adem Ihlan
Mix: Fonic
Directors: Pete Mellor, Layla Atkinson
Line Producer: Pedro Lino
Exec Producer: Richard Barnett
Rok Predin creates stunning visual library for Bingo Players VJ Pat Jagla.
On 16, Aug 2016 | In Press | By Pip
When it comes to providing concert visuals Trunk has an impressive client list that includes Elton John, Take That, Keith Urban, Coldplay and Madness (for the Queens jubilee on Buckingham Palace). Their latest collaboration is with international super DJ Bingo Players, allowing them to create work for the fast 110 – 150 B.P.M world of electric dance music.
Bingo Players approached Trunk to make a body of animation that could be mixed by their VJ Pat Jagla during Bingo Players live set. An initial brief from Ted Lovett’s studio in L.A outlined the concept of a “Yellow Takeover” that evolved from Bingo Players trademark acid house smiley face logo with lightning bolt eyes. The concept had the yellow from this logo spread outsides the confines of the circular logo and infect the surrounding environment, metaphorically spreading Bingo Players reach. This also mirrors the expansion and acceptance of electronic dance music within the wider world.
The main concept of the “Yellow Takeover” was presented as five distinct stories or chapters by the creative’s at Trunk. Two feature Op and Pop Art. Two comprise fast edited news clips and gifs interspersed with Bingo Players logo spinning, swooping, flipping and pulsing to the beat akin to an 80’s TV channel ident. While the final one features in Rok’s words “ a slick 3D version where a cool yellow liquid covers and envelops a mass of shiny black shapes in close up, all of which only become apparent when the camera pans out”.
For the first time Trunk worked with Pablo Balderas, his masterly editing skills lent a fresh perspective and different energy to the work as noted by Producer Richard Barnett “ It was great working with Ted and Pablo on this project, we loved Ted’s concept and had great fun fleshing out the ideas he presented to us while Pablo’s editing really captured the frantic pace of European or electric dance music”.
All the videos were created in After Effects and Cinema 4D by a team of animators at Trunk. From initial concept to finished animations took a fast paced and frantic 4 weeks. In total a whooping 35 minutes worth of animation was created. This included 15mins of unique content and a further 20mins of loops that Pat would be able to mix and drop into the set to match the energy of the music. As Bingo Players legendary live performances are noted for their heart racing, fist pumping and body popping joyful atmosphere it was gratifying that they felt the finished visuals Trunk created perfectly matched their style and approach.
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Credits:-
Music: Bingo Players “Rattle” (original mix)
Art Director: Ted Lovett
Director: Rok Predin
Compositing: Rok Predin, Steven Azancot, Layla Atkinson
Producer: Richard Barnett
Benjamin Scheuer’s “Weather the Storm” video.
On 12, Apr 2016 | In news / blog, Press | By Pip
Trunk animation and Radish pictures team up for songwriter Benjamin Scheuer’s award winning “Weather the Storm” video.
Award-winning film director Peter Baynton has been working at Trunk animation creating a video for Benjamin Scheuer’s song “Weather the Storm”. The track is from Scheuer’s highly acclaimed theatre show The Lion, an autobiographical one-man musical that has won numerous awards including Best New Musical at London’s Off-West End Awards and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance in New York. Scheuer is currently on tour with The Lion throughout the United States.
“Weather The Storm” appears on Scheuer’s forthcoming album Songs from The Lion (out, June 3 via Warner/ADA).
The video for “Weather The Storm” follows Dickie, a recent widower who has run out of toothpaste, on his quest for self-reliance. Baynton says of the work, “the song contains a theme and a message that is universal. Initially we thought we’d tell the story through three very different characters, but during the months of storyboarding Benjamin and I fell in love with the personality embodied in Dickie, the old fellow who is now our hero”.
Using watercolours to produce cubist forms with Lowry inspired elements the finished video is beautiful in both heart and design. The team at Trunk used TV Paint for the drawn character animation, which was the only digitally created element in the video, and After Effects for compositing. The animation from storyboard to completion took only nine months. This time frame was not helped when one of Peter’s watercolours blew out of a window at Trunk’s riverside studio and nearly ended up in the Thames. Thankfully, Trunk’s Producer Daniel Negret raced a rising tide to save the background.
“Weather The Storm” is the third video released by the team of Baynton and Scheuer.
Their animated video for the song “The Lion” premiered at the 2013 Annecy Festival, where it won the Jury Award for Commissioned Film; it has since won numerous awards, including the Public Choice Award at the 2014 British Animation Awards.
Their video for “Cookie-tin Banjo” won Best Music Video awards at the 2015 Encounters Short Film Festival and Flik! Amsterdam Animation Festival. It was also a finalist for Best Music Video at the 2016 British Animation Awards.
Trunk’s executive producer Richard Barnet notes, ”Working with Peter and Benjamin has been a wonderful experience. All of us at Trunk are delighted with this beautiful uplifting video that superbly interplays humour with pathos. The video is the first to be co-produced by Trunk Animation and Baynton’s own Radish Pictures and we know it will be as successful as Peter’s previous videos for Benjamin. Indeed it was premiered at the 2016 British Animation Awards, where it has already won Public Choice for Best Music Video ”.
Credits:-
Director: Peter Baynton
Producer: Daniel Negret
Executive Producer: Richard Barnett & Benjamin Scheuer
Production Company Radish Pictures & Trunk animation
2D Lead Character Animators: Peter Baynton, Alex Potts, Ismael Sanz Pea, Teddy Hall, Reg Isaac
Inbetweens, artworking and background characters: Rachel Calinan, Claudia Chircop, Théo Gremillet, Emily Knight, Clélia Leroux.
Backgrounds and design: Pter Baynton
Compositing: Philip Davies, Rok Predin
Audio Post Production: Fonic
Sound Editor: Marty O”Brien
Sound Design and Mix: Barnaby Templer
Words and music by Benjamin Scheuer
Guitar and vocals by Benjamin Scheuer
Bass by Chris Morrissey
Drums by Josh Dion
Additional vocals by Jean Rohe
Audio engineering by Pat Dillett and Chris Allen
Audio mixing by Kevin Killen
Audio mastering by Greg Caibi
Song produced by Geoff Kraly
From the album “Songs from The Lion by Benjamin Scheue
Rok Predin creates a music video for Steve Mason.
On 12, Apr 2016 | In Press | By Pip
Trunk Animation’s Rok Predin creates a ‘Controlled’ music video for Steve Mason.
Director Rok Predin at Trunk has animated “Alive” the second track from Steve Mason’s third solo album ‘Meet the Humans’, released to rave reviews this spring. The video is a homage to 1990’s video gaming, and rather than the iconic platform style as seen in Trunk’s recent work for Blur’s track ‘Ong Ong’, Rok adopted the isometric look of early 16-bit video games such as Street Fighter and Sim City. The clunky pseudo 3D graphic look of those games was lovingly and skillfully recreated by Rok and the team using Cinema 4D and After Effects.
The song’s theme drove the context of the video. In the game each character is held in a sort of stasis by a virus that hovers over them. To break free, the characters first need to understand what is keeping them captive, before classically having a big all out scrap! This is cleverly brought about, with a heavy and knowing nod to John Carpenter’s classic sci-fi movie “They Live”, by donning a pair of glasses that reveal the viruses.
Rok says, “Alive was a really inspiring song to work to. Once we honed in on the visual language of the story that Steve wanted to tell everything else came pretty naturally. The idea that we’re all just participating in a sort of game, a power-play of forces beyond our control, is very Orwellian and something that everyone can relate to. Nonetheless, our story does have an optimistic twist. What we are saying is that insight into the ways in which the power structures operate and influence our opinions and everyday decisions is all you need in order to free yourself from being PLAYED.”
Trunk’s producer Richard Barnett notes, “To create a well-known classic look, such as a 90’s console game, and to do it with an amount of believability, is always tricky. We used a number of rules and techniques to help us, such as an aged colour palette, balanced pixilation, and we were always very conscious of the audiences point of view when playing those games. We recreated that feel by using a lot of aerial shots that moved through the city and side on fixed shots that we all remember well from playing the games endlessly as kids.”
Richard continues, “as always it was a pleasure to collaborate with Steve and work with the team at Domino, they have to be one of the best Record Companies out there for supporting their artists and the creative community at large. Creative freedom seems to be rare or costly these days, and allowing passion and artistic ideals to flourish is often ironically the first thing to be stamped out on a project, but not this time! We wish the album all the success it deserves, and hope everyone enjoys the vid!
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Credits :-
Director: Rok Predin
Animation: Rok Predin, Caroline Tarrago, Layla Atkinson, Lesley Dart.
Sound Design: Barnaby Templer @ Fonic
Producer: Richard Barnett
Production Company: Trunk Animation
Commissioner: Jonathan Bradshaw
Record Co: Domino
Trunk’s director Junior Martinez directs a haunting video for Solomon Grey.
On 29, Mar 2016 | In Press | By Pip
Trunk’s director Junior Martinez directs a wonderfully haunting and unsettling video for Solomon Grey.
Solomon Grey are composers Joe Wilson and Tom Kingston, known for amongst other things, their acclaimed score for Casual Vacancy, the BBC and HBO adaptation of J K Rowling’s best-selling novel.
Following the success of their 2015 release’s, Selected Works and Selected Features, the band released their self-titled debut album on Friday – 18th March 2016. Notion Magazine described their music as “incredible vocals working flawlessly with the heavy and complex electronic melodies”, and noted that “Solomon Grey have been hard at work crafting their own unique sound”.
For their track ‘Sweet 84’ the band wanted to work with a director who would be able to capture the feelings and emotions of the track, “When we were writing sweet 84 we got obsessed with our childhoods and the memories we still held onto. Our parents watching the news, being held up on their shoulders, falling asleep in the back of the car and being carried into bed while sleeping, …becoming aware of the wider world and its enormity”.
Junior flew to London and met with the band and they quickly developed a great rapport. Junior states, ”It was wonderful working with Joe and Tom, both had loads of great ideas and references were soon bouncing off everyone and we were quickly in tune with each other. From this collaboration Richard and I put together a running script detailing the kind of shots we wanted to do and the guys were delighted with that and told us to go ahead. They trusted me a 100% which whilst daunting really allowed me to concentrate and totally zone in during the shoot”.
To capture the sense of unease that comes with the unknown, Junior directed the video from a small girls point of view. We see her happily playing and running around with her toys, whilst in the background there are ever-ominous signs. The TV is full of war scenes, flashing blue and red lights tint the landscape, and veiled camera angles obscure our view. Junior describes that feeling “as though you are in a fairy tale, the feeling that whatever is lurking in the background will rush out and eat you, but of course never does”. Junior used the depth of field, palette, and colour grade, to play and build on the suspense that lives within the action, always playing with this suggestion of danger and threat, rather than showing anything overtly dangerous itself.
The small girl who stars in the video was a family friend. Junior said, “Working with her was great we allowed her innocence and sense of play to shine through, rather than directing I more than often just filmed her going about her play, by the end she was directing herself! Choosing how and where to place props it was like having a mini Kubrick on set. But this approach in essence allowed us to be the ‘dark presence’. I controlled the focus and lighting and brought in a lot of film references for each shot, that aimed to give an overarching feel of unease”.
The video was filmed over two days, the first on set in the mountains overlooking Junior’s home city of Barcelona, and the second in the streets of the city itself. Richard and the Trunk team worked with Spanish producer Mireia Jordán to help put the team together, and DOP Jon D. Dominguez who Junior has worked with on a number of projects. Richard notes, “The team were amazing and worked so hard to achieve Junior’s vision, it was an absolute pleasure to work with them, and I can’t wait to do it all over again!”.
The final piece is poetic and unnerving, like a collage, with a sense of peril and tension. Ambiguous and with a deliberate subtle narrative, it perfectly captures the sense of foreboding within the music. The band was delighted with the end result. Discussing Junior the band state “He has done a great job of bringing to life what was in our heads when we wrote the track. It mirrors a lot of what our own children’s experiences must be now, and what they must be taking in from the world around them”.
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Credits :-
Director: Junior
Producer: Richard Barnett
DOP: Jon D. Dominguez
Assistant Camera: Javier Badet
Producer (Spain): Mireia Jordán
Assistant Producer: Virginia González Lancaster
Gaffer: Nathan Grimes
1st AD: Lucia Alemany
Art Direction: Heura Marimon
Actress Coach: Chabeli Arjona
Actress: Melissa Arjona
Animation: Rok Predin
Wardrobe: http://www.bobochoses.com/
Production Company: Trunk Animation
Band Management: Hamish Duff
Commissioner: Cynthia Lowe
Record Co: Decca
