Well, here it is. Having started the video over two months ago, our latest video for Youth Man's latest single Look/Wait is finally finished!
Over the past few years we have produced a fair few videos, with the majority being hand drawn animated, so I was very keen to mix things up and do something a little different. Aside from some demented Wallace and Gromit shorts I made as a child, and my final project at university over *cough* ten years ago *Cough* I hadn't really ventured into to the world of claymation, but it was something I really wanted to sink my teeth into.
We ( Myself and Youth man ) had been flirting with working together for a while now but when the band started gearing up to record their latest EP - WAX we all decided now was the perfect time to collaborate on a video. The band were sold on the claymation idea pretty much straight away and also had the perfect song fort it too - Look/Wait. Not only is it a great song but is just over a minute long, the perfect length for a claymation video, which is notorious for being a somewhat slow process.
The idea itself came from Vocalist/Guitarist Kaila, who once had a dream she was abducted by aliens who then rearranged her body. With that in mind, I drew up some designs and came up with a simple concept. What you see in the video hasn't really changed since its inception.
Seeing as their EP was a few months away from being complete we got a head start and filmed a crude live action version of the video with the band back in February. I cut that footage together with a mixture of storyboards as it would act as my guide for the video, helping with the timing and the performance of the puppets.
It's possibly my most complex video I have made to date, taking over two months to complete ( However I did have an operation in between) Everything you see in the video was built from scratch, the puppets, the sets, the guitars, the drums, the UFO and even Muthers - the bands rehearsal space. The biggest challenge was probably just trying to stop the puppets from falling over, once that happens your shot is ruined and you have to start again - which may have happened on several occasions. overall, I'm pretty happy with out it turned out, but I learnt a hell of a lot of do's and don'ts if I am ever to do it again.
See you in a few weeks with our new-new music video and an update on SUPERZEROES!
Laters,
Ollie