Here's one for fans of that Google Deep Dream video from a little while back. "Desire" riffs upon the Google Deep Dream Generator with new creative Artificial Intelligence technologies, artificial neural networks and machine learning techniques to create something that's face-meltingly cool and just a bit outside of human control.
The Smiths famously sang, "there is a light that never goes out." Years & Years — and frontman Olly Alexander, in particular — experience that firsthand here.
A Korean letter leads us on an animated journey...
"‘Illuminate' stems from feeling like you're in the dark in a relationship, it’s about the frustration you feel when you don’t know what you’ve done to upset someone. ... When it came to visuals, my dream scenario was to animate something for the video, and we were incredibly fortunate to get to work with Nicolas [Ménard]. I implicitly trust his taste and was keen to let him go wherever he wanted with the video...” - Tourist
“It’s been a real blast to direct Tourist’s 'Illuminate' music video. Not only because it’s such a playful, awesome sounding track, but also because Will was keen to jump straight into the weird abstract universe I’d suggested. It’s also been really fun to play with the idea of translating a poem into Korean; a little metaphor for miscommunication in a relationship. I’m looking forward to seeing whether people dig out those cryptic messages..! Everything was animated frame by frame in Photoshop, with some slight compositing in After Effects, and the editing in Premiere” – Nicolas Ménard, director
It's not the sexiest beach stroll you've ever seen, but it is more fun than most. And a nice reminder to keep your bottom's properly adjusted and be careful of tanlines...
I was contacted by Olly the lead singer of Years & Years to direct their latest video. The band and I worked together in coming up with this slightly dark and surreal concept. What the guys wanted was something that involved dancing, but had a narrative and this is what we came up with!
It was a great team effort and everyone went above and beyond what I expected. Being shot on a shoe string budget I have a lot of favours to repay now, but it was well worth it!
