A music video I directed for MGMT's cover of a Bauhaus song 'All We Ever Wanted Was Everything'. From the Late Night Tales MGMT compilation.

Something similar to the Apache video I made earlier this year for Danger Beach was required with animated characters of the band etc. The track however couldn't be more different. I really like it, but where as Apache had been upbeat, fast paced and short. This track was incredibly slow, melancholic and long.

In the past I've been careful to pick music that suites the type of animation I do, this track was a bit of a challenge as I wasn't sure animated characters would sit comfortably with the subject matter of the song. I chose instead to focus on the lyrics which I think are fantastically banal yet surreal, creating an Illustrative typeface to go with my style of Illustration. The lyrics/typography instead of the characters are what bind the video together.

The unfolding technique came in part from a similar technique I developed for the Apache video, but also from earlier works where I'd been creating scenes from layered images in After Effects and casting lights on them to create shadows (Bedbugs Odyssey).

I liked the idea of then traveling through these scenes and building them as I went which also gave me interesting transitions between scenes, the focus for the scenes being the lyric 'Factory Town'.

For a long time I wasn't sure what to do with the characters, how they would intersect with the factory town I was creating. The idea of an American band singing about the hardships of industrial britain from their point of view felt a bit strange to show. But then I thought well this is a cover, they didn't write the song, they are just visiting it, this is their impression of the song. And so I bookended the video with the band viewing the song from afar. Travelling around inside the song like visitors and leaving the song behind at the end. The typography and flattened Illustrated layers constituting the song itself.

I want to thank the good people at Late Night Tales, and I strongly recommend you have a look at their excellent back catalogue of compilation albums. MGMT's compilation being particularly interesting!

Watch All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

Also thanks to Michelle Higa There are some making of images posted up on Motionographer!