Jovan Todorovic directs an ingenious and highly innovative promo for German DJproducer Paul Kalkbrenner: a series of seemingly everyday scenes where something is not quite right. And gets increasingly wrong.

Employing the use of cutting edge 4D volumetric video capture technology, the visual is a marriage of the real and unreal, reality and fiction, in an uncanny yet mesmerising slice of life. 

The video for Schwer opens with a montage of silent liminal spaces, which quickly populate with characters sitting, standing and going about their day. These characters become increasingly out of place and mismatched as the track goes on - with one trying to cook spaghetti in the middle of a road, for example - and this surreal vibe builds to a bizarre and offbeat climax. 

Rather than using actors, digital technology was deployed to render 4D-volumetric people in place. This used 42 cameras to lock the motion of each person, making it possible to be used as a 3D element within the final film. The technology allowed each scene to be a canvas, with carefully created compositions that match the part of the songs and the overall arc of the video. Anima, the AI-powered design-to-code software, was behind the work, which is usually deployed for architectural visualizations but was repurposed for this project. 

Commenting on the film, Paul Kalkbrenner said: "Incredible. This volucap technology is really another level. I feel very privileged to be able to work with Jovan, Mother Berlin, BWGTBLD, and everyone else involved in this video. It couldn't be more on point.”
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