Director

Balázs Simon

Following his previous work for BRONSON, Bastille and the BBC's coverage of last year's Winter Olympics, Balázs Simon now pushes the boundaries in animation further with his remarkable work&nbsp;for US electronica duo Odesza.The video for Light Of Day - a track with plaintive vocals by&nbsp;Ólafur Arnalds - introduces us to a hunched figure, emerging from a cave: he is a very old man, robed in furs, who surveys&nbsp;the remote, hostile, freezing mountainous world around him.&nbsp;On a distant peak a golden light is visible. And the old man begins to set off, on the impossible&nbsp;journey to reach that&nbsp;light. - an unfeasible task, due to the hostility of the terrain.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]This magical tale, a life-affirming parable of the benefit of fortitude and on the cyclical nature of Life itself, is given great depth by its hugely impressive and innovative execution. It takes the form of an animated painting, where the 2D nature of the image is continually developing, and the old man's progress is expressed through the application of painterly digital brushstrokes. This is an aesthetic style that really works as the underlying movement of the figure is essentially realistic.<blockquote>I wanted to harness the immersive qualities of 3D animation, but also make it more painterly.</blockquote>Simon achieved this very distinctive and poignant visual piece through a combination of&nbsp;live action, motion capture, 2D and 3D animation.&nbsp;To create an immersive world, the environments were crafted in 3D with painterly 2D brushstrokes applied. The character’s movement was recorded via motion capture and real life elements were shot to complement the 3D environment, heightening the sense of realism.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:2]"I was fascinated by the idea of this very old character who gets rejuvenated in a sense during his struggle to experience something magical," says&nbsp;Balazs Simon. &nbsp;"This film is about focussing on the values of life, and not giving in to the pressures we face each day. I wanted to harness the immersive qualities of 3D animation, but also make it more painterly than usual. The result is a mixture of hand-painted backgrounds, in-camera effects, motion capture - and tens of thousands of algorithmic brush strokes in each frame!"&nbsp;Like the old man's journey to the top of the mountain, it is a brilliant achievement - and rather magical too.

United States

Beattie Hartley

Bea Egyed

György Fábos

Barcsay Marcell

Dániel Szabó

Sunnyside Animation

Máté Barbalics

Blinkink

Max Halstead

Josef Byrne

Alex Halley

Brin Frost

Szilard Totszegi

Róbert Erdélyi

Gyar

András Piroska

Electronica

Odesza ft Ólafur Arnalds 'Light Of Day' by Balázs Simon

Odesza-'Light-Of-Day'-by-Balazs-Simon

Balázs Simon&nbsp;directs a sprawling 3D animated digital landscape for Bastille’s music video for their new single Thelma &amp; Louise&nbsp;from their upcoming fourth studio album. The video serves as the&nbsp;sequel to the video for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2021/06/29/bastille-distorted-light-beam-jak-payne/71653" target="_blank">Distorted Light Beam</a>, building on the world established by Jak Payne - who joined this project as creative director.In this high concept work, we join frontman Dan&nbsp;exactly where we left him in the previous video:&nbsp;having entered the Futurescape with The Engineer, played by Remmie Milner.As the world continues to crumble outside, we see our heroes floating in a virtual fantasyland made entirely of pixel-like cubes. In the digital space, their avatars have moments of intimacy and play which intercut with their live-action counterparts.[imgtoken data:1]To build this 3D universe, Balázs and his team had to develop custom code, animating up to 90 million individual elements, each with its own defined mass and physics. The scale of this project meant that optimisation and rendering on the fly were integral. This process ensured there was enough computer memory and processing power for the video to be completed. Balázs later discovered that Pixar had to overcome similar hurdles in making the film&nbsp;Soul.The finished product is an immersive and impactful world that elevates Bastille’s new music into an audiovisual experience and impressive addition to Balázs Simon’s growing portfolio.[imgtoken data:2]

United Kingdom

Jak Payne

Rosie Brear

Laura Northover

Remmie Milner

Tuna + Icon

Feature Films For Families

Umbrella Budapest

Anna Smoronova

Blink

Bastille 'Thelma & Louise' by Balázs Simon

Balázs Simon - Bastille 'Thelma and Louise

Jak Payne steps into the future for Bastille’s new single Distorted Light Beam, opening the door to a world where tech advances allow users to explore multiple realities, as they plug-in and exist in an exalted state.Sitting as part of a wider campaign for Bastille and as the culmination of a series of cryptic social media videos, the film takes place some years from now, where the mass adoption of a new technology have enabled consumers of the corporate giant Future Inc to fully immerse themselves by plugging into a digital world called the Futurescape.[imgtoken data:1]The video follows lead actor Remmie Milner, recently featured in the hit HBO series His Dark Materials, cast as a Future Inc engineer who’s job is to service and update the software.The extremes of the world are revealed after she discovers Bastille’s Dan Smith, the only other person not wearing a plug, and embarks on a mission to find out more before finally succumbing and following him into the Futurescape.Shot on location in Belgrade and making full use of the brutalist architecture, Jak Payne creates an expansive and immersive world that introduces us to different layers of society and fully translates the interior experience of being plugged into the Futurescape. Payne worked closely with the Blinkink studio to design the VFX and animator Balázs Simon for the 3D shots.[imgtoken data:2]"It was really great to get a brief that referenced so many of the films and genres that I love," he says. "We had such a fun time building this world for Dan and Remmie to explore, and could really draw on a lot of classic sci-fi in that development. It was great being able to go and shoot some of the amazing locations they have in Belgrade and meeting so many talented and exciting people in the process."Blink EP Laura Northover adds that a lot of fun was had making the video. "It was an ambitious project, but Jak’s attention to detail and focus took it to the next level," she says. "The challenge was to build the world and establish its rules in a short amount of time and he really achieved that - I just wish we could now make it into a feature!"

Marko StepiĆ

Ivan Grbin

Marko Jokić

Nedeljko Maletić

Damjan Paranosić

Suna Kažić

Zvezdana Svetozarević

Marija Stošić

Zlata Blagojević

Samuel Marr

Alex Gregory

Angus Wilson

The Mill

Charlie Morris

Amy Smith

Ivana Antic

Jelena Radojević

Diana Bojović

Miloš Kodemo

Bastille 'Distorted Light Beam' by Jak Payne

Bastille-'Distorted-Light-Beam'-by-Jak-Payne

London-based animation production company Blinkink have announced the arrival of four new&nbsp;directors to its roster -&nbsp;Jack Brown, Danaé Gosset, Louis Clichy and Balázs Simon.&nbsp;Three of the four directors - Brown, Gosset and Simon -&nbsp;have joined Blinkink having created noteworthy work in music videos, while Clichy comes from a background in animated features.&nbsp; &nbsp;Jack Brown has officially signed to Blinkink just weeks after he collaborated with the&nbsp;production company on the video for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2021/04/27/weeknd-ft-ariana-grande-save-your-tears-remix-jack-brown/70609" target="_blank">The Weeknd featuring Ariana Grande's&nbsp;Save Your Tears</a> (above, top left), which has garnered over 65 million views in less than a month&nbsp;since release.This followed his work on the videos last year for&nbsp;Tom Misch &amp; Yussuf Dayes' Nightrider and Tidal Wave and Tiggs Da Author &amp; Nines' Fly 'Em High. Check out his work on the Blinkink website <a href="https://blinkink.co.uk/directors/jack-brown?utm_source=Blink+Mega+List&amp;utm_campaign=eb649325ef-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_21_04_21_COPY_02&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_bd0fbdc30c-eb649325ef-80324377&amp;mc_cid=eb649325ef&amp;mc_eid=20957b1ada" target="_blank">here</a>.Danaé Gosset is a multifaceted Parisian animation director specialising in the craft of&nbsp;mixed media moving images. Originally plying her trade as an art director and designer in New York, she has built a distinctive&nbsp;visual language that has garnered attention from the likes of D&amp;AD, SXSW, Adobe and Nike.She has also directed acclaimed videos for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2019/02/06/mitski-pearl-saad-moosajee/57166" target="_blank">Mitski's A Pearl</a>, and Boys Noize &amp; Kelsey Lu's Ride Or Die (above, top right), together with NYC-based Art Camp,&nbsp;and Low Island's Don't Let The Light In, employing a painterly style and variety of techniques&nbsp;to tell surreal stories. Watch her showreel on the Blinkink website <a href="https://blinkink.co.uk/directors/dana%C3%A9-gosset" target="_blank">here</a>. Hungarian animation director&nbsp;Balázs Simon&nbsp;has received recognition for several music videos over the past few years, ranging from nominations at SXSW and the UKMVAs for his music videos for Nils Frahms' Re and Leifur James's Wurlitzer,&nbsp;to recently winning at the 1.4 Awards for the&nbsp;Blinkink-produced <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/06/01/bronson-ft-laura-heart-attack-bal%C3%A1zs-simon/65072" target="_blank">Heart Attack&nbsp;for electronic powerhouse, Bronson</a> (above, lower right).&nbsp;He has also recently dipped his toes into the live action world having directed David Guetta’s music video, Save My Life. Check out Balázs Simon on the Blinkink website <a href="https://blinkink.co.uk/directors/balazs-simon" target="_blank">here</a>.Award-winning director Louis Clichy honed his craft as an animator on feature films Ratatouille, Wall-E and Up while working at Pixar, before going on to direct&nbsp;Asterix: The Land of the Gods&nbsp;and&nbsp;Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion&nbsp;for which he was nominated for a César Award for&nbsp;Best Animated Film in 2019. Louis Clichy's showreel on the Blinkink website is <a href="https://blinkink.co.uk/directors/louis-clichy" target="_blank">here</a>.• More at the <a href="https://blinkink.co.uk/our-work/" target="_blank">Blinkink website</a>

Jack Brown

Danae Gosset

Blinkink add four directors: Jack Brown, Danaé Gosset, Louis Clichy and Balázs Simon 

A man tries to escape his demons&nbsp;before embracing them head-on, in&nbsp;Balázs Simon's gripping promo for David Guetta &amp; MORTEN.Action-packed and cinematic, the video for Save My Life opens in an everyday family home. It's late at night, and remnants of the day are shown in quick cutaways -&nbsp;smashed glass surrounding a child's toy, a woman sleeping in&nbsp;bed. The abstract patchwork of memories soon transition into a frenetic chase scene, which echoes&nbsp;the opening of zombie thriller&nbsp;28 Weeks Later.&nbsp;A surreal and conceptual chain of events lead&nbsp;our protagonist to a worrying revelation, which he tries his best to rectify... but is it too late?&nbsp;With a dizzying display of slick camera moves and a wonderfully effective colour palette boasting&nbsp;desaturated blues and yellows, DoP&nbsp;Bence Szemerey transforms the aesthetic into something reminiscent of both a dream and a nightmare, an ethereal space between reality and imagination... and it's as devastating as it is absorbing.It's also an impressive step&nbsp;into full live action direction by Budapest-based Balázs Simon, best known for his work in animation for Leifur James and Bronson.&nbsp;

Bendi Álmos Harmath

Odesa Films

Norbert Tanca

Ádám Kolos

Bence Szemerey

Erik Lakatos

Electronic

David Guetta & MORTEN 'Save My Life' by Balázs Simon

David Guetta & MORTEN - Save My Life feat. Lovespeake [Official Music Video]

A woman discovers the light and power she holds inside herself,&nbsp;in Balázs Simon's incredible visual for Heart Attack.&nbsp;Following the exploration of plastic and its effect on our planet in his last video - for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/04/30/leifur-james-angel-disguise-bal%C3%A1zs-simon/64612">Leifur James' Angel In Disguise</a>&nbsp;- Simon is back with a multi-format meditation on our own belief systems.&nbsp;Spanning live-action, motion capture, CGI and 2D animation, the video depicts a woman struggling against a wind tunnel of intense light, battling the debris that has broken from the dark underworld in which she lives. As other residents look on, she transcends her physical limitations to become one with her destiny, walking on as a part of the universal light.&nbsp;It's beautiful and multi-layered work from a director (and creative team) who are making a habit of pushing the boundaries of the music video&nbsp;format.&nbsp;

Hungary

Corin Taylor

Dániel Reich

Umbrella, Airplan, Kgb Studio

John Moule

Ninja Tune

Dance

Bronson (ft Lau.ra) 'Heart Attack' by Balázs Simon

Bronson-'Heart-Attack-(feat.-Lau.ra)'-by-Balázs-Simon

Balázs Simon explores our relationship with Planet Earth in his latest collaboration with&nbsp;modern composer Leifur James.&nbsp;Following the groundbreaking video for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/04/09/leifur-james-aaid-bal%C3%A1zs-simon-d%C3%A1vid-delledera/64274">AAID</a>,&nbsp;the Hungarian director best known for his sueprb CGI animation embraces live action&nbsp;in the video for Angel In Disguise. A woman in the middle of a picturesque landscape travels through a mountain of plastic bottles and various trash, before the planet begins to&nbsp;fight back.&nbsp;The bottles are washed into a violent sea of plastic, mimicking water as they crash down and submerge the character and her surroundings.&nbsp;Very much open to interpretation, this is another stunning visual from Simon, whose collaborataive partnership with Leifur James is producing some of the best leftfield music videos this year.&nbsp;

Nikolett Meister

Péter Gáll

Márton Tamus

Eszter Takács

Nikolett Schütz

Nóra Gottscháll

Airplan, Umbrella

Franciska Törőcsik

Night Time Stories

Leifur James 'Angel In Disguise' by Balázs Simon

Leifur-James-'Angel-In-Disguise'-by-Balázs-Simon

A hypnotic series of memories are visualised through clever 3D-scanning techniques in&nbsp;Balázs Simon and Dávid Dell'Edera's video for British electronica artist Leifur James's AAID.&nbsp;Following from Simon's award-winning video for James's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2019/04/24/leifur-james-wurlitzer-bal%C3%A1zs-simon/58409">Wurlitzer</a>, this video is a haunting, ethereal trip through fuzzy snapshots of life, all captured through broken 3D&nbsp;scans and glitchy aesthetics.

Dávid Dell'Edera

Airplan

Péter Bátory

Alternative

Leifur James 'AAID' by Balázs Simon & Dávid Dell'Edera

Leifur-James-'Aaid'-by-Balázs-Simon,-Dávid-Dell&#039;edera

After crash landing on a barren planet an external force sets irrevocable changes in motion in&nbsp;Balázs Simon&#39;s breathtaking CG-animated video for British producer/composer Leifur James.As the black orb that lands on the planet starts to create a physical reaction in the land around it, then it becomes an extraordinary vision of creation arising from destruction, a phenomenal clash of sci-fi fantasy and hyper-real visuals.This is really awesome work by the Budapest-based director/animator Simon, who&#39;s previous work includes his extraordinary <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2018/08/31/leon-lour-all-our-dreams-bal%C3%A1zs-simon/54741">four-part video for EDM producer Leon Lour</a>&nbsp;released last year. This is a combination of real visionary purpose and amazing execution,&nbsp;photorealistic animated fantasy of the highest order.

Péter Kántor

Leifur James 'Wurlitzer' by Balázs Simon

Leifur James - Wurlitzer (Official Music Video)

Balazs Simon&#39;s video for EDM producer Leon Lour is nothing less than an animation epic - an 18 minute film for all four tracks on Lour&#39;s&nbsp;All Our Dreams EP, in which the car is most definitely the star.It begins with a red Mustang-like muscle car plummeting through space, from orbit into Earth&#39;s atmosphere, towards the ground. But contrary to this apparently perilous situation, on the front seat a smartphone blurts out messages that signal the start of a love affair.Over the four videos this story of true love runs its course via the car&#39;s journey through the skies - falling, then floating over an island paradise, joined by various other everyday objects, until things take a rougher turn once again.The Budapest-based director Simon - whose&nbsp;previous works for <a href="https://vimeo.com/96573631" target="_blank">Nils Frahm</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://vimeo.com/202347180" target="_blank">Hasse De Moor</a>&nbsp;have&nbsp;gained net and festival attention - has created a series that focusses on the dynamics of love, from the first euphoric moments to the final collapse and break-up, without us seeing a human face.&ldquo;The brief was fantastic, there aren&#39;t many opportunities to do music videos in a serial form,&quot; he says.&nbsp;&quot;So it was instantly something I knew I had to take on.&rdquo; He&#39;s done a great job.

Zoltán Hídvégi

Umbrella

Proximity

Leon Lour 'All Our Dreams' by Balázs Simon

Leon Lour - All Our Dreams EP (Music Video Series - Uncut)

Hordes of people team up to dance together for a greater good in Balázs Simon&#39;s music video for Hasse de Moor and&nbsp;GLD.The monochromatic CGI video is a masterclass in finding beauty in the oddly grotesque. Strange, hairless figures that can&#39;t quite stand up straight twitch and undulate in a peculiar fashion before joining together in a wave of shape and order, creating, of all things, a pair of sandals for a much larger figure to wear. Things get messy, but in a black-ink-on-water kind of way, which is never not pretty.It&#39;s splendidly bizarre in the manner of Shy Luv&#39;s Shock Horror, and De Staat&#39;s Witch Doctor - and a long way from the beautiful 2D animation for <a href="https://vimeo.com/96573631" target="_blank">Nils Frahm&#39;s Re</a>&nbsp;that the Hungarian director made a couple of years ago.

Márton Jedlicska

Eszter Kovács

Spinnin' Records

Hasse De Moor & GLD 'Work' by Balázs Simon

Hasse-De-Moor-&-Gld-'Work'-by-Balázs-Simon

Elegance and beauty combine wonderfully in Balazs Simon&#39;s creation for Nils Frahm&#39;s Re.Nature and concrete clash as a stag&#39;s environment becomes ever more enclosed, while Nils Frahm&#39;s classical-electronic&nbsp;composition glides on.

Germany

Erased Tape Records

Nils Frahm 'Re' by Balazs Simon

Nils Frahm - Re (Official Music Video)

The Danila Kostil-directed video for Swiss singer Adrian Sieber uses, recycles, and slightly abuses the gif format in the services of Sieber's appropriately-named Round Round Song.&nbsp;It tells the story of a relationship, with its sweet, awkward and downright surreal moments repeated over and over. And the video by Danila - with a Russian-Hungarian-Spanish background and part of the collective of audiovisual artists&nbsp;called Kinopravda – is a treasure trove of visual playfulness. &nbsp;&nbsp;Much credit goes to Danila's crew - including his art direction team led by Tomas Navarro and Iván Triviño Martínez. And then his pan-European work in commercials and ads, took him to <a href="http://umbrella.tv/" target="_blank">Umbrella</a> in Budapest to post-produce the video.

Balázs Simon

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