Production Company

Blinkink

<h3>It's not a music video, but who cares? We still love Will Wightman's new short film - four minutes of high-octane comedy horror thrills, introducing one of the most ingenious&nbsp;monster creations of modern times.&nbsp;We discover the Blinkink director wanted to explore the potential of an unusual camera -and exorcise a few demons.</h3>Will Wightman is used to delivering extremes, and revelling in the genuinely gross, mainly for humourous purposes: he's the director who put a fly inside a man's brain for his <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2024/11/26/tommy-holohan-show-me-sky-will-wightman/89192" target="_blank">one and only official music video for Irish DJ Tommy Holohan</a>; he created&nbsp;a children's TV show where the puppet animals are skinned alive in Shop To Save Lives, for anti-fur charity PETA.&nbsp;&nbsp;Now for his latest short film, he has put a ingenious&nbsp;spin upon the extremely mundane, with fantastic results. And the starting point could hardly be more relatable. In what house or flatshare does the matter of kitchen cleanliness and, in particular, the state of the kitchen sink, not become an issue and occasionally, a point of conflict? Well, exactly.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[vidtoken data:0]In This Place Is A Sh*thole, two twentysomethings, Jamie and Will,&nbsp;are squabbling over the stage of the kitchen and realising they had not seen their other flatmate Kelvin in several months, when are disturbed by noises in the black, greasy waters of the blocked sink. And then&nbsp;suddenly all hell breaks loose.Wightman's modus operandi in TPIAS is to ramp up to gripping action with as few preliminaries as possible. The white-knuckle suspense then arrives in the flatmates' fight for survival against the furry black beast, aka Mr Sticky.<blockquote>I've spent my adult life in soul-destroyingly disgusting shared flats.</blockquote>And his filmmaking instincts&nbsp;and craft are so impressive, from the brilliant character design of the cartoonishly&nbsp;terrifying beast to the orchestration of the action sequences, intensifying the visceral terror occuring in the confined space of the&nbsp;flat - by&nbsp;using a camera designed to for completely different purposes.So we spoke to Will Wightman about how he unleashed his monstrous comedy...[imgtoken data:1]Kitchen sink drama: Jamie (Paddy Young) and Will (Jack Shep) making a horrible discovery in This Place Is A Sh*thole&nbsp;PROMONEWS: Where did the idea come from?&nbsp;Disgust at the behaviour of flatmates? Guilt at your own lack of cleanliness? Horror at the idea of flatsharing? All or none&nbsp;of the above...?WILL WIGHTMAN: Having spent my entire adult life in mind-boggingly expensive, soul-destroyingly disgusting shared flats, This Place is a Sh*thole&nbsp;was part creative experiment, part therapy. I wanted to make something that captured the frustration of living somewhere that’s simply not designed for the number of people that occupy it, and also tap into the claustrophobic horror that comes from your home feeling so disgusting and out of your control.[imgtoken data:2]Grease beast: Mr Sticky (Robin Berry) is drawn from the plughole by the allure of a bag of Pom-Bears&nbsp;For me, the monster represents not just the culmination of all the filth in that flat but the resentment that grows over time when your flatmate keeps leaving the fucking stupid bins by the fucking stupid door. I hope people will watch it and remember that they’re not alone.When did you get the idea?&nbsp;And how long did it take to get the script into shape, that you felt ready to film?WW: The story is so simple that the script was actually the easy bit really. It lives and dies in the quality of the set pieces, which mostly comes down to the camera and blocking. So the previs was really how we figured out when this film was ready to make.[imgtoken data:3]Was there any particular influences or inspiration in the way you made it?WW:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcbF5o59VNA" target="_blank">Bad Will Hunting&nbsp;by Will and Danny Madden</a> was a big inspo for me. It was a lo-fi lockdown film that has this amazing action, humour and energy. That was the vibe I wanted to have for this, combined with some proper creature feature-style scares.How did you create the Grease Monster? Did it go through various incarnations before you arrived at the final version? And how much did you make of him for real?WW: We made a costume! That’s what you see on screen pretty much all the way through, except for the spawning scene and the end moment, where we’ve combined footage of the monster with comp work.[imgtoken data:4]<blockquote>I wrote this with the 360 camera in mind, so the story really played into the camera's strengths.</blockquote>Creatively, I wanted a creature that embodied the horrible shit that we find in our plugholes with a design that left enough to the imagination so its origin felt ambiguous. Practically, though, this was a passion project that we made on a shoestring budget, so we needed a creature design that was effective but also simple. That way, we could channel what little resources we had into the right places.I did the designs in Photoshop, then Lani Hernandez, our stupidly talented costume designer, bought a gorilla costume and sculpted a new face and hands for it. Then, we covered all of the fur with disgusting things you might find in your sink. I still have the costume, and let me tell you, it stinks.[imgtoken data:5]Above: Will Wightman (top) with fictional Will (Jack Shep) on set&nbsp;As for performance, I wanted this creature to be utterly relentless, like a wild animal. A rapid chimp was the description we kept coming back to on set. For me, both the humour and horror of the creature came from its manic, unrelenting energy.&nbsp; The kind of creature that will bang its head against a wall for three days straight if that’s what it takes to get through.<blockquote>This was a passion project - we needed creature design that was effective but also simple.&nbsp;</blockquote>The excitement and humour of the film comes from the way the story is told - the economy of the shots and the pace of the edit. Is that in your head at the start or a trial and error process?WW: Much of that comes from the way we shot the action on a 360 camera.&nbsp;Typically, the ways 360 cameras are used are quite limited. They’re used a lot in videography for action shots, time-lapses or general vlogging purposes. Most people associate them with those ‘tiny planet’ or ‘black hole’ shots, which can be super cool, but feel quite overdone these days.[imgtoken data:6]Above: prosthetics artist Ruth Pease, assistant Sarah Jane Pucci, and friendI used a 360 camera on a commercial shoot a good few years ago and immediately got excited about the untapped possibilities. Blinkink had one lying around in the studio, so me and my DoP Will Marchant started experimenting with it in our spare time to test the camera’s limits.Fairly quickly, it became clear that there were lots of things the camera couldn’t do, but once in a while, we’d get something that looked totally unique and really interesting, which spurred us on to try more things out.Slowly but surely, we refined this aesthetic. Then, I wrote TPISH with the 360 camera in mind, so the story really played into the camera's strengths.[imgtoken data:7]<blockquote>I still have the costume, and let me tell you, it stinks.</blockquote>What was the best part and the worst part&nbsp;of making This Place?&nbsp;WW: Truthfully, I think this shoot was maybe the most fun I’ve ever had on set. I had such a clear plan of what each shot was by the time we came to filming, that everything was super smooth. What’s more, the camera is so compact that we could shoot so quickly. It also helped having a small but insanely talented cast and crew, made up of some of my all-time favourite people.That being said, we struggled with the technical capabilities of the camera. At the end of the day, the camera and its software are consumer products, so they struggled a little sometimes with the quantity of footage and speed we wanted to work at. We also had a very angry neighbour in the flat below, so we had to film the whole thing in our socks and stick and towels in the doors so they didn’t slam. Thankfully, I’ve moved out now and she hasn’t figured out where I live… Yet.• Will Wightman is a director with Blinkink; watch more of his work <a href="https://www.blinkink.co.uk/directors/will-wightman" target="_blank">here</a>

Will Wightman

Will Wightman on This Place Is A Sh*thole: 'This was part-experiment, part-therapy'

This Place is a Sh*thole | Will Wightman

Léa Esmaili, director of the extraordinary 'Victorian china doll' video for Ashnikko's Trinkets&nbsp;a few months ago, has now created something very different for the rising Francophone pop star, and recent UKMVA nominee Theodora - a fantasy action adventure told in numerous styles of animation and heavily graphicised live action.&nbsp;Esmaili's video for Masoko Na Mabele, featuring rapper ThisizLondon, is a hyperactive combo of numerous graphic styles, coordinated to the blistering pace of the track. And it works like a version of story game Condequences, with different VFX artist and animators&nbsp;picking up from where the last one left off, in the manner of videos like <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2024/07/24/coldplay-feelslikeimfallinginlove-raman-djafari/87426" target="_blank">Coldplay's feelslkikeimfallinginlove</a>.it all starts when the musical notes in&nbsp;Theodora and THISIZLONDON's song, manage to escape from the recording studio, setting off a breathless chase through the city, and beyond. It's a visual assault&nbsp;and a total tour de force of clashing styles.With this coming after the UKMVA-nominated Fashion Designa, it's clear Theodora is making sure her videos are properly worthy of&nbsp;her exciting music.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

France

Léa Esmaili

Dependent

Afrobeat

Theodora ft THISIZLONDON 'Masoko Na Mabele' by Léa Esmaili

Theodora-Ft.-Thisizlondon-'Masoko-Na-Mabele'-by-Léa-Esmaili

Baby Dave, aka Isaac Holman of Soft Play, will do anything for his girlfriend, as we find in his new track and accompanying video by Gareth Bowen. The result is daft British alt-comedy at its finest.The thing is, as Baby Dave mutters&nbsp;against a doomy synth backing in San Pellegrino, 'she don't want no Highland Spring, she don't want no Buxton, she wants the real thing'. Which means that the giant suit-wearing BD must proceed on an epic journey around his small town neighbourhood in search of the said premium sparkling water brand. And its in surprisingly short supply in this sun-blasted corner of England.The smartness of Bowen's video comes in sticking close to Holman's&nbsp;essentially mundane tale, showcasing the deadpan wit of his lyrics, delivered in an off-kilter aesthetic, with touches of a low budget horror movie. So lo-fi DV footage of the rapper, wandering through this suburban wilderness,&nbsp;degrades into slighly nightmarish animated sequences, featuring the animated Baby Dave and a feminized San Pellegrino bottle, among other things.&nbsp;Witty, silly, daft and very cool.[imgtoken data:1][imgtoken data:2]&nbsp;

Lucy James

Gareth Bowen

Alex Handschuh

Grody Tavern

Cordelia Lawler

Matt Marshall

Jared Hall

Baby Dave 'San Pellegrino' by Gareth Bowen

Baby-Dave-'San-Pellegrino'-by-Gareth-Bowen

<h3>The French director, recently signed to Blinkink in London, dissects&nbsp;the strange universe of her video for the controversial American alt-pop star.&nbsp;</h3>That Ashton Nicole Casey, better known by her monicker Ashnikko, has an astute sense&nbsp;for the visually extreme, has been evident&nbsp;since the video for her breakthrough hit Stupid came with <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2019/10/30/ashnikko-ft-yung-baby-tate-stupid-lucrecia-taormina/61599" target="_blank">a sensational video with her covered in&nbsp;blood</a>, and followed up with videos for the likes of <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/08/12/ashnikko-daisy-charlotte-rutherford/66087" target="_blank">Daisy</a> and <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/01/17/ashnikko-working-bitch-jocelyn-anquetil/62757" target="_blank">Working Bitch</a>, where she reinvents well-worn characters in her own distinctive image.Then the campaign for her 2023 album Weedkiller, was kicked off by the genuinely transgressive visuals in <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2023/02/13/ashnikko-you-make-me-sick-saam-farahmand/80355" target="_blank">You Make Me Sick</a> and went on to produce the deliriously imaginative and&nbsp;complex sci-fi fantasy for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2023/03/10/ashnikko-worms-raman-djafari/80678" target="_blank">Worms</a>, mixing&nbsp;live action and CGI.Now, for Trinkets - the lead-off single for her latest project - Ashnikko has reinvented her visual universe once again, collaborating with a director who has her own highly individual, iconoclastic aesthetic.&nbsp;[vidtoken data:0]Léa Esmaili is a multi-media artist, director and photographer who is highly versatile in the way she approaches her subjects. The&nbsp;styles vary, but each of her commercials and videos - including for Nike's Muse Labs, Arsenal FC and Yvnnis -&nbsp;have a common theme of using a multiplicity&nbsp;of techniques&nbsp;leading to work oozing in imagination and&nbsp;visual wit.Which brings us to the extraordinary visual explosion that is the promo for Trinkets, where Ashnikko announces at least two new personas that show she is following no-one's lead but her own - including the trinket-laden 'buck-toothed' girl, who combines early 20th with early 21st century fashion, with a love of knick-knacks, and a rabbit-like front teeth.We asked Léa about the creative process in making this utterly unique, undeniably bizarre&nbsp;music video. BTS photography:&nbsp;Radheya Jegatheva and Noah Chulu Chinn[imgtoken data:1]Above: Léa Esmaili (right) on the set of the video shoot of Ashnikko's Trinkets, with 'rocking horse' cast members.PROMONEWS: How did this&nbsp;project start? Was there a clear idea in the brief of what Ashnikko wanted?LEA ESMAILI: It started with the artist’s reference to stop motion and detached doll parts, and from there I built an entire world around it.<blockquote>I wanted the looks she has created for the album&nbsp;to be as present as possible.</blockquote>P: What were the important things in your treatment that appealed to Ashnikko? Was your treatment a fair approximation of what you achieved in the final video?LEA: She liked the fact that I have no limits when it comes to the absurd - the stranger it was, the more she loved it.The inspirations come from the lyrics - which is important for a music video - and also from Ashnikko's world, which I really explored so we could immerse ourselves in her.&nbsp;And it's also from my own world and the inspirations I keep tucked away in the back of my drawer.The final result looks very close to the initial idea. So for me that means we succeeded![imgtoken data:2]P: What was the inspiration for buck-toothed girl’s extraordinary, spooky ‘china doll’ look?&nbsp;And how did you achieve this?&nbsp;And what was the inspiration for the shop?LEA: We directly used the looks she has for her album, which I love. I wanted them to be as present as possible because, to me, they are the most original and the craziest.We used stop motion by making some of her features larger than others, and we applied a glossy effect in post with two 3D artists, who came up with this idea that I loved and ended up including in several parts of the video.The inspiration for the shop is a mix between old candy stores and little shops filled with accessories, as well as costume stores.[imgtoken data:3]Q: What was the inspiration for 'rocking horse' girl?&nbsp;And why is she riding to beefy men in swimming caps?A: I had seen a photo of a girl with a creepy smile who was on a wooden horse, and then I thought about transforming that into two men. I don’t really know how it came to me, haha.I think that's how inspiration works. We absorb so much of what we see that we end up creating something that’s truly our own.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:4]Above: Léa Esmaili (right) with Ashnikko (centre) and DoP Joe Gainsborough, shooting 'buck-toothed girl' in the Trinkets video.&nbsp;The men's riding caps are similar to the Sonny Angels - those little men we see everywhere now that became very famous trinkets over the years. I wanted to include this phenomenon in this video.&nbsp;And I wanted super-muscular guys with looks that made them seem scrawny… The wings were done in post-production.[imgtoken data:5]<blockquote>I’m a trinket girl too - I collect figurines, jewelry, keychains, plush toys…</blockquote>P: What do the trinkets represent (if anything)?LEA: I don’t know why, but trinkets are for all the girls who love having these little objects in their everyday lives… I’m a trinket girl too - I collect figurines, jewelry, keychains, plush toys…I also feel that, as very young women, we’re often told to push our passions aside to focus on the aspects we’re expected to. So trinkets, for me, are little objects that reveal a part of our personality, and I love that.[imgtoken data:6]P: How did you choose what you wanted and where did you source them?&nbsp;And what are&nbsp;your favourite trinkets – and why?LEA: We really took everything we had [in our own collections]&nbsp;ha ha… She also had a list of trinkets she liked, and we had to make sure they weren’t too childish or too feminine either.I love the billiard ball — it’s satisfying in every way; the toy car because my brother was crazy about it haha; the prank items because I once bought them in Paris, and I never thought they’d end up here; and the buttons because they immediately remind me of <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/coraline" target="_blank">Coraline</a>!!• Léa Esmaili is represented by Blinkink in the UK and Dependent in France; watch more of her work <a href="https://www.blinkink.co.uk/directors/lea-esmaili" target="_blank">here</a>.

BTS: Léa Esmaili on Ashnikko's Trinkets and having 'no limits when it comes to the absurd.' 

Ashnikko-'Trinkets'-by-Léa-Esmaili,

Léa Esmaili directs a hugely imaginative, high-concept visual feast for the return of Ashnikko, introducing the alt-pop provocateur's new&nbsp;range of bizarre personas - who all have one thing in common.Blending live-action with bursts of playful stop-motion and CG - involving a talented team at London animation studio Blinkink -&nbsp;Esmaili's video for&nbsp;Trinkets&nbsp;unfolds as a series of surreal and richly stylised vignettes. It follows a parade of eccentric Ashnikko alter-egos -&nbsp;buck-toothed girl, raven girl, and city girl - each a proud trinket-lover in her own right.It's weird, wonderful and highly original - an intriguing introduction to the latest Ashnikko project, following her debut album Weedkiller&nbsp;- which also included a significant creative partnership with Blinkink in the extraordinary&nbsp; video for Worms, directed by Raman Djafari - who also contributes here as a member of the Blinkink team.&nbsp;Above all, Léa Esmaili has&nbsp;expertly crafted and helmed&nbsp;an extraordinary vision for Trinkets. But what else would we possibly expect from the amazing Ashnikko?&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1][imgtoken data:2][imgtoken data:3]&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Sehar Kidwai

Honor Price

Steve Warne

Renee Zhan

Ella Hill

Suzie Walsh

Maddy Williams

Jake River Parker

Imran Malik

Charlie Relph

Joe Gainsborough

George Warren (stop-motion)

Josef Byrne

Charlie Herbert

Freddie Wright

Jay Matthews

James Wick

Joe Medlock

Claire Moore

Anais Rosenthal (assistant)

Natasha Tereshko (assistant)

Erika Freedman

Ruby Cara Sandler

Jack McGinty

Studio RM

Yash Agrawal

Artist Building

Jyhakin

2xvroum

Ashnikko

Rob Reinaldo

Kristiyan Marinov

Parlophone Music

Alt-Pop

Ashnikko 'Trinkets' by Léa Esmaili

Gareth Bowen directs a pulsating and surreal promo for Baxter Dury.&nbsp;The video for Schadenfreude follows a nameless stranger chasing after a twenty pound note - tied to the back of a car, always just out of reach - in a warped and completely singular narrative.&nbsp;Whilst the man gives chase, Baxter Dury performs inside the car, relishing in the stranger's misfortune and desperation.&nbsp;With coruscating spotlights and a grungy, burnt orange aesthetic, it's an absorbing, darkly comic promo that moves at a breathless pace.&nbsp;“I loved the tune," Bowen explains. "It instantly felt really cinematic - like something straight out of a pulp ‘80s or ‘90s movie the first time I heard it."I did have to Google what schadenfreude meant. But the meaning - people being weirdly thrilled when things go wrong for someone else - spoke to me. It also felt perfect for building a twisted little narrative that’s atmospheric, joyful, comedic and spooky too.”&nbsp;

Hannah Mason

Ed Hoadley

Sarah Banks

Angela Mulhern

Danny Mitchell

Mark Lane

Imogen Parker Relms

Marcus Crofton

Oliver Hill

Luke Snowball

Nathan Mann

Zander Hearn

Tenthree Editing

Karol Cybulski

Harbor Picture Company

Radheya Jegatheva

Heavenly Recordings

Alternative

Baxter Dury 'Schadenfreude' by Gareth Bowen

Baxter-Dury-'Schadenfreude'-by-Gareth-Bowen

With the final coming up on Sunday&nbsp;between England and Spain, there's just about&nbsp;time to interrupt our usual feed of music videos&nbsp;with a shout-out to some extraordinary animation work that has been gracing the screens for the past few weeks: Nico Livesey's brilliant&nbsp;"Claymation" trailer and title sequence of the BBC's coverage of UEFA Women's Euros 2025.Following in a grand tradition of animated title sequences commissioned by BBC Sport for great summer events - including Livesey's ingenious turn for World Cup 2018&nbsp;- the counter-intuitive use of old-school stop-motion techniques in the burgeoning age of AI for this tournament is a masterstroke. It highlights the extraordinary skills of a number of stars of the women's game - several of whom will appear in Sunday's final - in the punchy, super-imaginative and OTT style that you can only really get with the Clay. And with The Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the soundtrack we are in the same ballpark, so to speak, as a music video.&nbsp;So England's Lucy Bronze makes a brilliant last-ditch tackle, Wales's Jess Fishlock writes her name in flames on the pitch, England's Lauren James sends a scorching shot past a keeper, and the lightning fast feet of Spain's Aitana Bonmati (regarded by many as the Lionel Messi of&nbsp;women's football)&nbsp;literally twists her opponents in knots. &nbsp;If the semi-final between Spain and Germany is anything to go by, Bonmati&nbsp;will probably have the final word on Sunday too.&nbsp;• Blinkink's behind the scenes on the UEFA Womens' Euros 2025 project <a href="https://www.blinkink.co.uk/projects/bbc-womens-euros" target="_blank">here</a>[imgtoken data:1]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Nicos Livesey

BBC 'UEFA Women's Euros 2025' by Nicos Livesey

UEFA Women's EURO 2025 - Names Will Be Made - Official Trailer – BBC

Part&nbsp;of the 44 minute film to accompany the new Coldplay album Moon Music, the visual for the track ALIEN HITS/ALIEN RADIO is a glorious compendium of creativity in a variety of styles - mostly animation -&nbsp;by 28 creatives supervised by Blinkink director Isabel Garrett.The film combines live action, 2D animation, pencil drawn and hand&nbsp;painted animation, stop-motion, documentary and a variety of styles and techniques to tell an expansive but delicate story of togetherness, brought together in a mosaic-like structure. &nbsp;The animators and directors are&nbsp;Katy Wang,&nbsp;Mdhamiri á Nkemi,&nbsp;John Davies,&nbsp;Dead Tempo Visions,&nbsp;Alexander Handschuh,&nbsp;Jenny Lucia Mascia,&nbsp;Daniel Quirke,&nbsp;Lizzy Hobbs,&nbsp;Dong A,&nbsp;Zach Tavel,&nbsp;Mario Radev,&nbsp;Neil Bromhall,&nbsp;Ben Reed and Siôn Marshall-Waters,&nbsp;David McShane,&nbsp;Ainslie Henderson,&nbsp;Roberto Telles,&nbsp;Tearjerker,&nbsp;Sam Gainsborough,&nbsp;Edin Whitehead,&nbsp;Camila Guerreiro,&nbsp;Alice Saey,&nbsp;Hirotoshi Iwasaki,&nbsp;Will Wightman,&nbsp;Maissa Lihedheb,&nbsp;Maissa Lihedheb,&nbsp;Joe Clarke,&nbsp;Sif Lina Lambæk and&nbsp;Studio Gruff.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]Premiered earlier this month, the ALIEN HITS/ALIEN RADIO visual follows the patchwork-quilt style that characterises the visuals throughout the Moon Music film - and was first employed in the UKMVA-winning video for Coldplay's feelikeimfallinginlove, directed by Raman Djafari, featuring the work of numerous animators around the world, and also produced by Blinkink.&nbsp;Perhaps how this and the other new films differ from DJafari's is that although&nbsp;the individual parts are beautiful in themselves, but are not drawn together in a particularly seamless way - the differences and juxtapositions between them is part of the bigger message.&nbsp;The full Moon Music film is&nbsp;being screened in full in a 360 presentation at Lightroom in London and Manchester until 21st March - tickets on sale <a href="https://lightroom.uk/whats-on/coldplay-a-film-for-the-future/#book" target="_blank">here</a>.

Isabel Garrett

Alex Halley

Alexander Handschuh

Sam Seager

Coldplay 'ALIEN HITS/ALIEN RADIO' by Isabel Garrett

Coldplay - 🌈 (A Film For The Future)

<h3>The Blinkink director explains how his personal experience of OCD fuelled his outrageous Man vs Fly comic-horror.</h3>Willl Wightman's debut music video is something to behold - but probably not if you're of a sensitive disposition.&nbsp;The young director, who has already combined music and humour in his work&nbsp;- like his graduation film&nbsp;Heart Failure, essentially a self-written mini-musical about twentysomething relationships, and <a href="https://www.blinkink.co.uk/projects/deliciously-predictable">Deliciously Predictable</a>, his film for US potato brand Ore Ida&nbsp;- breaks his music video duck for&nbsp;Irish DJ Tommy Holohan &amp;&nbsp;Megra's old school rave tune Show Me The Sky by making a fearlessly gross comedy about primal fear and human vulnerability.&nbsp;As unrestrained in its imaginative&nbsp;violence&nbsp;as an&nbsp;old-school&nbsp;cartoon, Wightman's video features Jared (played by Hamilton Charles) a recovering obsessive-compulsive disorder sufferer who is about to experience a major relapse due to the appearance of a pesky fly.&nbsp;[vidtoken data:0]Jared becomes determined to remove the fly from his pristine home, but the fly has other ideas: we witness the vile insect&nbsp;enter Jared's head, via his right ear&nbsp;and, now played a man in fly mask and wings,&nbsp;advance towards his victim's brain. Jared's response, pouring cleaning fluid into his earhole is just the first extremely painful step to his abject submission&nbsp;at the hands' of the fly. It's a very cruel fate for poor Jared, and it's played for big, bad taste laughs.&nbsp;We talked to Will WIghtman about the video, and discovered that in an era where the instinct to play safe&nbsp;is stronger than ever, this bold, scurrilous work derived from his own experience of the same condition that essentially seals Jared's fate.He just needed to get it out there...[imgtoken data:1]Above: Will Wightman on set of the Show Me The Sky video<blockquote>I love mental comedy music videos from the Nineties and Noughties - that was definitely&nbsp;an inspiration.</blockquote>PROMONEWS: How did the project start? Was there a brief that suggested that Tommy Holohan was looking for an outrageous comedy horror for his Show Me The Sky video?&nbsp;WILL WIGHTMAN: I’ve had this loose concept buzzing around my head for a good while now, but Tommy’s music really unlocked it for me. I actually wrote the video to another one of his tracks a year ago. The timing didn’t work out that time, but when he came back round with this amazing new EP I jumped at it.I love the energy and cinematic quality of Tommy’s music. His tracks often evolve through different motifs and paces, in a way that’s quite rare for dance music.&nbsp;It’s so perfect for telling a story with different emotional beats, which is what drew me to his work. That and they're also just wicked dance tracks obviously.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:2][imgtoken data:3]<blockquote>[Being OCD] is not just about keeping your room tidy and washing your hands.</blockquote>And what was the starting point for your Man vs Fly comedy - and when did you realise you needed to go to extreme lengths in showing one’s worst fears via a particularly vindictive insect?&nbsp;I've wanted to make a project inspired by my OCD for a little while now. There's a lot of misconceptions about it, so I wanted to talk about it in a way that was fun and not overly preachy.&nbsp;It's not just about keeping your room tidy and washing your hands. My experience of the condition mostly&nbsp;involves spending full weekends convincing myself that the mole on my neck is 100% going to kill me in the next 3-6 business&nbsp;days.&nbsp;That's&nbsp;where the idea started really, following a character who always believes the worst outcome is the only possible thing that can happen. Then, I just really ran with that. It's inspired by one of my fears about insects in my ear that I had as a kid (/fully grown adult).&nbsp;[imgtoken data:4][imgtoken data:5]<blockquote>The head and the wings were the key elements, then making the rest of him human added so much comedy.</blockquote>Like the music this seems to hark back to a past era, when off-the-wall comic ideas were more common in music videos. Was that a part of your thinking? Were there conversations about how extreme you could make it?I really love some of those mental comedy music videos from the Nineties and Noughties, so that was definitely&nbsp;an inspiration for this. People take music videos too seriously a lot of the time I think. This is fun music, so we wanted to make a fun video!Actually we had to keep an eye on that all the way through the process - making sure it never got too dark or too sad. We kept adding little beats of levity right into the last few days of the edit so we always kept a toe in the comedy sphere while still having that really gritty edge.That being said, this video is still definitely not for everyone![imgtoken data:6][imgtoken data:7]<blockquote>It’s a role that requires 100% commitment. Harrison absolutely delivered.</blockquote>The story is propelled by cutaways to Google searches and medical diagrams. So any factual basis for the horrible events that ensue?This is definitely&nbsp;something that happens for real! Up until the Ratatouille-style body control... you never know though!It’s a great performance from your lead actor. Who is he and why did you cast him? Does he have any background in creating self-destructive, obsessive characters?Harrison is a wicked comedy talent. I'd seen him in a few shorts and I just loved this unhinged and manic energy that he could bring. (I should add for the record that Harrison is not like that in real life; he's lovely.)There were a lot of different performance gears that we needed&nbsp;to switch between to make this work, from the out-and-out comedy beats to the more intense emotional moments and the much more physical almost choreographed movement at the end when the Fly has taken control.[imgtoken data:8]Above: Concept art for the fly character in the Show Me The Sky video, by artist&nbsp;Darius Bristow.[imgtoken data:9]Above: Members of the art department team prep the Fly - played by George Osman - on set.&nbsp;When casting this, I was looking for someone who was prepared to absolutely throw themselves into&nbsp;the insanity of what we were trying to create. It’s a role that requires 100% commitment. Harrison absolutely delivered. I think he’s a star to be honest with you.&nbsp;And the Fly is genuinely horrible, of course. How did you transform that actor into the creature?Thank you!&nbsp;The idea of the character was to create this theatrical exaggerated&nbsp;version of how a hypochondriac&nbsp; might&nbsp;imagine a fly. If you're finding him horrible, then we succeeded!One of the biggest challenges with the project was trying to decide how to bring the fly to life. That fly-to-human&nbsp;ratio was tough but crucial I think. He needed to be clearly a fly, but also a character with expressive, human features that helped him have that personality. Also, it&nbsp;needed to be a character we could actually make on the cheap.[imgtoken data:10][imgtoken data:11]<blockquote>The whole video rests on the relationship between Jared and the fly, but the two characters were never on set at the same time.</blockquote>In the end, the head and the wings felt like the key elements. Then making the rest of him human just added so much comedy. Lani, one of our incredible prop makers, built the mask and wings and&nbsp;then we just dirtied up our actor and got a nice&nbsp;pair of big manky pants and a bit of gold jewellery.&nbsp;When and where did you shoot the video and were there any particularly difficult challenges to overcome to make it all work?Certainly the most unique challenge of the shoot was trying to bridge the gap between our characters and their worlds. The whole video rests on the relationship between Jared and this fly, but the two characters were never on set at the same time.Directing both actors and my team to always be thinking about the character we weren’t&nbsp;filming, was actually really integral to making these two different worlds not feel entirely separate from one another.Hopefully we pulled it off, but you’ll have to be the judge of that!• Will Wightman is a director based at Blinkink in London - more of his work <a href="https://www.blinkink.co.uk/directors/will-wightman" target="_blank">here</a>

 Will Wightman on Tommy Holohan's Show Me The Sky video: 'It's inspired by one of my most deep-seated fears.'

Tommy Holohan & Megra - 'Show Me The Sky' (Official Video)

Will Wightman's debut music video is finally here and its a jawdropper.&nbsp;It's an outrageous, near-the-knuckle comedy-horror&nbsp;for Irish DJ-producer Tommy Holohan&nbsp;which preys&nbsp;on the sum of our worst, most irrational&nbsp;fears.&nbsp;Recovering obsessive-compulsive&nbsp;Jared is preparing for a date, when he's aware of another presence in his room - a persistently buzzing fly. As Holohan's banging rave track Show Me The Sky kicks in, Jared suffers an OCD&nbsp;relapse, and battle is joined. But there's only ever going to be one winner.[imgtoken data:1]Wightman has&nbsp;mined some primordial fears about bodily invasion, and&nbsp;his own experience of the condition of OCD, to deliver a no-holds-barred, anarchic&nbsp;comedy - a nightmarishly cruel version of the&nbsp;climactic scene in&nbsp;Ratatouille, as the sadistic Fly ruthlessly exploits Jared's vulnerabilities to become his&nbsp;gleeful puppet-master.From the excellent performances (Harrison Charles as Jared, George Osman as The Fly), to the zany camerawork, a practical build and old school VFX, plus medical diagrams&nbsp;dotted through a breakneck edit by Nick Armstrong, this is a breathtaking riot of cartoon-style mayhem.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:2]But it's also not for the squeamish or fainthearted. Will Wightman has stepped into the territory of wickedly gross-out cartoonish humour that was more common in dance music videos a few years ago - quite a brave thing to do in these days - and arguably gone even further.His first pop video is not only very funny, it's going to stay in your head a long time.

Ireland

Joe Totti

Jack Hamilton

Conor Maloney Hill

Aldo Camilleri

Sadhbh Maguire

Lani Hernandez-David

Harrison Charles

Clapham Road Studios

Nick Armstrong

TenThree

Rachel Goodger

1920

Strings & Tins

Jim Stewart

Alex Gregory

Charlie Morris

Dance

Rave

Tommy Holohan 'Show Me The Sky' by Will Wightman

Balázs Simon and Cátia Abreu co-direct a stirring, innovative promo for Sad Night Dynamite.&nbsp;The video for Wake Up Pass Out is a&nbsp;tour de force&nbsp;of creativity, blending complex techniques with cutting-edge technology in a haunting, hypnotic package, which takes the duo's taste for challenging, fantasy-driven&nbsp;visuals to the next level.Welcome to a new kind of monster, faturing the twin heads of SND's Josh and Archie...[imgtoken data:1]Balázs Simon drew inspiration from themes of overconsumption and a lack of self-control. In today's world, many of us are familiar with the experience of not knowing when to stop, often passing out with a phone still in hand. Social media obsession has a way of taking over our lives, turning us into our own monsters.&nbsp;"That's where the idea for the video came from; I love the sardonic honesty in Josh and Archie's music", Simon explains.&nbsp;"Instead of staying in the present and watching the guys perform on stage, we're lured into the arse end of a nightclub to watch their distorted, monstrous versions, which have only one goal: to grab our attention and consume us."[imgtoken data:2]&nbsp;From the live-action shoot to 3D scanning the band, motion-capturing their performances, detailed prosthetics, a CGI monster, and photoscanning the streets of London to form the basis of the digital world, it's an ambitious project that is completely captivating from start to end.&nbsp;Definitely not something you'd want to encounter after a heavy night drinking...&nbsp;

Dávid Dell'Edera

Catia Abreu

Balázs Simon

Rowan Mackintosh King

Peter Bishop

Kitty Rajakulasingam

Milo Brown

James Tilyard

Hara Spyrou

Lauren Webster

No.8

Máté Barbalics

Ádám György

Dániel Szabó

Umbrella Collective

Jumpcut Productions

Sunnyside Animation

Awal

Parlophone

Sad Night Dynamite 'Wake Up Pass Out' by Balázs Simon, Cátia Abreu

Sad-Night-Dynamite-'Wake-Up-Pass-Out'-by-Balázs-Simon,cátia-Abreu

Blinkink director Raman Djafari has curated an international team of 15 guest animators to craft a visually stunning animated journey for the opening single from Coldplay's new album.The video for feelslikeimfallinginlove - where&nbsp;two souls that continually find each other in various forms - is composed of the work of animators working in a variety of disciplines,&nbsp;including stop motion, 2D, 3D &amp; digital painting, oil pastels on paper, watercolour, and laser cut felt.It was also a true global effort, involving a diverse team from Switzerland, the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, and South Korea.[imgtoken data:1]The project aimed to create a coherent framework allowing individual animators to express their unique styles while maintaining a consistent narrative.&nbsp;The transitions between these segments required meticulous planning, and each animator initially created the start and end of their scenes, enabling the creation of 16 bespoke transitions.The result is akin to a visual form of the parlour game Consequences - and a dreamlike experience. Seamless transitions that transport viewers to newly constructed worlds, preserving the emotional continuity from one section to the next.<blockquote>Each animator&nbsp;is distinct in their visual language but unified in their ability to capture genuine emotion...</blockquote>"In every music video that I have directed, there is always one idea or image that appears early in the process and guides the project until the very end. In this case it was the image of a pair of two. Friends, lovers, soulmates.[imgtoken data:2]"The concept of this video centers around the motif of a couple, a pair of two, searching and ultimately finding each other. How they are represented changes throughout the video. The journey depicts this pair traveling between worlds and changing form, expressed through 15 styles of animation, by 15 animators from across the world, told in 3 chapters: 1. longing 2. searching 3. finding."What I love about the medium of animation is that it’s so capable of speaking in the language of our thoughts and emotions. That is, fluently transcending between feelings, changing perspectives, reflecting the way we as people experience the world or even our dreams. I wanted to make a video that expresses this through the many forms animation can take."For the past couple of years, I’ve travelled to animation festivals across the globe and met so many talented animators, many of which became friends. I wanted to bring some of these people to this project, artists I have seen grow and develop their own unique approaches and refine them over the years as well as animators who I have always looked up to and now can call peers and friends.[imgtoken data:3]"This community is so rich in talent and keeps growing even larger beyond festivals over the internet. In many ways this video is about highlighting 14 of these incredible animators."At the very beginning, when storyboarding the video I tried to come up with scenes that manage to hold both the fragility and overwhelming euphoria of falling in love at the same time. I wanted this journey to feel like a dream, moving through varying styles of animation, each scene connected through an intricately animated transition.Every transition was to bring us to a new world, but would carry on the emotion of the previous sequence. The world I wanted to create was a surreal one, but the feelings which are expressed would be familiar and resonant.[imgtoken data:4]<blockquote>I hope this video will spark a sense of wonder and fascination for the medium of animation.</blockquote>"I wanted to create a framework for all the animators that would allow them to express themselves with their individual style while keeping the narrative and direction coherent. I curated a list of animators, each of them distinct in their visual language but unified in their ability to capture genuine emotion and a sense of warmth and honesty."For each one of them, I came up with a scene and a pair of characters and then developed their scene idea further together with them. In some cases, I provided sketches and designs for characters and props, for others I shared references and then again for some the scene changed quite a bit from my original storyboards. The collaboration with each animator was different and I am so thankful for every single one of their contributions. It was a lot of fun to see each scene developing parallel to each other and trying to direct everyone towards the vision of the video without stifling everyone's individual approach and creativity.[imgtoken data:5]"Because each animator required different kinds of feedback and because many of them are scattered throughout the globe, coordinating and bringing them together was challenging but a lot of fun. From the very beginning I tailored every scene toward the particular style and approach of each animator. I enjoyed trying to see this video through the lens of their craft and presenting them with the scene I came up with for them."The transitions were another fun challenge that stemmed from the need to blend all these styles seamlessly. I tried to find surprising changes in animation style and bring them together through a transition that was specific to each scene idea and technique."I really hope this video will spark a sense of wonder and fascination for the medium of animation in the audience so that they check out everyone involved in this project and start following their work and hopefully discover even more animation beyond that."

Raman Djafari

Jon Mealing

Tokay

Dante Zaballa

Martin Robic

KINEMUS

Jack Zhang

Niki Lindroth von Bahr and Nicklas Nilsson

Moera.cf

Gaia Esther Maria

Aaron Fisher

Karlotta Freier

Hannah van der Weide

Kohana Wilson

Ram Han

John Malcolm Moore

Coldplay 'feelslikeimfallinginlove' by Raman Djafari

Coldplay 'feelslikeimfallinginlove' - Raman Djafari

Dave Bullivant directs a portrait of strength and vulnerability for the return of Jon Hopkins - featuring aerial rope artist&nbsp;Bryony Louise Fowler.&nbsp;The rousing promo for Ritual features Fowler's extraordinary, gravity-defying performance, moving gymnastically around a hanging rope metres&nbsp;above the ground,&nbsp;shot in a hypnotic and trance-like way, mainly at super-high frame rates.&nbsp;Intercutting close-ups and expansive wide shots, the macro and micro elements of the performance are put under the lens of DoP Adam Scarth, building in energy in parallel to the thrillingly atmospheric track through the edit by Thomas Grove Carter.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]"Jon's music is always very visceral and moving," notes Bullivant.&nbsp;"He came to me with this amazing track and an Instagram link to Bryony and her amazing work. What followed was an exercise in creative trust."Bryony is the most incredible performer. The strength and endurance that she has to be able to do what she does is incredible. She really captured the emotion of the music and portrayed it in the most wonderful way. There is no post production here, she really did it all for real - although there are some crash mats framed out of a few of the shots."I could talk at length about each department being completely amazing on this, from Adam's lighting and camera work, to Tom's amazing edit, and Jodie's beautiful grade. Not to mention Ayomidi pulling it all together in about three days. The whole team were amazing. Very very proud of this film."

Bryony Louise Fowler

Harry Watts

Martha Lake

Aartthie Mahakuperan

Dave Bullivant

Ayomide Alli

Sachin Parmar

Adam Scarth

James Stevenson Bretton

Matt Turner

Louis Barron

Bertie Wood

Andy Edridge

Daniel Lemon

Nina Mangold

Ayopo Abiri

Thomas Grove Carter

Trim Editing

Jodie Davidson

Picture House

Stephen McNally

Electronic

Jon Hopkins 'Ritual (evocation)' by Dave Bullivant

Jon-Hopkins-'Ritual'-by-Dave-Bullivant

The first single from the return of Bashy arrives with an outstanding&nbsp;video directed by George Power, combining a&nbsp;range of techniques, including a palette of animation styles,&nbsp;to illustrate the rapper's reflections on growing up in North West London.Power's video for&nbsp;Sweet Boys Turn Sour combines live action - both Bashy (aka Ashley Thomas) performing, and also the dramatisation of his younger 'sweet boy' self - with 2D, scribble animation and claymation - to add a visual flourish to the grime star's autobiographical story, without distracting from the message.Since his debut album came out fifteen years ago, Ashley Thomas has gone to acting fame (including Top Boy, THEM and&nbsp;Great Expectations).&nbsp;This video for the first single from his second album, Being Poor Is Expensive, was shot around&nbsp;Combe House on the Brunel Estate, where he lived during his formative years.&nbsp;The various styles of animation employed by George Power are all deceptively innnocent and fun,&nbsp;before revealing their&nbsp;darker purpose: the main two dimensional cartoon character becomes a demon who personifies the bad stuff in the local area; claymation&nbsp;blobs morph into guns and knives.&nbsp;Power also adds montages of photos of the real Thomas as a child, and his transformation into a tough 'sour' youth in his&nbsp;teens.A powerful complement to Sweet Boys Turn Sour, also helping to focus upon the questions around the relative influence of surroundings and upbringing that are raised by the artist in the song.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]&nbsp;