Darri Thorsteinsson

Ben Newbury helms a scintillating and breathless POV journey of a rocket-powered space woman as she flies across the globe, Iron Man-style, for Navos and Galantis's uplifting dance anthem What It Feels Like.Newbury has harnessed the latest in both drone and greenscreen technology to create this action-packed extravaganza, to make it feel like a woman really can fly - speeding through&nbsp;some glorious landscapes, both natural and urban - until she makes a truly spectacular&nbsp;crash-landing.[imgtoken data:1]&nbsp;"You know you’re on to a basic concept that will probably make a good video when each time you talk it through everyone keeps having more and more ideas for it -&nbsp;that totally happened with this," says Ben Newbury. "I have to give props to the commissioner John Hassay. He was looking for a video that: a young audience would watch to the end;&nbsp;a video that captured euphoria (the feeling not the TV show). Challenge accepted.<blockquote>Having a wild visual idea is one thing but you’re only going to hook the audience if they connect to it.</blockquote>"So the pitch was this… we experience the explosive, psychedelic journey of a spacewoman as she re-enters the atmosphere and hurtles round the surface of the earth - all from a POV inside her helmet. This hyper-colour, over-saturated, warp speed journey takes us from the edge of space, through epic mountains, forests, cities and deserts, flying through impossibly small spaces and trippy VFX wormholes, to match the euphoric feeling of the track. Before she smashes into the ground. Easy peezy."The flight itself was created with FPV drones, filmed around the world, frame matching different takes to create one sequence. Adding in the initial fall from space and trippy wormholes in VFX. Once our VFX wizards had the edit stitched together, and we had all enjoyed another Covid test, we headed to the XR stage in Garden Studios. After some careful testing, Olly Nice our cinematographer extraordinaire rigged the camera inside a space helmet, created by our fabulous art director Katie South, ready for the XR screens to play back the journey.[imgtoken data:2]"The XR screen array enabled us to perfectly match the lighting in the reflections inside the helmet and on her hands and arms, allowing our space woman to appear to look around and throw her arms out in time with the flight (as well as becoming the desert backdrop and lighting for our final shot). Our wonderful actress Poppy Christie positioned herself underneath the camera, while our SFX team (the whole rest of crew) held all manor of wind machines, spritzers, leaf blowers and smoke machines ready for launch. This made the final video pretty much a one-taker, with everyone firing smokers and squirting water at the camera."One goal I kept coming back to throughout pre-production was to make sure the video was about the emotional experience the space woman was having on her journey down to earth. Having a wild visual idea is one thing but you’re only going to hook the audience if they connect to it. If they care. It needed a human element to create that sense of jeopardy. So our solution was to shoot a plate shot of Poppy performing the flight facing the XR screen without the helmet, then composite that as a reflection into the visor in a final round of post, to allow the audience to see her performance.[imgtoken data:3]"Pulling all this off would not have been possible without the brilliant Ramy Dance and Alessia Lendrum from Common People Films. Alessia harnessed the true purpose of the internet, organising FPV drone pilots all around the world, who shot in deserts, mountains, jungles and cities to create the amazing footage that makes up the flight."Big shout out to Tom Bailey and Greg Ayala at FNDM who designed the artwork that kicked off the thought process. I also want to thank our head leaf blower op and PA - Ynez Myers, AC - Mark James, HMU - Eliza Clarke, the Drone Pilots - Luca Morandini, Fabrizio Botto, Smirnov Dmitrii Olegovich, Zakir Mohammad &amp; Jerry Chan. Then on Edit - Matthew Blacklock, Grade - Kathryn Dymmock, Sound Design - James Hall and our VFX brains - James Taylor, Darri Thorsteinsson and Shivam Solanki. As well as Andy Roberts, Amy Collins and Mariama Camara. And finally Navos and Galantis for making such a massive banger."

United Kingdom

Ben Newbury

Alessia Lendrum

Las Bandas Be Brave

Common People Films

John Hassay

Olly Nice

Ramy Dance

Ynez Myers

Mark James

Katie South

Eliza Clarke

Matthew Blacklock

Katie Dymmock

Coffee & TV

Shivam Solanki

James Taylor

Poppy Christie

Island Records

Dance

Navos X Galantis ft YOU 'What It Feels Like' by Ben Newbury

Navos-X-Galantis-'What-It-Feels-Like-Ft-You'-by-Ben-Newbury

Yousef and Paloma Faith join forces in this modern twist on the&nbsp;Frankenstein story, in the video for Monster.&nbsp;Following the release of her BBC documentary&nbsp;Paloma Faith: As I Am,&nbsp;the fan-favourite single gets a vintage-inspired visual. Directed by Yousef with creative direction from long-time friend and collaborator Theo Adams, it takes the idea of the Monster head-on, by offering a new feminist take on Frankenstein with melodramatic Giallo&nbsp;and Bollywood stylistic influences.&nbsp;Though Faith is noticeably absent from the video, the concept is carried spectacularly by each of the performers, as well as Yousef's masterful use of cinematic language and mix of traditional and contemporary elements, to create something fresh and exciting.[imgtoken data:1]Featuring mesmerising VFX work at the climax - a given, considering the director's skillset - the video is left hanging on the question, who is the Monster? The women, the monster at the end, or the doctor himself?&nbsp;“The doctor represents society in general, showing how women are silenced, manipulated physically and mentally and then cast aside like they're nothing," comments Yousef. "Relating to the music industry which Paloma's lyrics are about, it shows how artists are churned out, disrespected and disregarded.[imgtoken data:2]"The aesthetic of the video is heavily inspired by the Italian horror genre epitomised by Giallo and Dario Argento’s supernatural horrors&nbsp;Suspiria&nbsp;(1977) and&nbsp;Inferno&nbsp;(1980), as well as vintage Frankenstein films like James Whale’s&nbsp;Frankenstein&nbsp;(1931).”Paloma Faith confirms that the inspiration for the song was personal. "Monsters is about my relationship with the music industry. and my career as a whole," she has commented.[imgtoken data:3]&nbsp;"There's this weird sense of feeling that women in the industry have a shelf life. With the video for Monster myself and Yousef wanted to reflect how society in general treats women whether it's physically or mentally. The male figure in this video decides and discards his pound of flesh.”Prettybird executive Producer Chris Murdoch commented: “This was a very special project for us. The combined creative geniuses of Yousef and Theo Adams working together to create pure magic. As well as representing Yousef at Prettybird, we also have Theo on our roster as a Creative Director. This collaboration with Paloma on Monster&nbsp;was the perfect platform to combine their powers.”[imgtoken data:4]

Darri Thorsteinsson

VFX

Videos featuring Darri Thorsteinsson

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