Director

DOM&NIC

Dom&amp;Nic are back, with another tour de force&nbsp;for The Chemical Brothers. And for the directors who have been making videos for the Chems for over two decades, this one for Free Yourself spins another twist on the theme that has occupied them several times before. Yes, the robots are coming - but&nbsp;this time, it&#39;s different. They&#39;ve come to party.When the nightwatchman arrives at work, past a crowd of protesters, angry that robots have taken their jobs, he is unaware that&nbsp;these artificial workers, packed away in boxes, about to be sent far and wide to their appointed roles, are breaking out of their boxes. What follows is an ensemble piece, as the androids do en masse what you&#39;d least expect. They want to have fun.Having collaborated with The Mill in London on their previous Chemical Brothers video, 2016&#39;s Wide Open, Dom&amp;NIc (that&#39;s Dominic Hawley and Nicholas Goffey) have gone back to the visual effects studio to achieve something of similar magnitude. But this is also been a quite different challenge from Wide Open, where they were turning a human into an android.[imgtoken data:1]This time it&#39;s the sheer volume of different characters, all brilliantly achieved by The Mill&#39;s&nbsp;VFX artists and animators, that make the Free Yourself video something to savour. In fact, it definitely takes a few&nbsp;views to get a complete handle on everything that is going on. And, arguably, the fact that this is essentially a lighthearted, even comic, piece.What&#39;s clear is that Dom&amp;Nic&#39;s 23 years of experience making Chemical Brothers videos - including&nbsp;the dancing skeletons of Hey Boy, Hey Girl, the killer robot of Believe, and the android of Wide Open -&nbsp;has all gone into making this one.

United Kingdom

John Madsen

Outsider

Steve Elgar

Alex Barber

Ed Cheesman

The Mill

Alex Fitzgerald

Imogen Pai

Dave Ludlum

Anthony Moore

Ailsa Robertson

Suraj ‘Sid’ Harrington-Odedra

Fergal Hendrick

Dance

The Chemical Brothers 'Free Yourself' by Dom&Nic

The Chemical Brothers - Free Yourself

Dom &amp; Nic&#39;s classic military Oasis video has been given the remastering treatment 20 years on and it looks like it was shot yesterday.The epic performance video has been recut and remastered from the original 35mm negatives to give it an incredible new context.The whole thing looks absolutely incredible, and we can only hope that more classic videos still have master tapes archived away somewhere just waiting to be unleashed to their full potential.

Simon Hilton

Misha Stanford-Harris

Neil Davis

Dave Ludlam

Andrew 'barnsley' Wood

Laura Kelly

Daniel Landin

Oasis 'D'You Know What I Mean?' (2016 Remaster) by Dom & Nic

Oasis - D'You Know What I Mean? (2016 Remaster)

They were one of the biggest directing teams of the Nineties, making videos for Supergrass, David Bowie,&nbsp;Smashing Pumpkins&nbsp;and others, but there&#39;s only one outfit that can lure&nbsp;Dom &amp; Nic back to music videos.Dominic Hawley (above left)&nbsp;&amp; Nic Goffey (right) have been working with the Chemical Brothers now for two decades. They are increasingly occasional projects, but when they happen, usual stunning fusions of creativity and technical wizardry. That&#39;s definitely the case with their beautiful offering&nbsp;for Wide Open, starring actress/dancer Sonoya Mizuno (above centre)&nbsp;and choreographed by Wayne McGregor.&nbsp;It&#39;s a one-shot video capturing Mizuno - who starred in the 2014 movie&nbsp;Ex Machina&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;dancing in an open space, and gradually undergoing a physical metamorphosis, from organic to synthetic.&nbsp;Her transformation into an artificial&nbsp;3D version of herself &ndash; composed of&nbsp;see-through mesh &ndash; is&nbsp;a&nbsp;brilliant technical feat&nbsp;that looks more impressive with every viewing.So we asked&nbsp;Dom &amp; Nic exactly&nbsp;how they managed to do it, without resorting to using motion control.&nbsp;Not surprisingly they describe it &quot;an immense undertaking&quot;&nbsp;- and they also explain&nbsp;how the whole idea is a commentary on how technology is transforming humanity in all sorts of ways.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[vidtoken data:0]Promo News:&nbsp;Incredibly, it&#39;s nearly 20 years since you directed your first video for The Chemical Brothers, for Setting Sun. How would you describe your relationship with Tom &amp; Ed - and how its changed down the years?&nbsp;Dom: From a work perspective it hasn&#39;t really changed. It&#39;s always been the director&#39;s dream. They send us brilliant inspiring music and then we come up with an idea we&#39;d love to do, and if they like it and give us the go ahead, they give us the freedom to get on with it.Nic:&nbsp;They trust us to get on with it without interference once they approve the idea. They are very approachable, knowledgeable and lovely chaps too. We are the same generation of movie fans and music fans as them, which helps keep us all in tune.[vidtoken data:1]<blockquote>&quot;[Chemical Brothers are] a director&#39;s dream. If they like the idea, they give us the freedom to get on with it.&quot;</blockquote>It&#39;s been a while since the last one, so have there been other attempts to do something together between your video for&nbsp;Midnight Madness in 2008 and Wide Open?&nbsp;&nbsp;Dom: Go [released last year] was the first track we wrote for&nbsp;since&nbsp;Midnight Madness. We had an idea we loved but it was another big one, and I&#39;m not even sure they liked&nbsp;the idea as we told the label up front it couldn&#39;t be done unless there was more time. It was a great&nbsp;idea though, so maybe it could resurface in the future!We were disappointed&nbsp;to have missed out, so we were more proactive with Wide Open. We loved the track and took a punt that it would be a single. We wrote the idea and sent it to them on the&nbsp;off chance. They got back to us saying they loved it and it was going to be a single so they wanted to make it.Were you inspired by the song, or was it an opportunity to try something you&rsquo;ve had in mind for a while? Did you have an inspiration for the figure into which Sonoya Mizuno transforms?Dom: We did already have the idea of someone transforming into a 3D printed lattice work version of themselves as a visual idea we&nbsp;were keen to explore. So when we heard the track the idea formed quite quickly. The song is beautiful but sad, and feels like its about loss and change. So a beautiful piece of dance in which the dancer loses herself and physically changes seemed to make sense. We&nbsp;were&nbsp;inspired by the use of 3D printing for prosthetic limbs and body enhancement.<blockquote>&quot;The song feels like it&#39;s about loss and change, so a beautiful piece of dance in which the dancer loses herself&nbsp;seemed to make sense.&quot;</blockquote>The idea that the human body is going to become more and more enhanced by new technologies is a theme, as is the idea that the majority of people are&nbsp;unconsciously&nbsp;becoming cyborgs of a type &ndash; not through physical alterations but&nbsp;through a constant 24/7 reliance on computers and smartphones to enhance their knowledge, memory and ability to&nbsp;communicate. So there is an idea of loss through change in there. Ultimately we thought the idea would be&nbsp;compelling&nbsp;to watch as a piece of dance that could only exist in the medium of film.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]<blockquote>&quot;We&nbsp;knew Wayne McGregor was the right person to&nbsp;choreograph&nbsp;this and hadn&#39;t really thought what we&#39;d do if he said no!&quot;</blockquote>How long was it in the planning? What were the stages you went through?Dom:&nbsp;Once we knew Tom and Ed wanted us to make it we went straight to Wayne McGregor. We are big fans of his and had wanted to work with him for a while. We&nbsp;knew he was absolutely the right person to&nbsp;choreograph&nbsp;this and hadn&#39;t really thought what we&#39;d do if he said no! Thankfully he wanted to do it. We talked through the idea and he came back with a few suggestions for dancers that he felt would be good based on what we&nbsp;were&nbsp;looking for.We all felt Sonoya was the perfect combination of dancer and actor. Amazingly she had four days off between movies she was shooting in the US and agreed to fly back to the UK to do it. Whilst this was going on The Mill were trying to work out whether it could be done in the time. Very bravely they agreed to take it on as it was a massive&nbsp;commitment&nbsp;from them, not just because it was going to require them to break new ground, but also&nbsp;because&nbsp;they were going to have to invest financially to do it.<blockquote>&quot;We wanted it to be one continuous steadicam shot so motion control was just not an option for us.&quot;</blockquote>Once everyone was on board we started working with The Mill on the design of the mesh and looking for a location. Wayne was away for a couple of weeks working with&nbsp;Jamie&nbsp;XX in New York and when he got back we met up to talk through ideas about for the choreography. Sonoya arrived and we did a full rehearsal day with her and Wayne in the location and we blocked out the camera move as part of this. The next day we refined the camera move with Rick Woollard the steadicam operator and then we started shooting.[imgtoken data:2]<blockquote>&quot;Sonoya had four days between movies she was shooting in the US, but agreed to fly back to the UK to do it.&quot;</blockquote>Did you have the camera move all figured out by then?Dom: We knew from the start we wanted it to be one continuous steadicam shot, that was really integral to the idea. We didn&#39;t want to join takes together or do invisible wipes. We wanted the film to have an authenticity to it from a dance perspective.Nic:&nbsp;It was interesting to talk to Wayne about how Sonoya could express the idea. We wanted her to be very aware of it and emotionally involved in what was happening to her rather than scared or freaked out by it. She drives the transformation somewhat, playing with the sensation of touch and experimenting with her mesh body.The song is mournful and concerns loss but there are also moments where she is feeling the transformation, running her fingers across the floor or her own transformed body. We wanted the viewer to share the experience with her to ask themselves &quot;what is she feeling&quot;. Wayne created a dance that expressed that brilliantly and beautifully.<blockquote>&quot;The Mill proposed we scan the location and rebuild it in 3D.&quot;</blockquote>Most importantly, how did you do it? It&rsquo;s such a fluid move, but motion control played a part, presumably?&nbsp;Dom: We wanted it to be one continuous steadicam shot so motion control was just not an option for us. We wanted the camera to be involved in the dance. It is really another character and for it to respond to the dance which although tightly choreographed would undoubtedly have natural variance. This obviously posed a big problem: how were we going to create a clean plate?[imgtoken data:3]<blockquote>&quot;We basically had to do a full frame-by-frame motion track of pretty much her whole body.&quot;</blockquote>The Mill proposed we scan the location and rebuild it in 3D, then once the camera was tracked a 3D version of the room could be projected through the mesh. This was an undertaking but it was only part of the fix. What about Sonoya&#39;s real leg when the mesh went in front of it or her face or her T-shirt? We basically had to do a full frame by frame motion track of pretty much her whole body and then create CG elements for her unchanged body as well as her 3D printed mesh body. Both for the moments where we see her through the mesh but also for the shadows&nbsp;cast&nbsp;through&nbsp;the onto her unchanged body. Once her head changes to mesh she becomes full CG but matches exactly what Sonoya did in the take.Where did you shoot it - and how did you light the space? &nbsp;Dom: We shot it in an old taxi workshop in East London that was being used as a location whilst developers were waiting to come in. It&#39;s all natural light and that&#39;s one of the reasons we chose it &ndash; we loved the look of it but also the light. The take we used was the final one of the afternoon. It was Sonoya&#39;s best dance and also the sun came in and out in&nbsp;beautiful&nbsp;way as if it had been cued to do so.[imgtoken data:4]How long was the post production, and what was the biggest challenge you faced in making it work? Were there any worrying moments?Dom: The post took around 14 weeks I think &ndash; so long I can&#39;t remember what date it started! It ended up taking an extra two months. It was just impossible to accurately predict how long it was going to take before starting and we were&nbsp;optimistic. The biggest challenge by far was the&nbsp;body&nbsp;tracking. Pretty much every frame of Sonoya&#39;s dance had to be hand tracked by a team of animators, every joint. This was just an immense undertaking and the rig needed to be constantly reworked as the animators and riggers discovered Sonoya&#39;s limbs could move and stretch&nbsp;beyond&nbsp;the norm.<blockquote>&quot;We were worried that The Mill would say they couldn&#39;t do it. But they shared our commitment to make the film the best it could be.&quot;</blockquote>There were a few worrying moments. The first was when we discovered that 10 of the 13 witness cameras set up around the room to help the animators with the body tracking hadn&#39;t triggered on the hero take. For us going with the second best take or combining two takes wasn&#39;t an option so we were worried then that The Mill would say they couldn&#39;t do it. But they didn&#39;t. They shared our commitment to make the film the best it could be.In what ways do you draw on your filmmaking experience to make this?Dom: We have drawn on all aspects of our filmmaking experience to make this, but the first and most important thing we know is that it all starts with a great idea. With all the will in the world, great production value and execution, a bad idea will always be bad. Music videos give us the freedom to come up with our own ideas and then our experience helps us to realise them as closely to our vision as possible.<blockquote>&quot;The idea is quite simple at heart, but it has layers and layers of complexity and detail and keeping a handle on those details is a tough challenge in a film like this.&quot;</blockquote>Nic:&nbsp;We worked with the same DoP from the first video we did with them in 1996. We knew we needed a great steadicam operator to capture the choreography and performance of a great dance. We knew we needed The Mill to commit to it. The idea is quite simple at heart, but it has layers and layers of complexity and detail and keeping a handle on those details is a tough challenge in a film like this.[imgtoken data:5]Presumably there&rsquo;s no realistic relationship between the time, effort and ingenuity put in, and the actual budget. But you&rsquo;ve made a habit of these VFX spectaculars for the Chems. How does this rate among your labours of love?Nic:&nbsp;&quot;They are all our children now&quot;, as The Chemical Brothers would say...Dom: Believe, Salmon Dance and this one were all huge undertakings, requiring great generosity from the post houses involved and the crews we work with. Having said that Wide Open has really taken this to the extreme in terms of the amount of work involved from a post production company in relation to moneys available. We knew it was a massive ask of The Mill up front, but we had no idea it was going to be so colossal. So thanks so much to them and to everyone that takes on creative projects for the sake of creativity.&nbsp;

Dom & Nic on Chemical Brothers' Wide Open: "People are unconsciously becoming cyborgs"

The Chemical Brothers - Wide Open (feat. Beck)

The Chemical Brothers - Setting Sun

Behind the Scenes: The Chemical Brothers 'Wide Open'

The Chemical Brothers ft. Beck 'Wide Open' by Dom & Nic

Dom Hawley and Nic Goffey&nbsp;have made some great videos for&nbsp;The Chemical Brothers. Now they&#39;ve made another one.Featuring Sonoya&nbsp;Mizuno, with choreography by Wayne McGregor, this stands up there with Setting Sun, Hey Boy Hey Girl and Believe. It&#39;s a beautiful thing.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Wayne McGregor

Sonoya Mizuno

Steve Chivers

Rick Woollard

Ed Cheeseman

Tony Rapacciou

Tara Stift

Fiona Fellows

Ben Gill

Dance, Alternative, Electronica

Actually this celebrated team-up (that also happens to include Dom and Nic's producer John Madsen and Virgin commissioner Carole Burton-Fairbrother) goes back quite a few years - ever since Setting Sun way back in 1995.
But more recently there's been the CADS' best video-winning Believe and then last year's Salmon Dance, both superbly entertaining, and both including marvellous CGI created at Framestore CFC.
And now the team is back in place for Tom and Ed Chemicals' Midnight Madness -the single that's launching the new 'greatest hits' collection.
It's more brilliance, with the songtitle aptly represented by a gold-suited goblin who springs from a refuse bin round the back of the London Astoria, then proceeding to scale the building and do all kinds of stuff thereafter: leaping from wall to wall Spiderman style (which mostly looks real) and ridiculous contortions (some of which look which suspiciously non-CG too).
This time there's more than the exceptional fusion of live action and CGI. This time it is a case of 'how the hell did they do that'
So Dom has kindly explained all below...

Dominic Hawley on making video for The Chemical Brothers' Midnight Madness
"It's hard to follow up Believe and Salmon Dance as they were really successful, and we were very pleased with them. We went into this latest one with that on our minds, and knowing we had less than half the money and half the time to do it. It would have been quite easy to not take this on but I am extremely glad we did.
"The project started as always with the Chems sending us the track, the budget and time scale. Given the limited budget and time the idea had to be of a certain nature. There wasn't enough of either to do a more cinematic narrative as usual. With these constraints set the idea came very quickly and almost flashed into mind fully formed.
"The initial image was of a dancer dressed as a goblin in gold lamé climbing out of an industrial bin on the stroke of midnight ready to have three and a half minutes of energetic fun before getting back into the bin for the end of the track.
"Even the setting (behind a theatre) was part of that initial thought. We had scouted those kinds of locations in the past for previous commercials and in fact had shot a scene from a Supergrass video in that same area. The idea comes from the song title and lyric and the reason for the goblin was two-fold. Firstly they are a nighttime creature of mischief, and secondly in the gold stretch bodysuit there is the look of an old raver that hadn't stopped dancing since the late Eighties.
"The original thought was to do the whole thing as one shot with two or three dancers and the DV camera being passed from operator to operator and using a crane to follow the goblin up the side of building. But in the end it seemed like a lot of unnecessary effort and money we didn't have to do it as one shot. So a new strategy was taken which was to still do it as a true circuit in real time, but to have cuts but only when needed.
"We still used three dancers who all were cast for their different skills, casting in London and Paris (because the French have some amazing street dancers). We cast one (Liverpudlian) guy, Daniel Ilbacca, for his acrobatic free running skills, the second (Belgian) guy, Bruce, for his mad popping style and the third (French) guy called Lilou - he's a break dancer with his unique style and contortionist skills. We also had a fourth dancer who was computer generated, thanks to our friends at Framestore.
"Again Framestore did an amazing job without getting paid and created a 3D goblin dancer that had to seamlessly join with a real one. There are two sections with the 3D goblin: the first from the roof of the car to the roof top; the second is the jump from the roof to the window ledge.
"The jump to the chimney is for real. Daniel the free runner could have done the whole thing for real but we couldn't afford to go down that route of making it safe as it would have escalated the production scale to a completely different level. We did film him doing the jumps and moves between the air con units and the drainpipe in the gym, then the animators copied his movements to make it convincing.
"We got a choreographer (Supple Nam) on board early on and he was great. He is really into street dancing and led the auditions, then we worked together closely on the rehearsals and choreography. We spent about four days on total on rehearsals and could easily have used more time if we'd had it. We sourced all the costume materials ourselves which was fun trawling around fabric shops and desperately trying to find a 4 way stretch lycra with gold hologram sequins. We managed to get the last 12 meters of it in the country!
"It was really fun being so hands-on because you end up feeling you really have seen all the options - although its a lot more work. As we were shooting with only existing lights and a few battery-powered ones, choosing the right fabric was essential. We went out and did some camera tests in the location and the gold sequins won outright.
"The mask was made by David Coulier who we've worked with before. He is a top man and mainly does feature films. We had worked with him before, when we made the Bluetones look really really fat. We wanted it to look like a dancer in a mask not a real goblin, otherwise we would've taken a prosthetic route.
"It was all shot in one night around the back and inside of the Astoria Theatre. The route is real - we didn't cheat anything, except one flight of stairs was taken out to help us get to the stage for the right point in the track, but that was planned. It is exactly how long it takes to do that circuit from the bin back to the bin and I am glad we stuck true to that part of the idea.
"We had to deliver the video by a certain date and that only gave Framestore a week and a half to do all the animation, lighting, rendering and compositing. However after delivery we discovered we were able to take advantage of Framestore's generosity and the teams commitment to quality for another two weeks to get it to the point where both they and we wanted - hooray!"

DOM&NIC

Director

Interviews featuring DOM&NIC

Videos featuring DOM&NIC

2018 (1)

2016 (2)

2008 (1)

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