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Tourist ft Years & Years 'Illuminate' by Nicolas Ménard

Tourist ft Years & Years 'Illuminate' by Nicolas Ménard

David Knight - 9th Dec 2014

Director and graphic artist Nicolas Ménard's debut music video is for up-and-coming electronic artist Tourist's Illuminate - featuring Olly Alexander of Years & Years on vocals - which presents a story of confusion with a very distinctive and hypnotic graphic sensibility. 

It's a starkly black and white 2D animation which the viewer experiences from the point of view of the main character, moving through different environments, we watch our protagonist open letter after letter, written in a language he cannot understand, to symbolise the chaotic communicative issues that follow a break-up.  

Inspired by Japanese graphic artists such as Yuichi Yokoyama and retro games X and 3D World Runner, this was drawn frame by frame, with Nicolas including edgy graphic characters that represent the artists, alternating the environments - parks, underwater scenes, art galleries - to the tempo, and gradually adding colour to heighten the power of the chorus.

Tourist works with creative director Jake Robinson, who says: "We reset Tourist’s ‘look’ in his previous single Wait by moving to simple black and white design and cinematography. With Illuminate we wanted to be bold, expressive and introduce colour into that world. We felt that Illuminate’s vibrant feel naturally lent itself to animation. I’ve been keen to work with Nicolas for a while. His work, whilst being visually striking, manages to covey a fragile human quality." 

Polydor have released a series of GIFs on Tumblr showcasing Nicolas’ beautiful hand drawn illustrations. 

NICOLAS MENARD:

"It’s been a real blast to direct Tourist’s 'Illuminate' music video. Not only because it’s such a playful, awesome sounding track, but also because Will was keen to jump straight into the weird abstract universe I’d suggested. It’s also been really fun to play with the idea of translating a poem into Korean; a little metaphor for miscommunication in a relationship. I’m looking forward to seeing whether people dig out those cryptic messages..! Everything was animated frame by frame in Photoshop, with some slight compositing in After Effects, and the editing in Premiere"

Watch 'Tourist ft Years & Years 'Illuminate' by Nicolas Ménard' here

David Knight - 9th Dec 2014

Tags

  • Animation
  • Director's notes
  • New Director
  • Promos

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Credits

Production/Creative

Director
Nicolas Ménard
Producer
Beccy McCray
Production Company
Nexus Productions
Executive Producer
Luke Youngman
Production Coordinator
Natalie Henry

Animation

Animator
Nicolas Ménard
Animator
Anne-Louise Erambert
Animator
James Hatley
Animator
Isaac Holland

Editorial

Editor
Nicolas Ménard

Commission

Commissioner
Emily Tedrake
Commissioner
Jake Robinson
Label
Polydor

Other credits

With thanks to

Lara Lee, for translation

David Knight - 9th Dec 2014

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