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The Chemical Brothers 'Free Yourself' by Dom&Nic

David Knight - 15th Nov 2018

Dom&Nic are back, with another tour de force 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 this time, it's different. They'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 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'd least expect. They want to have fun.

Having collaborated with The Mill in London on their previous Chemical Brothers video, 2016's Wide Open, Dom&NIc (that'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.

This time it's the sheer volume of different characters, all brilliantly achieved by The Mill's VFX artists and animators, that make the Free Yourself video something to savour. In fact, it definitely takes a few 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's clear is that Dom&Nic's 23 years of experience making Chemical Brothers videos - including the dancing skeletons of Hey Boy, Hey Girl, the killer robot of Believe, and the android of Wide Open - has all gone into making this one.

David Knight - 15th Nov 2018

Tags

  • Narrative
  • Pick of the Day
  • VFX
  • Dance
  • Robot

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Credits

Production/Creative

Director
DOM&NIC
Producer
John Madsen
Production Company
Outsider
Executive Producer
Alex Fitzgerald
Production Manager
Steve Elgar

Camera

Director of Photography
Alex Barber

Editorial

Editor
Ed Cheesman
Sound design
Anthony Moore

Grading

Colourist
Dave Ludlum

VFX

VFX Supervisor
Suraj ‘Sid’ Harrington-Odedra
VFX Supervisor
Fergal Hendrick
Post production company
The Mill
Post Producer
Imogen Pai

Commission

Commissioner
Ailsa Robertson

Other credits

Shoot Supervisors

Fergal Hendrick, Matthew Kavanagh, Pavel Mamichev, Suraj ‘Sid’ Harrington-Odedra

Lidar Scanning

Efficacy 4D (Duncan Lees, Jandira Guasque)

Face Scanning

FBFX

VFX Creative

The Mill

Creative Directors

Jorge Montiel & Wes

Lead Rigging/Animation

Matthew Kavanagh

Lead Modeller

Ashley Tilley

Lead Lighting

Clement Granjon

Compositors

Declan Andrews, Pete Hodsman, Sole Martin, Jack Pond, Alfie Vaughan, Rakesh Venugopalan Rigging

Modelling/Texturing:

Will Burdett, Alwin Durez, Oliver Hallas, Pavel Mamichev, Anish Mohan, Bethan Williams

Lighting

Amaan Akram, Max Auer, Carlo Carfora, Vaclav Cizkovsky, Kate Gabriel FX

David Knight - 15th Nov 2018

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