Just in case you have been yearning to return to office life, Swedish directing collective Stylewar are on hand to remind you of the dystopian horror that awaits, in their brilliant video for Bronson - created, of course, entirely in lockdown.

The video for the DJ/producer's Keep Moving has been entirely created by stock footage - super-bright, super-idealised images of the delights of the corporate world - rendered strange, ominous and downright loopy by Stylewar's disruptive take on visual effects.

While we start in the perfection of the stock footage world, Bronson's beats then break through the banality of the daily commute, the 9-to-5, the daily conference and Powerpoint presentation. The laws of physics are broken, tables and chairs and people all tumble to the rhythm as things descend into mayhem and madness. And Stylewar also manage to pay tribute to one of the iconic images of classic rock - the flaming businessman on the cover of Pink Floyd's album Wish You Were Here.     

In fact, Stylewar did more invisible tampering of the original footage to create their satirical version of office life than is immediately evident. The collective worked with longtime collaborator editor, Noah Herzog, to unearth the perfect stock footage to use as the spine of their brilliant satire. After sourcing the appropriate material, they shot matching close-ups of mouths that are lip-syncing the lyrics. They also built the offices in full CG that matched the look of the stock footage.

In the same way that Darwin Deez's presence disrupts the perfection of idealised stock imagery in Keith Schofield's brilliant video for You Can't Be My Girl, Stylewar have created a subversive visual masterpiece but with the additional layer of satire. That makes for one of the most creative, thought-provoking and enjoyable music videos made during lockdown.

STYLEWAR:

We've always had a strong fascination for stock footage and the thoughts and process that goes into creating it.

"The idea for this video was born out of creative starvation during these corona times. We got this awesome track from Bronson at the beginning of lockdown and really wanted to do something special for it. At that point it was impossible to do anything close to a regular shoot, so we pitched a concept using entirely stock footage and CG. 

"We've always had a strong fascination for stock footage and the thoughts and process that goes into creating it. Especially this kind of corporate business world that is shown in this video. It can be so cliché and mind-bendingly generic. The actors take turns playing the boss, they have positive meetings and they have arguments. They high-five, shake hands in glass buildings and proudly point at their PowerPoints. They listen really carefully, nod in approval or decide to put another idea on the table. We love how super-generic it is, in every detail. From cast, wardrobe and props to locations and especially the acting - it's all super shallow and false.

"So with this as a base, we wanted to show what can happen if there is a “blackout” to this world. Are they all fake? Is everything fake?

"Luckily no one got seriously injured making this video, with the exception of us now knowing far too much about the corporate-business-stock footage world then anyone should…"