Unknown T ft Loyle Carner 'Hocus Pocus' by Felix Brady
Rob Ulitski - 18th Jan 2024
Felix Brady directs a trippy tour de force of thrilling creativity for Unknown T's Hocus Pocus, featuring Loyle Carner - and gleefully subverting expectations of both artists.
The video offers a very distinctive and hugely imaginative blend of performance and visual storytelling, which merges past, present and future aesthetics with a visionary touch - with videogaming as an inspiration and motif.
It's a triumphant return to music videos by Felix Brady, who takes everyday objects and distorts their familiarity: cars mounted on hydraulic arms, a vibrant colour palette, visual illusions and nostalgic 90s gaming iconography.
Furthermore, Brady upends our previous experiences of the artists themselves. Loyle Carner is presented in a much more dominating way, contrary to his familiar and softer public image, while Unknown T’s persona shows a shift from his drill days into more art directed, highly crafted scenarios.
In doing so, Brady has created a world that is defined by its utter unpredictability, including some future-iconic moments of surrealism, including Unknown T on a golf course raining hole-in-ones, Carner performing loops on a playground swing, and both playing an arcade video game in a field.
"It’s a visually-forward film," Brady confirms. "I wanted back-to-back grandiose scenes that are performance-focused. I was inspired by technology, play and contemporary design, but I also really wanted to push the rap envelope. It’s all play - the car, which is emblematic of rap videos, exists as a gyrating sculpture in the background, like a piece of modern art.
"The infinite hole-in-one golf scenes. Loyle in a speedboat is reminiscent of those coin-operated kiddie rides outside Asda. The kid on the bike searching the park harks back to Pokémon Go. Loyle loop-the-looping on a swing. Tetris inspired the floating building scene… We had fun with it.”
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Rob Ulitski - 18th Jan 2024
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Credits
Production/Creative
- Director
- Felix Brady
- Producer
- Theo Hue Williams
- Production Company
- SF
- Executive Producer
- DM
- Executive Producer
- Justin Stiebel
- Executive Producer
- Blake Powell
- EP
- Sean Costelloe
- Senior Producer
- Nicola Simmons
- Producer
- Libby Gandhi
- Production Assistant
- Noa Vuagniaux
- Service Prod Co
- LED Unit
- Producer
- Svetlana Punte
- Line Producer
- Denis Kotegov
- 1st AD
- Rimants Irzhikevich
- VP Supervisor
- Simon Hegarty
- UE Artist
- Edgars Laksa
- Technical director
- Denis Sorogin
- Technical manager
- Emils Skrivelis
Camera
- Director of Photography
- Anna Smoronova
- AC
- Valentin Pereira
- Loader
- Henri Cosson
- 2AC
- Marts Indrikis Zunde
- Data Op
- Man Lok Li, Matthew Steven
Lighting/Grip
- Key Grip
- Roberts Dreimanis
- Gaffer
- Eduards Stefanovics
- Bestboy
- Kaspars Veveris
- Spark
- Edgars Vitols, Matiss
Art
- Production designer
- Reinis Berzins
- Prop master
- Andris Marackovskis, Martins Aulmanis
- Set Dresser
- Juris Jugs, Janis Skieris
- Picture vehicle coord.
- Aldis Hofmanis
- Riggers
- Ugis Cakars, Kristaps Vandans
Wardrobe
- Style
- Anatoly Ksenofontov, Vitaliy Mihnonoks
- MUA
- Julia Balinska
Editorial
- Editor
- Fouad Gaber
- Editing company
- TE
- Edit Producer
- Polly Kemp
- Sound Design
- Seb Bruen
- Titles
- Elliott Elder
Grading
- Grade
- Marina Starke
VFX
- VFX Company
- The Mill
- VFX Supervisor
- Tom Luff
- 3D Lead
- Paul Donnellan
- 2D Lead
- Valeria Scalamandre
- 3D Artists
- Dave Hempstead, Adame Boutrif, Kieran Russell, Sarah Hiley
- 2D Artist
- Theajo Dharan, Ilia Mokhtareizadeh, Richard Roberts, Georgie Ford
- Matte Painting
- Lyndall Spagnoletti, Kirsty Cutler
- Red Room and Bullet Animation
- The Mill
- Creative Lead
- Matt Fuller
- Producer
- Mariah Gill-Erhart
- FX artist
- Aryan Sachdeva
- Slit Scan and Three Head Comp 2D Artist
- Slavko Gavric
- Blue Room VFX and Online Conform Lead
- Zee
- Gameplay footage
- Azul Damadian
Agent
- Director's Representation
- H
Commission
- Commissioner
- Quinn Titsworth
- Commissioner
- Kris Declan
- Commissioner
- Studio Island
Misc
- Director's Assistant
- Otto Saner
- VFX Producer
- Chloe Ensor
Rob Ulitski - 18th Jan 2024