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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

Tags

  • Director's notes
  • Pick of the Day
  • VFX
  • UKMVAs 2024 nominee
  • Rap
  • Hip Hop
  • Drill
  • Videogame

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Credits

Production/Creative

Director
Felix Brady
Producer
Theo Hue Williams
Production Company
Executive Producer
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
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

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

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