Earth is under attack and only a long-suffering pub barman - who happens to look different from everyone else - can save us, in James Ogram's terrific promo for South London indie-rock outfit Fat Dog. 

Ogram finds the sweet spot between satire and cartoon capers in the video for the band's rollicking anthem Earth Song, where a very tall, distinctive-looking alien (played by Peter Lidell) arrives for work in a London boozer, to face hostility and abuse by one of the punters. When the TV news channel reports on a UFO in the shape of giant dog hurtling towards Earth, other drinkers also pile in to blame him for the alien invasion. So he decides to act...

Cue a cool change of visual style to mixed media animated montage, when the alien barman goes to confront the Big Dog in a titanic clash among London skyscapers. Vibrant colours and cut-out textures collide in a King Kong v Godzilla-style fight montage, with painstaking animated elements assembled by animation director Evan Lawday.

Following his videos for Honeyglaze, including the UKMVA-nominated Don't, this is a big step up in scope and ambition by Ogram, and he rises to the challenge. The video is a pleasure from start to finish - to enjoy for fun and also absorb the underlying message.   

"When I first received the brief for this video from Fat Dog, there was one major question to answer: how do I make The Man Who Fell To Earth meet Godzilla on a music video budget?" says Ogram. "It was a little tough. But once I saw Peter (our alien) in make-up, I was confident we could make it work.

"We filmed Peter against greenscreen, getting him to do karate kicks, punches and all sorts of other bizarre things, so our animator, Evan Lawday, would have something to work with. Peter was a great sport and we managed to get a lot in about an hour.

"We then had to cram all this story into the remaining two minutes of the music video. We focused on hitting beats and not over-shooting. Spending our time on little looks between Peter and the supporting artists and somehow, I think it all worked out."