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Tears For Fears 'Songs From A Nervous Planet' by Maschima

Rob Ulitski - 11th Mar 2025

Creative collective Maschima direct an out-of-this-world epic for legendary outfit Tears For Fears' latest album. 

Consisting of four tracks from Songs From A Nervous Planet, the video follows an interconnected narrative exploring dreams, memories, space travel and the planet we inhabit. 

Across the four songs Maschina contrast the beauty of the natural Earthbound world - represented by a young woman in sun-dappled California, on a beach, among sunflowers, captured in warmly glowing film footage - with the crisp, VFX-fired wonder and beauty of space exploration.

In the third and fourth songs, the two elements come together: the Astronaut (the title of the second song) crashes back to Earth. Then the woman, her growing son and the wandering space traveller finally encounter each other.  

As a collective, Maschima encompass a range of visual skillsets, and they are on full display here. Spanning animation, live action, graphic design and more, it's a momentous achievement and a truly international effort. And the music is pretty damn great too: Tears For Fears' Roland Orzabal is still capable of writing big Beatles-esque pop tunes.

"We've all been fans of Tears For Fears since we were kids," explain Maschima. "This video series gave us the opportunity to craft a cinematic story that unfolded over four episodes - like creating a miniature TV show. Writing and building the narrative as we went, all while collaborating with an artist we deeply admire."

The directing team describe themselves as 'an international art collective' with a shifting membership and . 

"We have known each other for ages, working in secret, building worlds under countless names and aliases - for projects both mainstream and underground," they continue. "Individually, we direct, shoot, edit, paint, compose, sculpt, build, destroy, and rebuild. Together, we are a multi-limbed beast with many brains but one mind."

One of the members connected to Dilly Gent, working as creative director and commmissioner for Tears For Fears on the Songs From A Nervous Planet visuals.

"As longtime fans, we knew this was the perfect moment to finally come together - a filmmaking Voltron, fully assembled."

Rob Ulitski - 11th Mar 2025

Tags

  • Director's notes
  • New Directors
  • Special projects
  • Pop
  • Collective
  • Performance
  • Narrative
  • Space
  • Astronaut
  • Animation

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Credits

Featured here in the credits?

Production/Creative

Director
Maschima
Producer
Dilly Gent
Production Company

Camera

Director of Photography
Maschima
Focus Puller
Maschima

Casting

Lead actor
Renee Kester
Lead actor
Bodhi Martinez

Animation

Animation Director
Maschima

Editorial

Editor
Maschima

Grading

Colourist
Maschima

VFX

VFX
Maschima

Agent

Director's Representation
Dilly@sonandheir.com
Director's Representation
Faith@sonandheir.com

Commission

Commissioner
Dilly Gent
Label
Concord Records

Rob Ulitski - 11th Mar 2025

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