A city is struck down with an unexplained sleeping sickness until a mysterious force emerges from the trees to revive them in Alan Masferrer’s promo for new Maps track A.M.A.. Commissioned by John Moule (who was awarded as best commissioner at UKMVA 2012), Masferrer discovered that James Chapman (Maps) had a very specific idea as to his desired narrative tone for the promo:
“In the briefing James insisted on the idea of something changing for the better, because that was his feeling about the new album Vicissitude. The lyrics of A.M.A. in particular were really open to interpretation, so I tried to work within these two parameters, planning some dark and ambiguous scenes and characters that become brighter. I wanted to give the pictures a very specific vibe in order to strengthen the ambiguous lyrics of the song, so we focussed on the locations, lighting, camera movements, props and the look of the characters in order to create a mix of beauty and strangeness.”
A.M.A. was shot over three days in June by Alex Font of filmmaking collective Sunday, on a Red Epic sporting Carl Zeiss standard prime lenses, close to Masferrer’s home near Barcelona. With art direction provided by Bernat Pascual, VFX from Roberto Garcia and Iksvy and colour grading from Xavi Santolaya.
