The last music video, or rather series of music videos, from electronic duo Sad Night Dynamite that we featured on DN was for their compilation Volume II, a series of bizarre and grain-dense videos that gave the musicians an uncanny visual edge. That look and feel is continued in their latest video Wake Up Pass Out, directed by filmmakers Balázs Simon (who joined us a few years ago with his animated Leifur James music video Wurlitzer) and Cátia Abreu. The concept this time around is centred on a social media-addicted individual who finds himself wandering through a nightclub and encountering a large, grotesque attention-seeking monster, portrayed by Sad Night Dynamite. To learn more about the making of Simon and Abreu’s video, and the creation of their freaky monstrosity, you can read our in-depth conversation with the filmmaking pair below, where they also reveal how their collaboration as a directing duo first began on this very project.
What was the process for you both coming on board for a video with Sad Night Dynamite?
Balázs Simon: I was thrilled to be approached by the band. They are such a creative, genre-bending duo, and I knew they wouldn’t shy away from pushing limits. We bonded over our mutual love for the iconic videos of The Prodigy, being very performative and obnoxious in the best ways. It’s always a breath of fresh air getting an opportunity that encourages risk-taking. Such was the case with Wake Up Pass Out for Sad Night Dynamite; a rare commission where the only rule was to let all self-imposed rules go. It sounded like a daring but exciting task, and taking the risk paid dividends, it led to us becoming a directing duo in the process.
What inspired the narrative of a character scrolling social media whilst facing off against this gigantic, strange monster?
BS: The big inspiration was the band’s critical view of the online space. They present their ideas with sardonic honesty; they’re aware of being a part of the problem, actually playing the villains. It wasn’t hard to connect with the lyrics as I myself grew a disdain for social media. I had enough of it relentlessly seeking attention but projecting a distorted view, leaving me wanting more but making me empty. We wanted to reflect on those ideas, creating the embodiment of those feelings: the rush, the excitement, the shock, the fun and the lack of sense.
A rare commission where the only rule was to let all self-imposed rules go. . It sounded like a daring but exciting task, and taking the risk paid dividends.
So instead of watching the guys perform on stage, we’re lured into the arse end of the nightclub, high on scrolling, and we encounter their distorted, monstrous versions with only one goal: to grab our attention and consume us. To really do justice to that concept, we decided to push it and create something that’s impossible to monetize. I shared the animatic with Josh Greacen, one half of SND, and the next day he replied, “My mum says that’s great, go for it!” And with that, the plan got officially signed off.
I had no idea this was the first time you had collaborated with Cátia. How did that partnership form?
BS: I met Cátia while prepping the shoot. We started chatting about the creative challenges, from film tempo and camera moves to how to approach each scene. It didn’t take long to recognize that she has a phenomenal eye for these things, so I immediately wanted to team up! From that point on we made all creative calls together which made the production a blast. I was blessed: I’m no stranger to doing my own effects, but once you’re in the weeds it’s easy to get obsessed with details and lose sight of the actual film. Suddenly I felt my brain got extended, I could get lost in saliva simulations knowing everything else would still be in safe hands.
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Cátia, how have you found creatively collaborating with Balázs?
Cátia Abreu: Our creative relationship has developed in a very much organic manner. Even though joining forces on this music video wasn’t something any of us had originally planned, our casual discussions about the concept, as well as its execution inadvertently led us to find something quite unique: a creative dynamic between two voices that understood, challenged, energised, and complemented each other in ways that neither of us had ever before experienced. Little did we know that it was just the beginning of something greater, but when you come across this kind of synergy it’s hard to let go, and we sure didn’t! Also, let me be completely honest and confess that, well… I found the track highly addictive too, so… it was hard to stop the show!
When you come across this kind of synergy it’s hard to let go, and we sure didn’t!
It was an ambitious project with countless techniques involved, from the live-action shoot to 3D scanning the guys, motion-capturing their performances, detailed prosthetics, a CGI monster, and photoscanning the streets of London, to name a few. What could go wrong? On music video budgets that is a lot, so we had to be extra creative with our solutions.
How did you find all the dingy locations needed for the shoot?
BS: I’m super proud of the team, everyone gave their all and more. During our recces we visited quite a few dubiously-cleaned nightclub bathrooms. The space we needed under and over the cubicle door was quite specific, and Rowan King, our producer, said there was only one way to find out which loo was the best, and he went handstand in all of them! Even though you can thoroughly clean these spaces, the smell won’t just go away in a day, something we had to enjoy with the full live action team. The bandmates showed incredible commitment too, being glued together in the prosthetic body suit for several hours.
Wake Up Pass Out has such a brilliantly icky, saturated look to it, how much of that was rendered on set?
BS: Lighting was a particularly difficult challenge to figure out. We wanted to have a murky, slightly surreal feel to it. Pete Bishop, our DOP, started with a main pool of light and some practicals, but then a lot of it was broken up by mirroring. This technique came in handy because of the incredibly tight spaces. All of that had to be digitally recreated too, and after much consideration we opted for Unreal Engine. The tightness of the environment meant there wasn’t much wiggle room with lighting. Even if you don’t see a wall in shot, you still feel its closeness, something that is very hard to fake. On top of that, we had a quickly moving monster, tentacles flying everywhere, causing all sorts of unwanted shadows. We needed the option to iterate on lighting as much as we could, so we went with the fastest rendering solution possible.
When your first thought is how on earth are we going to do it, you know you’re in for something creative that will get you to new places, and people love problem-solving.
The monster is such a bizarre, grotesque beast. How did you create it?
BS: Designing the monster had its challenges. We had many sketches made, constantly coordinating with the prosthetics artist, stylist, riggers and 3D animators, making sure we’d find a solution that was doable. We constantly had to react to each other’s progress; it was lovely to see so many departments working together! We captured facial movements with an iPad into Unreal. It wasn’t 100% perfect but all the tools were readily available and it proved to be an immense head start, especially knowing most of our shots would be hand-held and blurry. We also created our own scripts that helped us move keyframe data back and forth between Unreal Engine and Maya, a nifty tool that let us lasso-select body parts that we wanted to be simulated, without the rest of the body slowing down calculations, we hacked two heads on one body and so on; loads of little tools that made our lives easier and the film actually doable.
It seems like so much was prepared and captured on set. What was altered in post-production?
CA: Alex Gregory’s grade and Aaron Bentley’s sound design are a real testament to how crucial such aspects of post-production truly are. Our goal was no small feat: to blend the real and the bizarre into one very immersive experience; we wanted viewers to find themselves in this strange realm without the risk of ever breaking their suspension of disbelief. For Alex, the challenge rested on ensuring a seamless transition across all environments, despite working off of a myriad of image sources with wildly different looks. For Aaron, the intricate task at hand was balancing the natural with the otherworldly, whilst ensuring that a holistic interplay between the soundscape and the track was maintained. Despite all obstacles, they both made it their mission to accurately translate into colour and sound our fragmented descriptions of a world that was, at the time, only fully realised in our minds; they couldn’t have done it more beautifully… Without their immense talent and relentless dedication our film would simply be incomplete.
We wanted viewers to find themselves in this strange realm without the risk of ever breaking their suspension of disbelief.
BS: My main takeaway is that every now and then it’s absolutely worth it to choose techniques and narratives less on the safe side. When your first thought is how on earth are we going to do it, you know you’re in for something creative that will get you to new places, and people love problem-solving. We love to stick together and help each other out and learn. Tricky situations make teams. I made more friends while making this than during any other project, and I couldn’t be more excited and inspired by our freshly formed directors duo. With Cátia, we’re just getting started.
What are you both working on now as newly forged collaborators?
BS: We’ve started developing a miniseries together which we’re super excited about! It will be an animated one, exploring some philosophical ideas in a fun way. Tonally completely different from this music video, but that freedom of exploration is exactly what we love about short form.
