Bristol, UK-based animation studio Aardman has turned out a music video for Coldplay’s album track, “Daddy.” The film Aardman has created for the track is an atmospheric journey through a girl’s fragmented memory about her father. Directed by Aardman’s Asa Lucander, it uses live action puppetry, digitally painted sets and 2D animation to create a tapestry of styles that symbolizes the girl’s memories of her dad.
Lucander said, “The first time I listened to the track it spoke to me on a deep level. I immediately started to imagine storylines and images formed in my mind’s eye. When this happens, you know you’re on to something very special. I’m often drawn to emotional stories and I knew very quickly that this was one I wanted to tell.”
“’Daddy’ isn’t a single in the traditional sense,” said Phil Harvey, Coldplay’s Creative Director, “but we always wanted to make a video for it as the song feels like a story within itself. ร sa and her team have done an incredible job in bringing the story to life.”
The full length, five-minute video follows a girl lost at sea, alone in a rowing boat and sailing towards the unknown. The turbulent sea is echoing glimpses of her past with her dad, and the sea and skyscape becoming the emotive canvas projecting the girl’s memories.
Lucander continued, “I wanted to capture the nature of dreams and memories–a sense of a fragmented, surreal imagination. It is an emotional journey, and I guess you could read it in many ways. The sea becomes a metaphor for what stands between the girl and her father. A threat, a sense of danger of the unknown and what she has lost.”
CreditsClient Coldplay Production Aardman Animations Asa Lucander, director, production designer; Rob Franklin, producer; Tamsin Clay Bee, production manager; Henry St. Leger, storyboard artist; Marc Moynihan, production designer, matte painter; Helen Javes, set design; Rachel Bennett, Sophie Marsh, set dressers; Thomas Sewell, carpenter; Simon Jacobs, DP; Andy Brunskill, Jimmy Grimes, Katie Williams, puppeteers (Puppets: Brunskill & Grimes); Timon Dowdeswell, effects animator; Henrique Barone, 2D animator; Bram Ttwheam, comp supervisor & colorist; Andre Brandt, Chuen Tsang, Vlad Iliescu, Mark Pinheiro, Jordanne Richards, Jake Short, Chris Hawkes, Doris Rastinger, compositors; Will Davies, track lay and sound mix; Dan Williamson, editor.
Director Gia Coppola Teams With Mejuri For “A New York Minute”; 1st Episode Takes Us To The Grocery Store
Mejuri, known for turning fine jewelry into an everyday luxury, has partnered with director Gia Coppola (The Last Show Girl, Palo Alto) and The Directors Bureau in Los Angeles, for the first time reimagining the brandโs story as episodic content. In a series of microfilms, co-created by Coppola and premiering following New York Fashion Week, Mejuri eschewed a typical celebrity campaign and cast us as voyeurs to a group of aspiring young women--real people, not actors--at the crossroads of their adult lives against the backdrop of New York City.
Titled โA New York Minute,โ the series features five real-life friends, who include one perfectly imperfect heroine named Emma. The women celebrate ordinary moments and interactions which reveal, sometimes retrospectively, the extraordinary within the mundane. Adjacent to the brandโs own community, the 30-something year old cast includes Laura Love (Emma), Rebecca Ressler, Natalie Vall-Freed and Rozzi Crane. Mejuriโs jewelry makes an appearance as the best supporting actor.
โWhen I met with Gia and The Directors Bureau team, there was instant creative and personal chemistry and a natural alignment on the desire to push and blur the lines between marketing, storytelling, and the construct of what a โcampaignโ could be,โ said Jacob Jordan, chief brand officer, Mejuri. โGia was able to push that idea into something that truly feels new and artful, with a realism and relatability that almost feels jarring. Gia was such a perfect collaborator and partner, someone I had complete trust in to be a catalyst for Mejuriโs values of celebrating women as their truest selves. I canโt wait for us to continue to tell the next chapters of this story.โ
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