I am sat in a quaint and angular room in the brilliantly-named Perseverance Works on Hackney Road. What appears to be a awkward staircase has been converted into an office. For the last few years it has been the home to Blac Ionica, a small creative studio lead by three directors Tim Wetherall, Chris Strong and Jon Evans.
The guys’ latest project is a dark and mysterious music video entitled ‘Celebration’ for Brighton-based band Black Black Hills in which we see a man discover something unexpected when out in the woods with his metal detector. Apart from anything they produced a very high quality film from a tiny budget, which is amazing.
“When we listened to the track the first thing that hit us was that it sounded really British,” Chris tells me. “We were instantly inspired to produce something that harks back to the gritty pagan style of British horror movies back in the late 60′s and 70′s.” The style is certainly reminiscent of such films as the original Wickerman or Witchfinder General, and you don’t get much more of a gritty British hobby than metal detecting.
But what’s really interesting about this project is just how different it is from Blac Ionica‘s previous work. “We’re directors at heart, not just animators”, Tim explains. “As clients are less willing to take risks these days, it’s easy to get pigeon-holed for a particular style and technique of film making, especially after the recession. So we were just keen to do something creative for ourselves. We set our own challenge: that this video needed to be cinematic and shot on location.
Their animation work has been highly acclaimed, and it’s clear that in recent years the studio have really nailed the cute, papery, stop-motion style with pieces such as their title sequence for Russell Howard’s Good News or adverts for Innocent Smoothies.
The new music video seems a stark contrast, but Chris immediately points out the similarity in workflow, pulling up a YouTube video of Steven Spielberg arguing that all directors should be animators first:
“There are a lot of crossovers from VFX and motion graphics to film: production schedules, organisation, understanding timing and conjuring styles. Nowadays you can do so much with CGI but as a viewer it’s clear there’s still value in doing things ‘in-camera’ rather than faking it.”
Blac Ionica experimented with both ends of the spectrum in this music video, both pushing to try new things with CGI and using the subtle art of cinematography. Shot on location using a Canon 7D with a steadicam rig and anamorphic prime lenses, they beautifully captured the natural light of Black Park Woods. Whilst they also used VFX software LightWave to create 3D smoke and fire adding supernatural energy to the rusty old mask.
It is always refreshing to see design agencies and directors take control of their output and set themselves new challenges. As a creative, the importance in finding the time to create something to cure one’s own curiosity can never be over-emphasised. Expect more cinematic offerings from these guys soon….
Credits:
Directors: Blac Ionica, Production Company: Blac Ionica , Story By: Blac Ionica , Producer: Blac Ionica, Director of Photography: Will Bex , Post Production: Editors: Alec Rossiter, Leanne Welham , Head of Production, MPC: Jonathan Davies Colourist/Grade: Steve Gatti @ MPC , Producer for MPC: Glen Purcevil , VFX: Blac Ionica, Additional VFX: Barnaby Hewlett , VFX Compositing: Barnaby Hewlett, Jamie Howlett, Kooch Chung , Sound Design: Blac Ionica