Responses by Moth Studio

Background: Island Records and artist Sigrid approached us with the idea of creating a music video that dealt with heartache in an unconventional way. Since we are dealing with a universal theme like heartbreak, we hope our video has a broad reach and will appeal to people of many age groups.

Reasoning: To contrast the sweet and sensitive nature of the song, we came up with the concept of a bold and frantic landscape that would allow us to explore the experience of heartbreak through a series of bodily reactions. In this world, memories can inhabit organs like the gut, heart, veins and ears. Using the range of colors associated with Sigrid’s bright aesthetic, we created “different worlds” for each organ, employing various animation techniques and software to give that part of the body its own look and feel.

Challenges: At the beginning, there was some difficulty following what was going to be happening in each sequence, due to the abstract nature of each of the organs. We eventually decided that we needed to be a little more generous to our audience and clarify where we are inside the body by cutting to external shots throughout the film and by color-coding each organ of the body.

Favorite details: With the video it was a number of firsts: first music video, first abstract narrative rather than figurative and first time trying to marry so many techniques together. We’re most proud of going out of a limb and trying something new for us.

Time constraints: We benefited from the client being flexible with our ambitions. What originally started as a six-week project eventually turned into a nine-week odyssey. In this rare instance, time didn’t constrain us, but if it had, we would have had to change our approach to many of the segments. We both agreed that the extra care and attention would go a long way into making this a profile piece of work.

Alternative approach: We would be more honest with ourselves about how much this time can eat into a project and set ourselves with more realistic deadlines. Expectation management for all is a good thing!

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