Case study

Firekites are a local Newcastle band and old friends of Headjam's, who have achieved international status. They asked Headjam to create a film clip for their album's title track 'Closing Forever Sky'. Read Hide the full case study

Background

Firekites are a Newcastle based band that have achieved international status. Rarely gifting us with live performances, Firekites perfect their sound after many intensive months in the studio. After the success of their first album ‘The Bowery’, Firekites took a 6 year hiatus from the limelight to work on their second album, and in August 2015, they released their equally successful second album ‘Closing Forever Sky’. Headjam has been a longstanding friend of Firekites and were very excited to be asked to create a film clip for the title track ‘Closing Forever Sky’.

Objective

To create an emotive video which takes the audience on a journey that visually represents the mood and mesmerising, melodic and ethereal sounds of the track.

Target Audience

The Firekites' fans and those that love animation or are interested in the creative process.

Consumer Proposition

Life’s a journey.

Desired Consumer Response

'I'm moved by this music video. I want to buy the album to hear more'.

Creative Solution

Headjam considered Firekites’ ethereal and moody brand personality along with their broad spectrum of fans, to produce a piece of motion graphic art that was both beautiful and timeless, with vivid colours and completely mesmerising characters that provided a constant and flowing motion of the animal-like creatures. Inspiration for these creatures was taken from Theo Jansen’s concept of a Strandbeest; combining both art and engineering, moving methodically by the power of wind. The concept of the video was to follow a day in the life of the wind powered creatures, traipsing through flooded stormwaters from the night before, to the sweltering desert heats in the day and into the relief of the cooler air and beautiful sunsets of the early evening, and finally into the dark and moody night.

The video took over 700 hours across 6 months to produce. The standard of the final video is a testament to the Headjam animation team and a great representation of the skills all of our team possess. The Strandbeest creatures were 100% animated, created from scratch and engineered to perfection in Autodesk Maya. The video is 90% animation, both 3d and 2d, with the occasional scene added in that is real life filmed content - see if you can tell which is which!

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