Impoverished War Machine

Overview:

Local musicians B.o.n.e. and Jdav wanted a music video to accompany their Sophomore album, “the Leftovers”. The concept was something that could create a narrative bridge from the end of their previous album “the Funnies” to the start of this one.

Concept:

B.o.n.e.’s initial concept featured Jdav parachuting off a volcano into a car during the intro, then transitioning to a ruined city. There, he would encounter the song’s producer Tom “Smully” Smulowitz, depicted as a puppet master pulling strings to control everything. While the final video ended up keeping many of these elements, I pitched some alterations that I felt keyed in on some of the broader motifs of the album, as well as making the project’s scope more viable for a single animator to produce.

First, I opted towards building the scenes as loopable segments. This would allow me to make the animated content stretch further to fill the track’s 4-minute runtime. To avoid any potential monotony that could come out of this, I included lyrics on screen. An added benefit to this choice was that it puts a greater emphasis on Jdav’s writing. Lastly, I pitched them on the idea adopting the aesthetic of an old 90’s era video game. A lot of the language B.o.n.e. used when talking about their initial idea invoked video game related imagery anyway. With segments being like levels in a game, and Smully playing the role of a final boss. So it seemed like a natural fit. The low fidelity would also help cut down on production lift and render times.

Production: