NEW YORK CITY - Reverse (www.thisisreverse.com) director Johan Stahl recently headed up production on a sci-fi-themed music video for the lead single off Kill Screen Music's new album, USTHEBROKENHOUSES. The band consists of Stahl, who sings and plays guitar, and Anton Eger, who plays the drums.
Stay Forever is an homage to classic ‘80s sci-fi films and music videos. The video tells the tale of a task force on a mission to retrieve a crystal that will save the planet. Amidst encounters with monsters, drones and supernatural events, a subtle love story unfolds, culminating in a tragic twist.
Locations in Stahl’s native Denmark were integral to creating the sci-fi world. For the cave shoot, his small production crew traveled to Mønsted Kalkgruber, Denmark’s largest limestone mine.
“The story is metaphorical on several levels,” remarks Stahl, who is represented by Reverse in the US and Mad Cow in the UK. “As a love story, what they're searching for breaks them apart. On the other hand, it’s an allegory for Mother Earth, as the subtext suggests that saving her sometimes feels unattainable, no matter how close we get.”
As the task force explores the inner caves of the mountain, the band's performance imagery occasionally appears in the form of weak video transmissions. The video's VFX and CG were created by Reniform, and include a giant, 16-tentacled monster, lasers, explosions and a motion graphics interface for a drone that's zeroing in on the Salvix Crystal.
“This music video is an homage to the cinematic techniques of the movies and music videos we loved growing up,” adds Stahl. “It was fun mashing up modern VFX techniques with analog and practical effects where possible to pay respect to the old way of doing things. Sergiu Negulici and Adriana Ionica from Reniform are super-skilled artists who truly brought the creep factor to render the monster exactly as I envisioned.”
Snorre Ruhe served as the project's cinematographer and Freddie Smith handled the edit. Jason Luke provided sound design and Hannibal Lang performed the color grade. The video was shot using an Arri Alexa 35 with Kowa lightweight anamorphic lenses. It was edited in Adobe Premiere Pro.