Is This A Dream?
Badly Drawn Boy - music video - Kobalt Music
TITLE: Is This A Dream?
ROLE: Direction, Design, and Animation
ARTIST: Badly Drawn Boy
CLIENT: Kolbalt Music
Description:
Kobalt Music reached out to us for a pitch concerning a music video for the Mercury Award-winning artist 'Badly Drawn Boy'. The track in question, 'Is This A Dream?', is best explained by Damon himself: "The song embodies a chaotic and bewildering collage of sounds, mirroring the absurdity of our present times," he shared. "It's a deliberately cartoonish, satirical jab at those we rely on for trust, who instead inundate us with misinformation and consequent poor choices."
“Badly Drawn Boy, the English singer-songwriter just came out with a colourful new video to coincide with “Is This a Dream?” which is a brilliant tribute to where we are at in society today. Throughout the video, there are symbolic translations of Facebook likes and hearts falling from the sky to remind us that we are chasing after validation. At one point, there is a visual in the video that has the same logo as Facebook but it says Bragbook instead.”
Kelly Tucker MXDWN.COM
PROCESS
In our approach, we carefully deconstructed the song's lyrics to devise a visual representation. Our goal was to authentically capture relevant cultural and political themes interwoven within the music.
We aspired to fashion an animated collage mirroring Damon’s montage of sound, blending an array of styles and mediums seamlessly. Our idea was to blend different art styles and methods, like illustrations, photos, videos, 3D graphics, and animation.
Within the video, we wanted to tackle subjects head-on and draw attention to things like climate change, the overwhelming presence of social media, fake news, and some of the important political events of that time.
PRESS
In the music video, directed by Broken Antler, Badly Drawn Boy’s words come to life in the magical world of animation. Imagine your biggest fears and favorite items brought to life after being cut out of magazines. Donald Trump, the Joker, and a melting planet earth in an ice cream cone are the tip of the graphic iceberg here in this hodgepodge collage. Along the way, Facebook likes and Twitter hearts are sprinkled over everything. After all, this is a surreal dream come to life.
Nina Corcoran Consequence Sounds