Arctic Monkeys 'Crying Lightning'

In this latest music video for the Arctic Monkeys, directed by Richard Ayoade for Warp Films, we had the fantastic opportunity of designing the look and generating all of the environments for the entire promo.  The band were shot in a green screen studio, just them in a boat - not a drop of water or a sky in sight!

There were a number of challenges on this project, the first being to develop a stylised look that would work across the film, then to key and track all of the footage, then we needed to generate the assets and comp all of the environments. 

The look we went for was a mix between photo-real, Magritte inspired juxtaposition and Spencer Tracy's version of The Old Man and The Sea. The result is something quite extraordinary, dramatic and beautiful. VFX Supervisor Paul O'Brien attended the shoot and he also designed the different looks throughout the promo, creating the techniques with which to apply them. VFX Artists Darran Nicholson, Stephanie Mills and Chris Redding composited the shots in Flame, working tirelessly to push the look as far as possible in order to generate a stunning visual piece. The opening 50s-esque front title was designed and created by Sharon Lock and the film was graded in Spirit by colourist Simon Bourne, again enhancing our overall look and feel.The final result was considered such a success that it received an exclusive air play on Channel 4 on Friday 24th July.

The promo was produced at Framestore by Executive Producer Simon Whalley, and our production assistant was Magdalena Przezdziecka.