The music video is intriguing, what is the concept behind it and how did it evolve?
The band wanted the story and look to be creepy and dark, so I focused on conveying a mood and a feeling rather than telling a “proper” story. The lyrics speak of painful memories, and what stood out for me was that notion of incessant pain that slowly builds up.
So we did something very visceral, but without resorting to gore. I honestly never was much of a horror-film fan.
Like your impressive piece for Amon Tobin, (see Related Content) which won at YDA last year, this video is also a weave of hitchcock-esque live action and slick cgi. Are you happiest working with this mix? And which part of the process do you enjoy most?
Coming from animation, it’s pretty natural for me to add special effects or animation to whatever I do. But I’m moving more and more towards live-action. There’s still nothing that beats being on a set! But I doubt that animation would completely disappear from my work, it might become less apparent, but it’s definitely part of my toolkit.
In my opinion, the story will mostly dictate what techniques can be used, not the other way around.
If the effect works with Baxters filled with cream instead of cg fluid simulations, I’ll always try and go for the real thing. Within reason of course.
What were the main challenges of the production?
The main challenge before production was to think of narrative small scenes that were not overly clichéd.
When you treat how the external world perceives other people’s pain and grief, it can really easily slip into something blatant and condescending.
During production, the bigger issue was; what are all those effects going to look like? I had some ideas beforehand, but a lot was done on the fly. So, due to time constraints, we had our R&D phase during production. There was definitely the will to make this our very own computer graphics chemistry-set, and try stuff out until it looked like something we hadn’t seen before. The whole video was also a homage to animation in general with the human walk cycle at its center.
What are your plans for the following year?
I’m looking forward to directing more music videos, which are my first love, but also to delve into the world of commercials.
Some of my representation will change soon; Remember was produced by monodot in Brussels.
They will be launching a new label very soon that will also represent me.
Raveyards, Remember
Director: Charles De Meyer
Main character: Samuel Lefeuvre
Production company: monodot (www.monodot.be)
Executive producer: Tatiana Pierre
Dir Rep: Bruno Dejonghe
First AD: Peter Ghesquiere
2nd AD: Soraya Verbeke
Prod manager: Charlotte Cotman
Prod ass: Isabelle De Vos, Bram Sterckx
DOP: Manu Alberts
Focus Puller: Benjamin Morel
Data Manager: Carine Canniere
Data Manager Assist: Filip Vandoorne
Art Department: Nicolas Vander Biest
Styling: Nathalie Wynants
Styling (not on set): Vanessa Evrard
Make-Up: Esther Wauters
Location Manager: Mika Rosemon
Chief Electro: Juan C. F. Salines
Electro: Denis Antheunissens, Christophe Beauprez, Loïc Augurelle, Youri Zemour, Roberto Gomez, Jeremy Tondeur
Editor: Koen Timmerman/Charles De Meyer
Postprod: Chuck Eklectric - Charles De Meyer, Benjamin Mousquet, Mathieu Cadet, Cristophe Lebrun
AMON TOBIN, ESTHER’S
Writer, director, editor: Charles De Meyer
Production company: Chuck Eklectric / Poodlesonspeed
Producer: Charles De Meyer
Line – producer: Johnny de Jaegher
1st assistant director: Michael Geuns
Production assistant: Joris Rabijns
Art direction: Charles De Meyer
Illustrators: Ronan Lefur , Joeri Steegen
Cinematographer: Michel Dierickx
First assistant camera: Björn Charpentier
Digital imaging technicians: Filip Vandoorne , Carine Cannière
Key grip: Sebastiaan Beysen
Make-up artist: Eric Hachman
VISUAL EFFECTS
Animatronics: Sébastien Boucherit
cg modelers: Laurent Talbot, Manu Talbot, Christophe Lebrun, Charles De Meyer
Additional modeling: Benjamin Mousquet
cg layout: Olivier Sipesaque
Rigging: Charles De Meyer
Additional rigging: Benjamin Mousquet
Animation director: Charles De Meyer
Lead animators: Benjamin Mousquet, Charles De Meyer
Additional animation: Guillaume Roux
Decals, textures,
shading, lighting: Charles De Meyer
hdr photography: Olivier Sipesaque, Christophe Lebrun
Special effects: Jérôme Escobar
Compositing: Charles De Meyer, Matthieu Cadet
Colour grading: Charles De Meyer
Mastering: Benoît Mannequin
Foley artist: François De Meyer