What a glorious train ride through your mind. How did the narrative come about and can you explain it please – or is it a surreal journey and down to the viewer’s own interpretation?

The song “Dig Your Own Hole “ is a very catchy, multi-layered pop song, yet the lyrics suggest a darker tone with a more complex reading. My idea for the video revolved around the interpretation of one’s own psychological struggle against the problematic scenarios we create for ourselves.

After multiple listens, we had a conversation with Wally (Gotye) and he revealed that the lyrics were written with personal reasons in mind. Creatively, we decided to focus the tone of the treatment on creating something more cinematic, dark and moody. When I began designing the overall style and narrative for the video it was a challenge to find a suitable visual language that spoke to both his lyrical intent and my artistic sensibility.

It was also important to marry the visuals with Wally’s lyrical hooks and to create synchronicity with the rhythm and beat throughout the song. I decided to use the visual metaphor of a train travelling in an empty, uninhabited landscape to reference someone’s internal state of mind. A train only travels where the track is laid and always ends up back on the same route. I thought this would bring out the feeling of self sabotage — a psychological, unproductive routine we create for ourselves, over and over again. Visually speaking, the movement of the train also seems to work well to the pacing and rhythm of the song.

How did your collaborative relationship come about with Goyte? Had he seen your earlier work and was there anything in particular he referenced or were you given creative freedom?

Wally aka Goyte and I had multiple conversations about the song. He had some concrete ideas about the look and feel of the piece, specifically; he wanted to create something that felt handmade with a dark tone and mood. Other than that premise he really left all creative choices up to me, it was a great working dynamic and I was really pleased to be trusted to make creative decisions.

Did you work in a linear way, from beginning to end, on Dig Your Own Hole?

I didn’t work in an entirely linear way – say start to finish. Firstly, I created a rough animatic for the video focusing in on hooks and rhythms of the song. At that point a lot of the visual style had not been determined. We would work from that animatic and fill in from that rough outline.

And what were the major challenges of the production and how did you resolve them?

One of the most difficult challenges was to seamlessly integrate the world of 3D CGI and flash cell animation together. The technical challenge of making sure each element retains its hand-made and painterly quality was an important “must” for both Wally and myself. We felt this visual styling was really important to the piece. After the cell animators completed their vector-based animation, we would go back and redraw every frame, adding texture and colour on top of each drawing. It was a very labour intensive and time consuming process.

Additionally the finished piece would also be projected behind the band while they played live during a concert, therefore, the other challenge involved was making sure each beat in the song was synchronized precisely to fit the visual hook.

Can you tell us please about your creative process, starting from the idea and how do you evolve that please? Do you sketch on paper first, jot words down or do you work straight onto the computer?

My creative process is very typical. I like to walk around my neighbourhood in the morning to mull over ideas for a specific project, just allowing ideas to percolate naturally and without pressure. Once I have a general idea or sometimes I don’t, I start to draw, or rather doodle to let my mind go. I also do a lot of research online, gathering pertinent images and stylistic references that relate to the sensibility I have in mind. Lastly for me, using the computer is the last step to create artwork for the project.

Do you work to a disciplined time frame? Or once you have started a project do you disappear into that world and only see the light of day once it’s completed?

For this particular project, we had a pretty tight time frame from start to finish. A little bit over a month to finish the animation and visuals in time for Gotye’s tour. To be completely honest I am not very disciplined when it comes down to time management. It was very overwhelming trying to tackle a four and half minute long animation with limited time and resources. To compensate for this we applied an overall rough animation throughout the piece and refined each shot as we went.

When you left Hong Kong for the States as a teenager was it to study art or did you immigrate with your family? Two completely different cultures, do you feel torn between them or is a comfortable fit to be part of Eastern and Western cultures? And how does this impact on your work?

Yes, I do think my work is influenced by my Chinese upbringing, both consciously and subconsciously. Hong Kong is a giant melting pot of cultures and histories that makes it a very special place. We borrow a lot of pop culture from our Japanese neighbours and the Brits colonized us until 1997. Recently I’ve been working on more personal works that reflect my experiences growing up in Hong Kong and my position as an immigrant; I’m fascinated by Chinese mythology, rituals and symbolism.

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Saiman Chow