What was behind your decision to create a psychedelic war zone for Parisian electronic artist Azel Phara’s promo Green rather than a happy clappy zip along narrative?

We initially wanted to create a film about a chase of some sort and, after listening to the track,thought it would be interesting to push this idea forward, creating an action sequence between nature, human kind and war machines.

We also wanted to create something with contrast, leading us to develop a happy, bright colour palette, which contrasts with the virile and violent actions.

The action flows in a compelling natural way – how did you go about getting the realistic live action feeling?

The camera moves were developed in a live action style , taking inspiration sometimes from classic action films.

By reducing the number of shots we created, we managed to free ourselves up to edit together rich and intense action sequences.

Have you discovered a new software kit in the Mill’s toolbox or did you work with a regular favourite program?

The project was completed within Maya and Nuke. Some initial tests were carried out using camera projection mapping for the graphical representation of the forest, however the more we experimented the more able we were to develop our own methodology in order to create the colour tone of the particle clouds.

What is your creative process as a directing / creative duo? Do you work simultaneously together on ideas and creating the project or do you have different strengths and allow the other to lead the way at certain points?

We’ve known each other for more than 15 years now, so it’s very easy to communicate and exchange on design and direction ideas. We share the same love for graphic design, architecture and directing. Our working style is pretty hands on, and knowing each other for years has helped us when organising ourselves to generate work quickly, even with a team of just two of us.

How long did the project take to complete? Were there any major challenges or was it a straightforward production?

We worked on the film for for six weeks in total. The main challenge was to find the right treatment and narrative to make everything fit together as one coherent piece of work.

List five inspirations that have connected with you recently:

Xavier Chassaing’s short film Dry Lights
Semi Permanent’s titles by Raoul Marks
Jamie XX’s album In Colour
Concrete: Taschen
Maylis de Kerangal’s Fixing The Living

Representation: Mill+