New music video ‘Welder’ from Roos Mattaar & My Octopus Mind released online
RTS award-winning modelmaker and animation director Roos Mattaar has today launched her latest project, a stop-motion music video for Bristol-based experimental rock band My Octopus Mind. The song Welder, which lyrically represents “a conversation between a welder and mother Earth, reflecting on society’s rampant consumption of resources and man’s desire to dominate regardless of content”, is Roos’s first music video as director, having previously worked on videos for Sparks and Father John Misty. Other prior industry work includes TV series, commercial work and feature films such as Early Man and Isle of Dogs.
A manic metal inventor who lives on a small desolate planet is welding together his new creation. Whilst taking off into space to conquer new heights, mother Earth isn’t happy with the path of destruction he leaves behind…
The video combines traditional puppet animation and live action practical effects with digital compositing in After Effects. For the space environment a 3d digital space was created from practically-shot components, using animation, live action footage and still photographs to create the stars, textures and fire/smoke effects.
When I first heard the song I really loved the energy and rhythm and was excited about the initial ideas the band’s lead singer Liam O’Connell was proposing for the video. After first discussions I worked on my vision for the storyline and aesthetics. I wanted to capture the relationship between the two main characters of the Welder and Mother Earth and saw a lot of potential to experiment with different materials and methods to create something ambitious. I wanted the Welder’s world to look quite rough and textured. The first thing I started off with was rummaging through piles of junk metal and old armature parts to create the welder character and build up his workshop space. I had an image in mind, but didn’t design much in advance so I could let what I found lead to the final aesthetics.
The stars in the space environment are all still pictures of welding sparks. For the angle grinding I filmed myself angle grinding in the dark. I really liked the idea of building this world and universe out of the same elements the Welder is using for his creations, and which in turn I was using to create the welder character…
–Roos Mattaar, director
Learn more about the work of Roos Mattaar in our recent director interview