What is the film about?

The music video for ‘Rabbits’ by Advance Base (aka Owen Ashworth, formerly Casiotone For The Painfully Alone), from the album ‘Animal Companionship’.

What influenced it?

The ink and watercolour look of The Brothers McLeod film ‘Marfa’ was a big influence on the style of the video. I wanted something that felt loose and handmade and that really complimented the intimate quality of Owen’s music (although because of time and budget I had to create the look digitally).

I also find myself being influenced by graphic novels, so work by Charles Forsman, Dash Shaw and Aisha Franz all had a hand in influencing the somber black and white look. However, the biggest influence from the world of comics would have to be Charles M. Schulz and ‘Peanuts’. I couldn’t really make a film about the melancholy owner of an unruly but loving dog without a bit of Charlie Brown and Snoopy sneaking in there.

A little background information...

I contacted Owen from Advance Base after seeing him play in Brighton while on tour, to ask if he had any interest in making an animated music video, as I felt there that both our work has a kind of lofi, understated sadness or melancholy that could really compliment each other. I didn’t really expect anything to come of that email, but happily Owen was into the idea and his label, Run For Cover Records, was also onboard. We ended up making the video to coincide with the year anniversary of the album ‘Animal Companionship’.

How was the film made?

Owen’s songs are really driven by story and characters so it felt like the obvious choice to make this more like a narrative driven short film, rather than a visually driven music video. While I was using the lyrics as a guide for what happens on screen there are also some long instrumental sections which gave me space to flesh out the story a little bit, making the dog this quite chaotic but loving companion for Lily, the main character.

Technically, the video was made using Harmony to animate, and Photoshop for backgrounds and some colouring, and After Effects for compositing.