What is the film about?

The basic tracking for “Holly Rock” took place at Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles at the end of April 1985 – the very same week that Prince also recorded “Kiss” for his own Parade album.

“Holly Rock” was recorded for inclusion on the original soundtrack for the 1985 movie Krush Groove. While Prince gave Sheila E. sole writing and producer credit, he actually produced the track himself and co-wrote it with Sheila. Though not a hit at the time, the electrifying full six and half-minute version has become a firm fan favourite due to the scarcity of copies of the soundtrack.

Prince’s rendition of “Holly Rock” is one of the 15 tracks on the new album Originals, a collection of Prince’s versions of the hit songs he gave to other artists. Out now on Warner Records, Originals also includes Prince’s original performances of “Jungle Love,” “The Glamorous Life,” “Sex Shooter,” and more.

Together with archival footage from his vault — which captures Prince rehearsing with his band, The Revolution, for their massive Purple Rain Tour — these recordings provide a rare window into Prince’s creative process in this wildly productive era.

What influenced it?

Our main source of visual inspiration and reference was Prince’s style, fashion and body of work from the relevant era (the track is from 1985). We were aiming to keep things as authentic as possible.

There is a Prince comic book ‘Alter Ego’ by Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan from 1991, which the Prince Estate cited as a possible stylistic reference. This was the inspiration for the use of comic-book style elements in the video.

The 1985 hip hop movie ‘Krush Groove’ which featured the Sheila E. version of ‘Holly Rock’ was also an inspiration.

A little background information...

The video was commissioned by The Prince Estate and Warner Records.

How was the film made?

The video needed to feel exciting and fun, so I opted for quick cuts and a punchy colour scheme to compliment the energy of the track.

I wanted to create something that would feel unmistakeably 80s and in keeping with Prince’s style of the era, but with a modern edge.

Prince’s character was the first hurdle in terms of the design, I strived to find the right balance of stylisation and likeness.

We used a range of different 2D animation software; much of the animation was drawn traditionally frame-by-frame in TVPaint. I worked with an amazing team of animators; Nicolette van Gendt, Duncan Gist, Reg Isaac and Andrea Simonti. Sharon Liu was art director, she developed the backgrounds and colour scheme of the video. It was produced by Mike Downs at Electric Light Studios.

We also made use of Prince’s actual handwriting; The Prince Estate provided a hi-res scan of his original handwritten song lyrics which I used in the ‘Krush Groove’-inspired graffiti sections.