Victoria+Jean - Why Won't You

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CREDITS

Music video / videoart – 3’10 min
Genre : Alternative rock
Technique : Stop motion (8 500 photos) / video
Client : Victoria + Jean (SE)
Director : Christophe Thockler (shooting – editing – photography – post production)
Music : Why Won’t You, extract from the album Divine Love, composed by Victoria+Jean (Stockholm – SE)
Details : 8 500 photos, 400 printed photos burning, 10 liters of gasoline, 1kg of powder.

I previously worked on a project involving ice melting, the video Cusp for Mimi Goese & Ben Neill, and since that day, I had been thinking about creating a stop motion video only with fire, sparkles, flames, smoke and explosions.
When Victoria and Jean asked me to choose a track to work on, Why Won’t Youseemed appropriate, fire immediately came back to mind. This piece of music was a perfect playground for me to play with rhythm, stop motion fast paced sequences, onirism and symbolism.

This can be seen as a metaphorically sensual piece of work. If you pay close attention to details (spherical elements, flames dancing, getting closer and mixing, bursts of fire, sparkles exploding in tunnels…) and to how the video is semiotically constructed, like a climax with epiphany moments, it should become a bit obvious. Shooting this video alone was quite an artistic challenge, but a very playful one.