"One of our favourite Icelandic bands, Just Another Snake Cult, just released the best Icelandic music video of 2015 so far... Directed by Þórir himself, the whole thing is is a treat to take in, awash with VHS textures and vibrant colours, channelling a blend of 60s psychedelia and 80s sci-fi aesthetics. " -The Reykjavík Grapevine
Role: Nearly everything from conception to execution -- including building the video studio; casting and costumes; shooting most of the footage; editing; digital and analog special effects; animation and motion graphics; as well as writing, performing, recording, producing, mixing, and mastering the music.
The video first premiered on Jajaja Music.
From the moment I recorded the first early draft of this song, I had an idea of wanting to capture the energy and atmosphere in a companion music video. Since the song is this psychedelic pop thing with BBC Radiophonic Workshop inspired synth lines, and cosmic existential themes, I wanted to couple it with complimentary visual equivalents — psychedelia, science fiction, and early experimental analog video art. One big visual inspiration was the 1981 BBC miniseries ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ -- it’s been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. It’s beautiful, and the motion graphics are really distinctive.
From the outset I wanted to try to accomplish as many effects as I could through physical means. I really buy into the arguments for using practical effects over CGI, as well as being really inspired by the methods used with the Scanimate machines and other early analog video effects. So the 3D grid is actually a 2D grid that I filmed handheld at an angle, so you get this subtle physical richness to it that wouldn’t be there if I’d done it solely digitally. The asteroids are lava rocks that I spent an afternoon dangling in front of my green screen. Much of the ambient glow is from filming the footage off of a CRT monitor that’s flaring the lens. Things like that.
That’s another thing I really like about analog video — that there is an added vibrancy and richness to it. It’s much more alive and dynamic, partially because you have your hands on the levers and knobs and can react to what you’re seeing in real-time, and partially because of unevenness in the signals. It’s very organic. It comes to life. Whereas with digital you typically get something flat and even and stiff.
From conception to completion was quite a journey. After I'd sketched out my ideas in a notebook, I started to piece together everything I would need. I built a decent green screen studio against an unused wall at my rehearsal space. I sewed the cloaks out of old curtain material and made the tragicomedy masks out of paper mache.
Created this conceptual still to get a sense of the look before going ahead and working on the video compositing.
Still from the final composited video scene, based on the photoshop mock-up.
Shooting the footage and doing all the effects was a really experimental process -- I played around, trying coming up with different looks. Compositing took a long time as well. I’d maybe spend an entire day making some small background element of a scene that in the end only shows up for a couple seconds, and probably nobody notices.
I also visited New York to process the footage through analog video equipment at my friend Jamie Burkart’s WBLT Studios. I spent an entire week doing that, trying different things every day. Jamie’s a big inspiration for me, so it was great to have him show me.
All in all by the end I had over 750gb of footage, which took a lot of time to sort and edit down. It made me wish I’d written a longer song since I had to cut out so much great footage, and a lot of the cuts are so rushed you don’t really get to savor how beautiful it is. But better too much than too little!
