Dan French Unearths Mesmerising Space Rave in Animated Music Video

"At first, it was fairly daunting to approach a music video without any ability to shoot. As a director, it's a bit of a weird feeling and so instead of being sat listening to the track with my eyes closed and trying to visualise how the video would look, I spent the pitch time scrolling through stock footage sites trying to get some kind of idea. Stumbling across the space footage was basically an accident but I immediately knew that was where I wanted to take it, developing a narrative around this footage. Stock only has so much flexibility however and I knew that eventually, we'd somehow need to take control in another way, this is where the idea for animation came along."

"The animation would allow for the creation of the world they're travelling to as this was where the stock tended to dry up. The camera footage from inside the rocket as you can imagine wasn't great back in the sixties so having the freedom of the animation was solving this issue too. I've never done any kind of animation before so this was a real learning curve but an enjoyable one. I worked with Jossie the animator to storyboard ideas and develop the concept before finalising the designs then animating. It was such a fulfilling process working backwards almost, by seeing what stock was available and then crafting the narrative from there. Then the animation was the polar opposite, no limits apart from time and so it was really interesting working within these limits. Hopefully, in a time where we all feel a little trapped, this video can provide a little escape into another reality for a moment.’