Moses Boyd - Stranger Than Fiction
Directors Jean-Philippe Blunt and Thom Humphreys from in/out shares their latest music video made for Moses Boyd
“The brief spoke of ‘hyper-musicality’. Outside of the obvious, this got us thinking about how might a sound ‘look’? What are our instruments, as filmmakers?
First though, we had to set the mood and feel of the piece. Moses wanted something ‘sinister and mystic’ and in line with the album’s themes we anonymised the performers in a shroud of light. The use of a reflective spray and a singular spotlight achieved this look; haloing the band in this intense glow. All captured in-camera.
Playing off this visual hook we then set about composing our own rhythm. The looping trajectories, the projected shapes and the strobing light source were all used to achieve that desired ‘musicality’. Plus, by tethering all the action to the track and dolly, we established a perpetual motion; mapping out the music as much as the space.
Under the guidance of DP Spike Morris we pushed the in-camera capabilities of film to visually sculpt the music, etching out the track’s propulsive production wherever possible. The materiality of film meant we could really hack the medium to bend and manipulate the images around the music. Having the necessary ingredients in the edit was important to build an arc that does justice to the track, whilst also being true to the in-camera imagery captured on the day.”
