Boney Clem for Friendly Fires Jan 2009

Clemens Habicht got back to the bare bones of directing in his promo for Skeleton Boy, the latest single from super-cool post-punk electro rockers, Friendly Fires.

In this edgy, monochromatic music video the band were transformed into Skeleton Boys. By using a small confined black space, purpose built for them to play in and wearing special black suits so that only their faces were visible, an in-camera effect simulating stripped back motion capture was achieved with hundreds of polystyrene balls.

The effect was really satisfying to watch – as the track built, the balls took on different patterns to create the skeleton outline and then the pixel cloud progressively fills into a whole suit.  The combination of this and the performance of the track takes a simple idea and gives it a playful edge.

Clemens’ comments:  “Taking out all the excess information and concentrating on their movement through this pseudo motion control, meant we could focus on the performance dynamic of the band, especially lead singer Ed’s great dance moves.”

See more of Clemens Habicht’s work

See more music promos by Nexus’ directors