Donald wanted to do something with babies, referencing the striking & intimate visuals of the film Samsara. The slow & easy rolling track is a nice counterbalance to the lyrics & we all knew we wanted that contrast to carry through into the visuals as well. We went for soft natural lighting, almost no camera movement, old lenses & lived-in looking sets to create a sense of calm comfort.
Childish Gambino – The Violence
We’ve been lucky enough to work with a lot of incredibly talented humans over the past 12 years, but collaborating with Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino – a visionary artist we’ve been fans of for a long time (if you’ve been on set with us you know he gets a lot of plays) – was truly special.
For the limited release vinyl of his album Atavista, Donald wanted each song to have a unique video that would be viewable on an LCD screen built right into the box set.
Under the creative direction of Donald & his team Wolf + Rothstein, we helped develop a concept for his song The Violence, which juxtaposes the song’s heavy subject matter with images of innocent, adorable babies looking directly into the camera’s lens.
The production involved filming 8 little ones in a variety of settings, both practical & CGI, all shot in our studio over 2 days.
Bringing it to life
Working with babies isn’t always easy, but luckily this was far from our first rodeo. We kept crew size down, made our lighting as unobtrusive as possible, called in our best casting & wrangling partners & rocked baby tunes all day long to keep the little ones (mostly) happy & relaxed.
We also planned every last detail in advance, from pre-lighting with life-sized dolls to live keying so we could dial in the lighting to perfectly match our composited environments.
Seed of an idea
Donald’s idea (pictured here in early sketch form) of a record with a built in LCD screen on which listeners would be able to watch a unique video for every song on the album, has never been done before. With a limited drop of 661 units they sold out immediately (we got our hands on one, of course).
With the intangibility & impermanence of all things digital, we’re so thrilled to have our work live in this physical & very cool object.
Of course, the video also lives online so look for it wherever you get stream on!
Also the box set glows in the dark, which is pretty cool …
Client: RCA Records
Production: RECREATION Films
Director: Matt Donovan
Cinematographer: Matty McClain
Producer: Andrew Jennings
Casting: Sarah Blaszczak Happy Little Productions
Gaffer: James Usamanov
Production Designer: Matt Donovan
Production Assistant: Lem Worrell
Child Wrangler: Kaysh Shinn
Editor: Matty McClain
Compositor: Nick Gray
Colorist: Jensen Vinca