The Pack A.D. are back to give us some visuals behind their final album It was fun while it lasted. But with the world being the world it is, the Vancouver duo had to get creative with their latest video for "Reprogram," opting to avoid human contact in favour of claymation.
The clip comes via the Pack A.D.'s longtime video director Matt Leaf, who helmed the claymated creation. In a statement, Leaf said the following of the "Reprogram" video:
With COVID-19 keeping us in lockdown, we had no way to make music videos, despite winning grants to do so. Maya pitched me this amazing idea months before, and we were planning on shooting the video until the corona virus struck. I had no idea how we could pull it off, but after some discussion we all agreed claymation would be a great medium, and completely doable with the lockdown in effect. We all thought claymation would be easy, a fun project I could do in my spare time.
As I began building the characters and set pieces, weeks went by. Conceptualizing the project became my life. Upon setting up the first scene for shooting, I knew I was in for the fight of my life. Everything was melting in the heat, gravity was my enemy. The first few nights I spent filming yielded mere seconds of useable footage. I stayed up for a month straight pulling all nighters, learning the craft of an animator, alone with my thoughts and 50 pounds of crayola. I wanted to give up so many times, feeling like the project would never be complete.
Immediately after building the aliens and turning on the glowing red LED eyes, everything fell into place. Everything came to life, I knew I was making something amazing. With nothing but my mind, my hands, and my clay I created this video from scratch, by myself. Each night went later than the last, until eventually in the last week of production I wasn't sleeping at all. The fruits of my labour yielded my best creation to date. There's a fine line working as a director, saying vs doing. This video showed me what I'm made of, as a filmmaker, and a human being.
Watch the "Reprogram" video below.
The clip comes via the Pack A.D.'s longtime video director Matt Leaf, who helmed the claymated creation. In a statement, Leaf said the following of the "Reprogram" video:
With COVID-19 keeping us in lockdown, we had no way to make music videos, despite winning grants to do so. Maya pitched me this amazing idea months before, and we were planning on shooting the video until the corona virus struck. I had no idea how we could pull it off, but after some discussion we all agreed claymation would be a great medium, and completely doable with the lockdown in effect. We all thought claymation would be easy, a fun project I could do in my spare time.
As I began building the characters and set pieces, weeks went by. Conceptualizing the project became my life. Upon setting up the first scene for shooting, I knew I was in for the fight of my life. Everything was melting in the heat, gravity was my enemy. The first few nights I spent filming yielded mere seconds of useable footage. I stayed up for a month straight pulling all nighters, learning the craft of an animator, alone with my thoughts and 50 pounds of crayola. I wanted to give up so many times, feeling like the project would never be complete.
Immediately after building the aliens and turning on the glowing red LED eyes, everything fell into place. Everything came to life, I knew I was making something amazing. With nothing but my mind, my hands, and my clay I created this video from scratch, by myself. Each night went later than the last, until eventually in the last week of production I wasn't sleeping at all. The fruits of my labour yielded my best creation to date. There's a fine line working as a director, saying vs doing. This video showed me what I'm made of, as a filmmaker, and a human being.
Watch the "Reprogram" video below.
