Behind The Video: Last Days of 1984 – 'River's Edge'

The concept behind the video comes from a fascination with the Dutch Golden Age painting of the 17th century and especially the still life's and flowers paintings, with their intense realism and their typical dark background.

As I'm formerly a graphic artist, and as I love to experiment with my favourite software After Effects, I wanted to mix those painting references with some computer-generated effects. The result is this mix of hairy flowers and faces. I had the film Alien and the entered apprentice from Cremaster 3, a film by the artist Matthew Barney, in mind also when creating the tentacles on the heads of the guys.

When I heard the track 'River's edge', that Patrick Henry, the manager of Osaka Records sent to me, I knew it was the song for this visual idea, as it's very organic, and at the same time digital. Darren and Brian of Last Days of 1984 insisted on the trippy side of their music, so it was an invitation for me to go even further.

Darren and Brian came to Paris to shoot for 2 days in Sabotage Studio and with huge help from the producers Anne Lifshitz and Gery Bouchez, we shot with the director of photography Charles Martiny the live action sequences as well as the 360˚ of the flowers, and on the side the flowery picture for the promo of Last Days of 1984. Then it took 1 month of post-production and intense rendering to achieve the visual effects.