The Tech Behind The Chemical Brothers Wide Open Music Video

The Chemical Brothers Wide Open Music Video

Directed by duo Dom&Nic, the latest music video for The Chemical Brothers’ Wide Open, featuring the vocals of Beck and the dancing of Sonoya Mizuno, may just look like some cool special effects to you. However, when looking at the immense amount of technological and digital work that went into the one, long unbroken take, you’ll have a new appreciation for the 5.5 minute long video.

Behind The Chemical Brothers Wide Open Music Video

Laborious choreography and practice aside, just how did The Mill turn British-Japanese actress, model and ballerina Sonoya Mizuno see-through?

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Using one continuous shot, GoPro Cameras, Motion capture, 3D animation and rendering, mapping and tracking; 2D paintwork, tracking, warping and rebuilding of shadows; and much more, the result appears seamless.

Wide Open:

The longest shot the Mill has ever tracked, they incorporated a range of new procedural modelling techniques, human body scanning, lidar scanning, motion capture, an extremely complex rig, animated lighting, cloth simulation and a huge amount of cleanup work.

The Making of Wide Open:

The directing duo explained their inspiration behind the video to The Mill: “The idea starts with the track. The Beck vocal and lyric has a feeling of loss, something slowly slipping away from you. The song hadn’t been chosen as a single at that point, so we took a punt and sent them an idea for it.

We had been researching the idea of 3D printing artificial limbs and body parts and came up with the idea of someone’s body being replaced with plastic. We really conceived this video as a dance film. We wanted to make a piece of dance that could only exist on film and couldn’t be experienced live. We wanted the point of view of the camera to be integral to the choreography and be a character in the dance, so it needed to be a one take unbroken shot.”

Dominic Hawley and Nic Goffey of Dom&Nic
Dominic Hawley and Nic Goffey of Dom&Nic

Read the full interview with Dom&Nic by The Mill here.

Full Credits:
MUSIC BY The Chemical Brothers
VOCALS BY Beck
DANCER Sonoya Mizuno
CHOREOGRAPHY BY Wayne McGregor
VISUAL EFFECTS BY The Mill
PRODUCED BY John Madsen
DIRECTED BY DOM&NIC
COMMISSIONER: Ailsa Robertson
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Steve Chivers
STEADICAM OPERATOR: Rick Woollard
EDITOR: Ed Cheeseman
SOUND DESIGN: Tony Rapaccioli
COSTUME DESIGNER: Tara Stift
HAIR AND MAKE-UP: Fiona Fellows
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Steve Elgar
FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Ben Gill
FOR RANDOM DANCE: Rebecca Marshal & Ellie Douglas-Allan
FOCCUS PULLER: Ross Naylor
CLAPPER LOADER: Stephanie Kennedy
DIT: Paul Swann
VIDEO PLAYBACK: Tony Booth
GRIP TRAINEE: Warren Wiseman
RUNNERS: Daniel Osei, Ana Freire De Andrade, Billy Goffey

THE MILL
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Misha Stanford – Harris
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Neil Davies
2D LEAD Fergal Hendrick
3D LEAD David Fleet & Suraj ‘Sid’ Harrington–Odedra
ANIMATION LEAD Jorge Montiel & Ian Potsos
RIGGING Andreas Graichen
2D ARTISTS:
Joe Courtis, Brad Wood, Sole Martin, Lucas Carracedo, Jeanette Eiternes, George Cressey, Warren Gebhardt, Stefan Susemihl, Rebecca Clay,
ANIMATION”
Ashley Reemul, Matthew Kavanagh, Sauce Vilas, Jasmine Ghoreishi, Alberto Lara, Sherin Mahboob, Philippe Moine
3D TRACKING & MATCH MOVE (PEANUT FX): Peregrine McCafferty and Amélie Guyot
MODELLING AND TEXTURES: Marta Carbonel
LIGHTING & RENDERING ASSIST: Yoann Gouraud
SHOOT ASSIST: Margaux Huneau
COLOURIST: David Ludlam
COLOUR ASSIST: Oisin O’Driscoll, Brendan Buckingham
ASSISTANT PRODUCER: Tess Miles

Dom&Nic
The Mill
The Chemical Brothers