Battle is a hyper-stylized short film set to the DJ group “Angry Kids” song “Battle” featuring Belle Humble. We were approached by Warner Music Canada with an open brief, allowing us to explore the themes of battle in any way we choose. Angry Kids provided some references of red ink flowing in water and we took this concept to develop our overall aesthetic of the world. The metaphorical struggle that Belle sings about, is represented in the video by a war between two silhouetted warrior armies. Like a deck of cards, we see the red army battle the black army, with all the warriors looking like clones of one another. Their identical looks act as personal anonymity, the soldiers starting out as ruthless and emotionless bringers of death. Yet as the video unfolds, a stronger force emerges, forcing the opposing armies to figuratively and literally blend together.

The video mixes unique compositing techniques to blend together live-action shots of Belle as well as the 2 “ninja” armies, along with haunting shots of coloured ink floating in water. The style of the piece mixes elements of comic-book style compositions with a cinematic sensibility. There’s a surreal, dreamlike feel to the piece with the action happening in extreme slow-motion throughout.

We filmed all the live-action footage on a green-screen in studio. The two warrior armies were actually created using a single actress, Addy Chan, who played every role in the narrative. To save time on set we actually filmed her in red red bodypaint the entire time, even for the scenes where she played a member of the black-army.   In post production we were able to isolate the red color from her skin and turn it charcoal black. Addy had to perform against an imaginary environment with imaginary counterparts on screen. In post we generated CG enviornments that we later composited the live-action green-screen footage onto. In many cases we had to replicate Addy’s performance as different characters. In the compositing stage we also added various elements to further add detail into the scenes, including adding smoke, atmosphere & particles.

Each shot was photographed and composited to match the original storyboard artwork.

CREDITS

Director: Alon Isocianu
Producer: Anna Junger
Production Company: reactiv

PM: Landon Ramirez
DOP: Pasha Patriki
Art Director: Caroline Pandeli
Hair & Makeup: Carmen Rachel & Shannon Spence
Wardrobe Stylist: Skye Kelton
AC: David Nguyen
Gaffer: Bryan Brooks
Key Grip: Devin Myer
PAs: Abdul Malik & Hunter Dixon

Concept Art & Storyboards: Gavin McCarthy
Post Production: Reactiv
VFX Creative Director: Alon Isocianu
Lead VFX Artist: Phil Prates
VFX Assistants: Jacob Doforno & Maxine Schnepf
Post Producer: Emily Buller

Starring Addy Chan
Fight Choreography: Jonny Caines