Rise Up!
Script, art direction, design, illustration and animation for "Rise Up!" music video by Fran Trachta (https://www.frantrachta.com).
I enjoyed so much doing this project because of the topics it touches, the almost total creative freedom I had and the different technics I used. Fran Trachta (whose band used to be called Soul Pigeons), asked me to do a music video with a protesting point of view and he imagined scenes of the band shooting rays with their instruments against crowds.
Living in the post-covid era and with these ingredients on mind, I brainstormed all the themes I wanted to address and a common thread to all of them: excessive government control over the population through technology and the denaturalization of humanity.
This way I came up with the storyline of the video: In a parallel reality, the city is hyper-technified and the population over-controlled by the government. The inhabitants have lost their identity and their freedom, in "pursuit of security". Under ID masks, they walk the streets like zombies, engrossed in their cell phone screens.
Between dance challenges and ultra-processed food dispensers everywhere, the inhabitants live oblivious to the real problems that surround them and the puppet masters who pull the strings of their alienated lives.
Between dance challenges and ultra-processed food dispensers everywhere, the inhabitants live oblivious to the real problems that surround them and the puppet masters who pull the strings of their alienated lives.
In the face of this desolate panorama, a ray of hope appears: Fran Trachta and his band arrive ready to awaken the zombies with their illuminated faces by their music. Lightning and earthquakes make plants and flowers sprout everywhere. People rise up to fight for their freedom.
But not everything is won, as part of the population is still under the influence of the ID masks, a real war between good and evil breaks out. Who will win?
Regarding character design, I wanted to give to the band a neat and well proportioned image , so I chose a sort of classic comic style for them to contrast with the crowds. The characters wear the band members' personal clothes.
On the contrary, while showing a certain diversity, I wanted the masked characters to maintain a homogeneity, typical of the masses, and to be deformed due to unhealthy living habits.
This project could have been done entirely with frame-by-frame animation. However it would have been a huge investment of time and work for me as a solo animator and illustrator. So I had to find a balance in the use of motion graphics and classical animation, to make the project more efficient, without losing the style and storyboard I had in mind.
