BAFTA-nominated animation director creates cinematic music video for ‘Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)’ by legendary American pop band Sparks.
BAFTA-nominated animation director Joseph Wallace has created a cinematic new stop-motion music video for the legendary American pop band Sparks. “Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)” is the latest single to be released from the band’s new album Hippopotamus, out September 8th on BMG.
The video, which features the band (Californian brothers Ron and Russell Mael) immortalized in puppet form, was made in only six weeks at prodco Cardel Entertainment and is brought to life with Wallace’s recognizable blend of wiry puppets, cardboard sets and painted backgrounds. Pairing his visually arresting animation with Sparks’ musically uplifting, yet lyrically melancholic track, Wallace has created a stunning Parisian world in which Ron and Russell find themselves in pursuit of something beyond their grasp.
Watch the stunning video in the player below, and click here to view a stunning gallery of stills and behind-the-scenes imagery:
“I didn’t want to illustrate the song too literally as the lyrics were fairly clear and the sentiment was really strong for me, so I tried to create a metaphor that would almost visually score the music and hopefully enhance the meaning of the song,” Wallace said. “I’ve always had a great fondness for Paris and Parisian culture after having studied and worked there, so the video was a chance to explore that world and create something surreal and intriguing in which Ron and Russell could adventure. The brothers really trusted my vision for the piece and consequently gave me a great amount of creative freedom which meant I could create something as detailed and as synthesized with the music as possible in the time I had.”
“Perfectly capturing the mood of the song ‘Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me),’ the video is also a rapturous work of art in its own right,” commented Sparks members Ron and Russell Mael. “Perhaps Sparks’ best video ever.”
Source: Joseph Wallace Animation & Puppetry
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
