Collaboration with Vice’s The Creators Project delivers epic VFX for dystopian short film.
London based production company and digital studio Nexus, and directors Factory Fifteen announced the launch/premier of Function/Void, the dystopian video short featuring outstanding VFX created for Ninja Tune’s acid-grime artist The Bug. The production was in collaboration with executive producers The Creators Project, a joint partnership between Vice and Intel, set up to celebrate innovation in art and technology.
Inspired by sci-fi and futuristic fiction classics such as THX-1138, Brave New World and 1984, the video directed by Factory Fifteen, is set in an alternative present and illustrates the collapse of an amplified consumer society. The narrative follows the life of a drone living in a totalitarian system, medicated to think, feel and function, and illustrates what happens to him and the world around him when he stops conforming. The monochrome video short uses a mix of live-action and astounding VFX to reflect the fragility of life in a totalitarian system, and visualises the subsequent fracture and breakdown of a city based on mindless consumption.
Two tracks from The Bug’s brand new album Angels & Devils, Function (featuring Roll Deep’s Manga) and Void (featuring Liz Harris of Grouper), were selected for their musical duality and contradiction. The ear battering acid-grime assault of ‘Function’ plays alongside the heavily blunted dub of ‘Void’ to reflect the battle of individuality and compliance.
Factory Fifteen, Director, Nexus, says, “We wanted to be ambitious with the project both visually and narratively as this isn’t your typical music video! It was really encouraging for us to have the support of Creators Project and Nexus, who wanted us to realise the video to its highest ambition. There were a lot of mutual interests in the themes between us and The Bug (Kevin) on this project, both in the music and our narrative interests that drove it forward. We wanted to visually explore the narrative of a person stuck in a totalitarian system, using themes from our current society of consumerist lifestyles. The whole process was critically engaging and allowed us to truly build a world …and then tear it down.”
Source: Nexus
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.
