Aardman Creates Music Video For Coldplay's "Daddy"

Bristol, UK-based animation studio Aardman has turned out a music video for Coldplay’s album track, “Daddy.” The film Aardman has created for the track is an atmospheric journey through a girl’s fragmented memory about her father. Directed by Aardman’s Asa Lucander, it uses live action puppetry, digitally painted sets and 2D animation to create a tapestry of styles that symbolizes the girl’s memories of her dad.

Lucander said, “The first time I listened to the track it spoke to me on a deep level. I immediately started to imagine storylines and images formed in my mind’s eye. When this happens, you know you’re on to something very special. I’m often drawn to emotional stories and I knew very quickly that this was one I wanted to tell.” 

“’Daddy’ isn’t a single in the traditional sense,” said Phil Harvey, Coldplay’s Creative Director, “but we always wanted to make a video for it as the song feels like a story within itself. Åsa and her team have done an incredible job in bringing the story to life.” 

The full length, five-minute video follows a girl lost at sea, alone in a rowing boat and sailing towards the unknown. The turbulent sea is echoing glimpses of her past with her dad, and the sea and skyscape becoming the emotive canvas projecting the girl’s memories.

Lucander continued, “I wanted to capture the nature of dreams and memories--a sense of a fragmented, surreal imagination. It is an emotional journey, and I guess you could read it in many ways. The sea becomes a metaphor for what stands between the girl and her father. A threat, a sense of danger of the unknown and what she has lost.”