Top Spot of the Week: SMUGGLER, StyleWar "Keep Moving" During Lockdown For Bronson Music Video

Swedish directing collective StyleWar has created during lockdown via production house SMUGGLER this “Keep Moving” music video for Bronson.

Comprised entirely of stock footage and expertly crafted visual effects, the music video starts in a banal humdrum world of the daily commute and 9-to-5 office grind; however, as the song progresses, the beat begins to affect reality.  The characters first start to move in sync with the song as the rest of the  “business world” is slowly infected by the track. Everything goes bonkers when the beat drops, laws of physics are broken, tables and chairs and people all tumble to the rhythm. A lovely whimsical visual firework, all to the beat of the track.

StyleWar worked alongside friend and longtime collaborator editor, Noah Herzog, to unearth the perfect stock footage to use as the spine. After sourcing the appropriate material, they shot matching close-ups of mouths that are lip-syncing the lyrics.  They built the offices in full CG that matched the look of the stock footage.

In a statement, StyleWar explained, “The idea for this video was born out of creative starvation during these corona times. We got this awesome track from Bronson at the beginning of lockdown and really wanted to do something special for it. At that point it was impossible to do anything close to a regular shoot, so we pitched a concept using entirely stock footage and CG. We’ve always had a strong fascination for stock footage and the thoughts and process that goes into creating it. Especially this kind of corporate business world that is shown in this video. It can be so cliché and mind-bendingly generic. The actors take turns playing the boss, they have positive meetings and they have arguments. They high-five, shake hands in glass buildings and proudly point at their PowerPoints. They listen really carefully, nod in approval or decide to put another idea on the table. We love how super-generic it is, in every detail. From cast, wardrobe and props to locations and especially the acting - it’s all super shallow and false.” 

StyleWar continued, “So with this as a base, we wanted to show what can happen if there is a ‘blackout’ to this world. Are they all fake? Is everything fake? Luckily no one got seriously injured making this video, with the exception of us now knowing far too much about the corporate-business-stock footage world then anyone should...”

VFX work was done by StyleWar’s Nico Herzog.