"Imagine what my body would sound like / Slamming against those rocks / And when it lands / will my eyes / be closed or open?"
In trying to write a synopsis for "Hyperballad," I found it almost impossible to interpret. Is this Björk's dead body on the ground beneath the cliffs, with her soul singing above it? Is she a part of the landscape; her nose a part of the mountains? How were these images transferred through the camera lens? Is the person really Björk or mere sculpture? What the heck is the scale on this puppy?
Back to my senses for a bit, I see some sense. The bluish, floaty imagery was projected onto glass set above the model. Right? The LED set was just combined with the model set in post. Right? Well, whatever, nevermind.
Due partially to my personal puzzlement in understanding this video and the construction of its imagery, I've concluded that "Hyperballad" is, if nothing else, one of the most avant-garde pieces of music video in the late 20th century. At one glance, the composites completely coalesce with the elements of the song. Yet the imagery is so transcendent of any other pop promo. Upside, inside out.
See it here.
Q&A with François Nemetä
Nemetä said in an e-mail interview in 2006 that Hyper-ballad was filmed in a studio in London on 35mm. "only one box of film of course. it's one of the cheapest films Michel has done."
"a long long shoot (approx 22 hours) on a day in December. I remember pushing the door to watch outside and seeing that it was night and that it had snowed during the shoot..."
Was this a hellish video to make?
YES ! especially for the D.O.P : Tim Maurice Jones. For him it was a nightmare in measuring the lights on TVs, small light bulbs etc... PLUS doing all that in film superimposition : in total there was 8 layers superimposed.
AND for the operators. Each camera move = 1 instruction, as it was a one sequence shot [that] was 4 minutes long.... but as it was in animation, with very small light bulbs, it had to be done with long exposures... so each sequence shot was 6 times longer ... 24 minutes. They spent hours filling their computer with instructions. their computer had never taken so much different instructions for a camera move.
I think no one really realizes how this video is technically a masterpiece !!!
Who made all of the different elements?
all the computer animations were done by a graphist @ BUF I think, and they were all done before the shoot. (and then played on the TVs in front of the camera) Now I wonder..: maybe it was even Olivier "Twist" Gondry who was working there at that time. ? don't remember.
for all the art department & props , it was all done by Michel + pierre pell + eric valin + me !
What did you do during production?
run everywhere, waking up the DOP (or Art Dept, or Björk) when they would fall asleep ! moving Tv's and stuff, really everyone was doing a bit everything as the crew was very small. watching the computerized Field Recorder moving and by itself in the low-lit studio with big motor noises in the middle of the night above a sleepy Börk was a surrealistic experience. not at all like an usual shoot !
