Natasha Khan (a.k.a. Bat for Lashes) has done a marvelous choice in picking Peter Sluszka as the director for Lilies.
He demonstrate his skills with the stop motion technique working for the advertising field, and working for other artists in the music industry, such as Bjork and Regina Spektor.
 
As Computer Art Magazine says “The director and stop-motion specialist brings together life-sized puppets, a flock of 2D spirits, a series miniature landscapes and morphing polygons to create a hallucinatory world”.
 
The video is a wonderful journey into the art of stop motion animation, that can create the illusion of a wave “simply” forming it with materials, a miniature fascinating world where you can find cotton clouds, and, the part I liked more: lighting are made of white branches. Clever and creative, as we like at Wanna Play Daily.
 
I think that the Promonews‘ interview with the director is worth reading, so here it is:
“Natasha and I developed the idea together, starting with a meeting in New York when she was here last May for her album cover shoot. She shared the track, as well as initial ideas and inspirations. This was very helpful as it gave me a starting point and insight into the types of visuals she was interested in. After the first meeting, we emailed thoughts and references and began developing a more specific approach and design.
 
Ultimately, it took months. We shot Natasha’s live performance and animation sequences in three intense days in the fall and then slowly accumulated the remaining animation shots. Encasing Natasha in glass was in fact one of the hardest sequences. It required her to pose very uncomfortably for hours and it was claustrophobic despite the transparency. The entire structure was held together with copper foil tape that I had to slice away incrementally with an x-acto knife. Between the blade proximity to Natasha’s head and the need to shoot efficiently, it was one of the more stressful animation processes I can remember.
 
I had a blast working with Natasha and I think the performance footage with the massive puppets shows moments of real joy, humor, and improvisation that counterbalance the poise and meticulousness of the animation shots. It was also a pleasure working with a great and devoted crew. Like so many videos, the budget was tight relative to the creative ambitions and production designer Ben Phelan pulled together some incredibly inventive builds with very limited resources. From the start, everyone credited in this production went above and beyond to make it as unique as possible.”