I’m sure you already know this beatiful song. We were all listening to this cool and chilly melody a few years ago, but have you ever seen the video?
Happy Up Here by Röyksopp was directed by Reuben Sutherland. What you have to know, is that this guy is a hyper productive director: he works in Joyrider production company, which gathers all talented visual designers and director, and his portfolio is full of important collaborations such as Adidas, PS3 and Ikea.
Also, with his mate Dan Hayhurst, he manages the visual content of his Sculpture project, described as a “sound and vision conglomerate”. So you shouldn’t be surprised of the quality of his works.
What makes his works unique is his ability in mixing up live action and animation. For instance, have a look to this interview where he talks about the music video Pot for Phoenix Foundation. It was realized by animating hundreds of photos taken to a toy train in many cities such as London, Berlin and Frankfurt, then Reuben applied some great VFX. Would you ever say that that train is just a toy?
Something very similar must have happened to make Happy Up Here possible. Many billboards are enlighted by hundreds of little bulbs, whose lights follows the rhythm of the song. Then -surprise!- we see Space Invaders monsters in the sky, attacking the Earth, while the happy melody is still playing, creating such an absurd sense of alienation. Would you ever thought a videogame to become real?