New Tahiti Boy Music Video is a Retro Romp Through Magazine Covers

French directors Jack Antoine Charlot and Arnaud Delord, under the new collective name JAKARNO, have released a unique music video for electro-indie band Tahiti Boy and the Palmtree Family. Produced by Passion Paris, the promo for “Low Life” uses parodies of retro magazines to tell the rise-and-fall story of a rock ‘n’ roll icon who is brilliantly played by the model Alex Wetter.

Having wanted to work together for some time, making this promo was the perfect opportunity for Jack and Arnaud to join creative forces, the latter knowing how David Sztanke (aka Tahiti Boy) is open to original concepts after shooting a video for his band previously.

Jack came up with the video’s concept while flicking through his girlfriend’s magazines at the beach and began visual research with Arnaud. “We started with a collection of pretty much all the magazine covers created since the invention of the printing press. We came across some seriously awesome things – it’s actually an art form of its own,” say the directors, who opted for a mythical persona inspired by the likes of Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop and David Bowie for their protagonist. “Our main reference was definitely Bowie because of his androgynous side, which is mirrored in the work of Alex Wetter, our main actor. We were also inspired by GIFs, which felt like the ideal approach towards giving life to the photos of our star.”

Incredibly JAKARNO shot all 15 ‘covers’ in a single day, with the same number of lighting set ups, wardrobe and make up changes. Without an expert crew it couldn’t have been done, say the pair. “Passion Paris believed in this project and invested a lot of time and energy in it. They worked really hard to find the right people for this shoot, so in the end we didn’t have to compromise on anything and our crew was incredibly talented and very motivated.”

But even with great support, the directors didn’t want to leave anything to chance and prepared by creating a highly detailed 2D animatic as well as mock-ups for each magazine ‘cover’. “We knew we wouldn’t be able to improvise on set or be able to shoot from several different camera angles,” they explain. “It’s a film that was mostly determined during the storyboard stage, in some ways like an animation film. If we hadn’t been so well prepared at the beginning of the project, the whole thing would likely have been a crappy Vine video.”

Although this was JAKARNO’s first time working together, the collaboration came naturally. “We come from very different backgrounds which complemented each other’s,” they say. “We had both already done live-action, CG and 2D animation, so without thinking we mixed together all of those mediums in this video and it seems to work quite well.” 

The two directors will continue to work on solo projects as well as in the JAKARNO partnership.