Your Shot: How Basement Jaxx’s Twerkbot is Saving Dance from Death

Bums, robots and twerking! How could anyone not enjoy the latest Basement Jaxx video? Despite that trumping threesome, though, there really is a lot more to the story than meets the eye. Written and directed by SKUNK’s Saman Kesh, ’Never Say Never’ say never is born from numerous experiences in the director’s past. From the raves his brother threw in the early noughties to watching YouTube videos of a Japanese sex robot convention (yes, they exist), this enthralling, uber-fun, dance convention-smashing film was born. LBB’s Addison Capper chatted with Saman to get the full story. (You can see the video at the bottom of the page.)

LBB> How did you get involved in the project and why did it appeal to you?

SK> My brother threw raves back in the early 2000s and my first CD sampler from Astralwerks had various bands like Phoenix, Air, Stewart Price and, of course, Basement Jaxx. They quickly became my favourite artist of my teens. So you can imagine that I jumped at an opportunity to be involved when label commissioner John Moule sent me the track. 

LBB> Can you tell us a bit about the narrative and what you are portraying? Are there any underlying connotations? Where did you draw inspiration?

SK> I guess I wanted to make something unsexy very sexy. A combination of soulless and soulful. A contradiction that I feel has existed since the beginning of electronic music and which makes it exciting. Predictably unpredictable…

Being into comics, anime and Japanese cinema, I was kind of fascinated by the obsession with robotics as sexual toys. I wanted to combine both of those and fuse it into a narrative. The narrative I chose reflects the idea of our society spending so much time and resources on trivial and ‘in the moment’ fascinations. Twerking has to be the silliest thing since planking - though more hypnotic I'll give it that! - so I wanted to give a serious and documentary-like setup for something that's actually pretty damn absurd. For me, Basement Jaxx have always had this synthetic-meets-organic vibe that I liked as a teen. It felt appropriate, while still being unexpected. Even Simon [Ratcliffe] & Felix [Buxton] (of Basement jaxx) had a hard time with the idea for a couple meetings. But once I’d told them that the robot would hump at a whopping 124 twerks per minute, they were sold like Renée Zellweger in Jerry Maguire.

LBB> You say that dancing is becoming less and less exciting due to the rise of 'synthetic' music. Can you elaborate on that a bit more? Does music play a big role in your filmmaking?

SK> It’s just like what's happening to most forms of art. Boundaries are deteriorating because anything goes. Instead of swing dancing, shuffling or any other genre-related dances, we have people moving their bodies however they see fit to whatever music their hearts desire. So I enjoyed the idea that a robot would reintroduce ‘specific dances’ to the human race. 

Music does play a big role. Most humans like silence to concentrate. I like music - that is my silence. It is aural genius being pumped into my brain cavity while I desperately try to separate my being from this world. The end result is my pooping out of something that hopefully people can somewhat enjoy and/or call entertainment.

LBB> Where did the idea to merge Japan's proficiency with robotoics and Japanese culture generally with that idea of synthetic music come from?

SK> Well specifically, I was listening to the track while watching some YouTube videos about a sex robot convention held in Japan every year. There were various things including prostitute bots, fellatio faces, and mechanical buttocks that were designed to be slapped. Pretty horrible stuff that made me want to be five years old again so I could avoid the thought.

LBB> How did you bring the actual Twerkbot to life?

SK> It's mostly puppeteering. I wanted a slight ‘quirk’ to the movement and knew that puppeteering would allow for a slightly skewed animation. My buddies at Alterian Inc. came in early on. Together we designed the robot, its functionality, what it would need to achieve in front of camera, and also the ideology of its features, as we were making a statement with it. I was never worried about feasibility because when you got the guys who made Daft Punk’s helmets and who work on every Spike Jonze masterpiece… well, it's waste of time to be concerned.

LBB> How much was captured in post, and what did you shoot in camera?

SK> It was a combination of VFX and puppeteering to ensure the robot has quality movement - mostly in the close ups. The puppeteers were manually painted out of frame by our wonderful FX artist Mike Kelley and MPC Los Angeles.  We then adjusted and slightly tweaked the movements of the robot to refine if needed.

LBB> How was the shoot in general?

SK> Painful, long and painful.

LBB> What were the trickiest moments and how did you overcome them?

SK> All of the shit we had to do in one day was pretty impossible. I have been trying to get better at not being as ambitious, but I think I'm a crazy person because I just can't help myself. ‘I am Jack’s’ complete lack of self-discipline!’