ataka51’s Apocalyptic Realm of CG Puppets, Living Mannequins, and Jean Paul Gaultier

What do you get when you mix Yoshida dolls, living mannequins, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ references, and the fashion of Jean Paul Gaultier? The surreal new music video for ‘Burn’ by Izzy Spears.

ataka51, a filmmaking collective at French production company Henry, pieced together the apocalyptic realm out of a mix of media, from intricate paper cities and miniatures to CG puppeteering. The patchwork makes for a selection of enchantingly eerie moments: a skeleton gripping onto a headstone in the midst of a tornado; a brooding sky being torn apart; faceless mannequins on a bus plummeting into the abyss. It’s all designed to beg the questions, what is fake and what is real, and does it matter?

The project was able to see the light of day thanks to a grant from the Farago Projects Prize for emerging talents, and was created in collaboration with jury members Georgia Pendlebury and Florence Tétier, as well as the Jean Paul Gaultier archive collection.

To uncover more about the craft, LBB’s Zara Naseer caught up with ataka51.

LBB> What did you picture when you first heard the track? How closely does that align with the final version of the film?

ataka51> We saw Izzy during his live show in Paris. The next day we reached out and decided to make something together right away.

All the raw, kitsch, weird and sometimes apocalyptic energy Izzy had in his songs transformed into a kaleidoscope of images between reality and fantasy. We imagined a strange and eerie world swept away by a storm, like in ‘The Wizard of Oz’. We did not change anything since this first draft.

LBB> Were you working from any specific cultural references?

ataka51> We live in an ever shifting and changing world, everything is mixed and intertwined – all the cultural references, all the hyperlinks. Just look at your Instagram feed. We thought, why should we restrict ourselves to just one medium? Why not mix the old techniques and references like ‘The Wizard of Oz’ or a miniature of the city made from paper, with beautiful camerawork, 35mm film, uncanny [Ryo] Yoshida dolls and modern CGI techniques? 

LBB> How did the collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier (JPG) come about, and what influence did it have on the film’s aesthetic?

ataka51> Adding JPG house as collaborators was Farago Projects' idea. Diving into the JPG archives helped us look at filmmaking from a new perspective. It was truly a great pleasure. The collections of the ‘90s and ‘00s are masterpieces – so much energy, freedom and creativity. We tried not only to think about the clothing and jewellery itself but also to work with the essence of the JPG house, the imagery and the foundation of all these iconic pieces – punk-ish, romantic, ironic, bold, counterculture, and always beautiful.

LBB> How closely did you work with Izzy Spears? Did he help to shape the creative direction?

ataka51> It’s really easy to write something when you collaborate with such a charismatic persona. And it’s an amazing thing when the musician you're working with trusts you. But in the end it’s not about trust, it’s more about understanding the artist and adapting their energy and their image to a screen.

LBB> The impressive mixed-media visuals seem intensive to produce – why was it important for you to take such an approach?

ataka51> It would have been a crime not to use all the freedom of imagination we were given in this project by Izzy, Farago and Henry. That's why we came with all these different techniques. Also, we are a collective of creatives, so we have multiple ideas at the same time. We felt that it was fun to experiment and find interesting combinations.

LBB> Can you tell us a bit about what the process of CGI puppeteering entailed and how long it took?

ataka51> Concepting and developing the look of Izzy's doll was probably the hardest part. It’s not even about the right words – it's about sensibility and feeling the style. We've been lucky to work with such an amazing and talented team as ZHEESHEE. They are really good at communication and they had so many great ideas, and they are also as curious as we are. Izzy is happy with it – which is probably the best compliment.

LBB> What was the most challenging shot / aspect of production, and what did it involve?

ataka51> The whole opening scene became a real challenge. We made some tests in different CG softwares by ourselves just to understand the feel of the scene better and in the end we decided to create everything by ourselves – with all the skeletons, digitally recreated JPG jewelry, the hurricane and the ripping sky. We already did some CG for our previous projects but here with all the big names and studios in the production it was a big pressure. But we are pretty proud of it.

The train scene also was challenging – we made it partially analogue and partially with photogrammetry and CGI. It was a real challenge to find the right balance of textures. But when we found it the shot started to shine.

LBB> The project was made possible thanks to the Farago Projects Prize – how did you win it and what support did it offer you? 

ataka51> At some moment we didn’t know how to make the film happen as it was a pretty ambitious production. And then the Farago Project’s Prize happened. We were overwhelmed, given the names on the jury – Emmanuelle Atlan, Georgia Pendlebury, Florence Tétier, Marie Gomis-Trezise, Luis Alberto Rodriguez, and Frank Lebon. The prize itself was to create one of our ideas. We sent a couple outlines to Emmanuelle Atlan, Georgia Pendlebury and Florence Tétier and they chose this one. 

None of this would have been possible if Henry had not backed us up. Hugo Diaz and Ulysse Ancele basically supported us in every step and helped us to hold everything together until the release of the project.