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“A reflection of our modern zeitgeist” Airbag’s Erase

Building a dystopian world for Airbag’s new single ‘Erase’!
Written by Miles Skarin
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Published on April 11, 2024

We had a blast working with Norwegian progressive rock band Airbag on the video for their single Erase, taken from the album 'The Century of the Self'.
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We envisaged a dark, moody, dystopian environment for the video, where censorship is rampant and surveillance is everywhere. We designed a large concrete tower structure fitted with spotlights, which project the band's cross logo onto sections of the tower, beaming onto the lyrics. We utilised lots of different camera techniques and perspectives, shallow depth of field, grain and motion blur to help give the video a sense of dread and paranoia.
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The video culminates in sections of the tower breaking apart, for which we used dynamic physics simulations to render individual pieces of concrete crumbling and falling down off the tower. The camera spins dramatically around the tower and the destruction shifts into a psychedelic trance-like visual. We felt as though this sequence worked well to visually communicate the song's dystopian theme of controlling thought and opinion.
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We loved working on 'Erase' as we have been fans of Airbag for a long time, the band very kindly sent us signed vinyl copies of their albums 'Identity' and 'All Rights Removed' all the way back in 2011 and these remain as prized parts of our collection!
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