Dystopian sparklemotion (yay!) on the blog today, with the futuristic Lovemachine music video by Alex Dückminor – aka The Crystal Beach. We love extravagant psychedelic space drama at the best of times, but when we stumbled upon the video at Radar Music Videos and discovered the video was also Alex’s final MA project we were mega impressed. So we caught up with Alex to chat the joys of Blade Runner and how uprooting from a small German village and moving to London inspired his video.
When did you first decide to get into filmmaking?
I once had the chance to attend an arresting presentation, one of my previous graphic design teachers held in Munich about six years ago. It was the first time I came in contact with the process of making a music video. The amazing thing about it was, that although their video had won several awards and looked like an expensive production, it had only been completed by a team of two people and almost no budget. All they had was talent, a strong idea, ambition and the will to work tremendously hard. Their approach towards filmmaking strongly aroused my interest and when I subsequently came across the work of Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham, I became obsessed.
What inspires you?
It seems to me, that there are so many messages, codes, signs and realities in everyday life, which have a subconscious affect on our thoughts and feelings, that it might be a mix of actively and passively perceived sources. Things that interest me inspire me, but inspiration itself is too complex and multifaceted with layers that intertwine, merge or interact, that it’s hard to allocate specific causes and effects. Talking to people who dare to do the things they love, or encourage you to push your own boundaries, can be highly inspiring. In terms of visual influences I’ve researched a lot into 60s psychedelic cover art, space-rock and early electronic music during the last years. I love dystopian literature and 80s movies such as Blade Runner.
Cyber Sun – Alex’s custom sunglasses design complete with skull!
I love the skeleton in futuristic sunglasses on your website – would you be able to tell me a little about that project?
The sunglasses originated within the framework of a costume design study for my MA project. I used a huge amount of plastic model kits to build the props, houses and the city for that video in order to achieve an authentic handcrafted B-movie look. The sunglasses were made of parts from tank and helicopter model kits. I wanted to design cyberspace-shades to access a kind of retro futuristic virtual reality.
From what I’ve seen on your site, robotics, outer space and the future seem to heavily influence the aesthetic of your work – what is it about that sort of look that you love?
I love the street scenes in Blade Runner – there’s something utterly beautiful about reflections of neon light on dark wet city streets. I try to transport that atmosphere, and feeling in my designs. Although my current work may seem a bit dark or baleful, the theory behind it is rather based around the positive motivations of dystopian literature. The concept of dystopia is highly interesting to me, because it commonly uses underlying cautionary tones to point out future consequences of our society’s present behaviour. It often illustrates a repressive and controlled state that is adapted by the masses whilst it presents conflict for the individual. That’s why it’s closely connected to rebellion and therefore produces powerful images. I like that virtuous subversive energy about it.
How did you come up with the story and idea for the Columbus Lovemachine video?
I wanted to make a film about natural symbiosis, spiritualism and technological progress, based on Campbell’s monomyth with the story background set as a dystopian world. I later realized, that the structure of the monomyth and the story’s background had much in common with my own journey to the UK, which I had started 3 years ago. Coming from a very small and conservative village near Munich, I moved to London to study graphic design and moving image. This drastic change of environmental and social circumstances had a great impact on my perception of a metropolis, the dynamics and tensions of urbanism, pop culture, influences of the media and the idea of living on-line or in front of the PC. Some of the concerns about techno mega cities and nations exploiting the planet, contrary to the idea of humans living in symbiosis with nature, are now noticeable in the Video.
How did you go about realising your ideas? What was the shoot like and how long did it take to put the whole thing together?
I dreamt about making my own music video for a very long time, so I took this chance to make it the best I could. I understood this final project as my one chance to realize a vision, which involved every step and stage – from the first words on paper to the last tints in colour grading. To be honest, the project quickly grew to be the biggest challenge of my life so far. I’ve spent over 4000 hours of work, by writing the story, learning after effects, tailoring the costumes, taking photographs, building the plastic models, designing the backdrops, organizing the shooting, building my own green-box, directing the video, keying the footage, animating and adding effects and post-production. It was really exhausting at times, but also great fun.
The design for the characters/costumes and the world of the video are really rich and intricate. What were your main influences/ideas for that element of the promo?
In terms of the costume designs, Rammellzee, Parliament-Funkadelic and the Cold Crush Brothers have always been major influences because of their daring mix of punk, funk and gothic-futurism. The “Gash-Olear” Costume to me is the most innovative and forward-thinking character design I’ve ever seen – Rammellzee truly was ahead of his time. The feather crown that the shaman hands to his daughter in my video for example, is a tribute to the “Funkentelechy” album artwork and the times when B-Boys wore ski goggles on the streets. I haven’t seen much anime besides Studio Ghibli in the past, because I was a bit prejudiced to be honest, but during my research I came across fantastic films like Akira, M.D.Geist or CyberCityOedo808. There are some references to mecha designs in the heroine’s armour and her character is a tribute to the film Princess Mononoke, which I really love.
For more info about Alex, check out www.thecrystalbeach.com
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