Balázs Simon directs a sprawling 3D animated digital landscape for Bastille’s music video for their new single Thelma & Louise from their upcoming fourth studio album. The video serves as the sequel to the video for Distorted Light Beam, building on the world established by Jak Payne - who joined this project as creative director.

In this high concept work, we join frontman Dan exactly where we left him in the previous video: having entered the Futurescape with The Engineer, played by Remmie Milner.

As the world continues to crumble outside, we see our heroes floating in a virtual fantasyland made entirely of pixel-like cubes. In the digital space, their avatars have moments of intimacy and play which intercut with their live-action counterparts.

To build this 3D universe, Balázs and his team had to develop custom code, animating up to 90 million individual elements, each with its own defined mass and physics. The scale of this project meant that optimisation and rendering on the fly were integral. This process ensured there was enough computer memory and processing power for the video to be completed. Balázs later discovered that Pixar had to overcome similar hurdles in making the film Soul.

The finished product is an immersive and impactful world that elevates Bastille’s new music into an audiovisual experience and impressive addition to Balázs Simon’s growing portfolio.

BALAZS SIMON:

There was no good way to visualize what we were about to do...

"Was it my worst decision to ditch the summer and do this video? I certainly wondered about that while being lost with stubborn pieces of code and the general uncertainty that comes with an experimental film.

"Building these systems had their thrill: there was no good way to visualize what we were about to do, especially because I wasn't sure about that either! It was one of those jobs you just can't do without the right team and client.

"I'm super thankful for all the crazy talented - and patient! - people believing in the project and going out of their way to make it happen. You truly felt like a family. It would be amazing to do it again"