Munky Business with Project Maldonado & AMCQ

Watch the above film, Seraphim, and you’ll probably be left scratching your head… Is it a fashion film? Is it a music promo? What the hell is going on with the grotesquely warped body forms that feature and is that artist, Richie Culver, starring? The short answer is yes, yes, yes and the reason for its existence was originally to promote a new musical venture called Project Maldonado – a collaboration between Liam Bailey (Chase & Status) and DJ/producer Shy FX – and their forthcoming album due for release later this year. The concept for the video grew from a series of promos being created for singles from the record.

The minute-long teaser introduces the visual theme for the promos, which will feature an entire album’s worth of singles from Project Maldonado, with each unique video encompassing three or four tracks from the album and they will also feature, among others, artist Richie Culver.

The visuals, imagined by director and CD Jamie Brunksill, have also been picked up to be displayed by Alexander McQueen in its flagship Saville Row store as artistic content aligned with the brand. Created by VFX artist Chris Bristow of Munky by compositing and enhancing various filmed plates of live actors and in tandem with SFX artist Dan Martin, the resulting footage celebrates the human form through isolation and combination of the human body.

In the interview below, the director and VFX supervisor offer insight into the project and how it all came together.

Where did the idea come from for Seraphim? It’s pretty warped but nice to watch…

JB: The imagery emerges from the ether of the new musical venture of Liam Bailey & Shy FX called Project Maldonado. Listening to Liam's dark and drug-fuelled lyrics, awakening from a haze of late nights and hedonistic pursuits.

The imagery was made as a visual response to this music, a visual metaphor of the social depravity and anguish which the lyrics evoke, made by filming naked bodies and morphing them together to show these deformed creatures, in this surreal if not beautiful light guiding the viewer into a calm but unnerving celebration of the Grotesque. ‘The devil does to me what joy does to sorrow.’

Tell us about the production process and how you reached the final visuals…

JB: I had come up with the visual identity of the project by manipulating naked torsos and body parts in Photoshop. The next step was to see if I could make them move, so was put in touch with Chris Bristow at Munky who assured me we could do it and [we] did a fantastic job in the process. I look forward to developing this imagery with Chris as the video productions proceed throughout the course of the album.

CB: Jamie came to me early on with some Photoshop work he'd done and some other visual reference. He wanted to bring these preliminary ‘sculptures’ to life. We discussed how best to film it and I supervised the shoot. Together we directed our actors/models for the day to pose in various unusual positions for our plate shots. Jamie took some stills from the video and designed a few sculptures he liked using our newly shot footage. I used this as a basis to begin creating the visual effects and we ended up developing a few more than were originally planned.

Tell us about Richie Culver’s involvement…

JB: Richie Culver is a close friend of mine and got in touch one day saying that his mate Liam Bailey had just been in touch regarding making a video for this new musical venture. Richie passed the project to me to make, coming back in to it on the day of the shoot at my request to feature as the lead character in the viral teaser for PM. Richie and I are working together on a couple of art shows for later In the year. I’d like to say a big thank you to Paddy at PAM who represents Richie.

How hard was it to create the realistic muscles and join the body parts to the creatures?

JB: Chris and I had a rough plan regarding what to shoot on the day, from an initial five creatures I had made in advance on Photoshop, which we planned to replicate. Chris's magic is what made it come to life in a way I envisioned. I could not have picked anyone better to work with me on this majorly integral part of this project.

CB: The trickiest part was forcing contortion on muscles and parts of the body that don't normally contort. I had to look at the sculptures as a whole; if a part wasn't moving then it was important to think about why it wasn't. I had to think about weight of limbs and what would force movement from one part on to another. It was a fun and educational process, the combination of two plates I thought would never work sometimes ended up being easier than others I had down as being no problem whatsoever.

How did the Alexander McQueen brand get involved?

JB: Through my previous work In NYC as art director for ad agencies Baron & Baron and Lipman, and I have quite close ties to the fashion industry. AMCQ caught wind of the visuals I was making for Project Maldonado and talks were had regarding using parts of the imagery for the AMCQ brand.

And what about the videos that will follow this one; have you begun work on them yet?

JB: I finished storyboarding the video a few weeks ago and am starting production for the first of the next five videos within the next fortnight and am extremely excited to get started.

Anything else relevant you’d like to add?

JB: The visuals for AMCQ should be appearing in Asia and the Americas soon after the launch at the flagship AMCQ store on Saville Row. Thank you to everyone who has worked on the project, especially to the naked people in question – you know who you are. But if anyone would like to take part in their birthday suits for the next video please get in touch. I am especially trying to find obese and overweight people. Don’t be shy.

To listen to four tracks, including Seraphim, from Project Maldonado’s forthcoming album (release date yet to be confirmed) click here.