VFX BREAKDOWN: Moby – “My Only Love”
Moby’s music video for “My Only Love”, directed by Paulo Garcia and produced by Zombie Studios, won the Best Music Video award at CICLOPE Latino 2021. Using some beautiful animation, the film shows the greatness of the forest and the destructive power of mankind, bringing forest characters to life in order to raise awareness in a sensitive way about an urgent issue that needs to be addressed. In this Q&A, Daniel Salles, Executive Creative Director and Partner at Zombie Studios, and director Paulo Garcia share some insights on this moving and breathtaking project. You can also watch the behind the scenes video below.
What was the brief you received?
Moby wanted to raise awareness in a sensitive way about this worrying situation of the Amazon rainforest deforestation, generated by the meat and dairy industry. He had just one brief: ‘Show me the horror of deforestation; I don’t want anything poetic, only the truth’. It totally made sense for us as Brazilians to work on a project which subject is the Amazon deforestation. It was a chance to work on something that we believe in.
What was the main challenge of this particular project?
“My only love” is a 3 minutes film with lots of smoke, fire and a huge forest scenario, which made this a very expensive project. The main challenge was to find an art direction that could fit in our budget.
“It seems as if we’re confronted with new catastrophes on an almost daily basis, but while we deal with these horrors the climate emergency just gets worse and worse”, says DJ and activist Moby.
How did the the song influence your work?
We have been fans of Moby since the 90s, so when he approached us to work on this project, it hit us like a dream. In “My only love” you jump straight into the narrative, and feel the fear of losing someone you love. I think this is the power of animation – you can tell any story, even the worst, without being too explicit, while grabbing the attention of viewers.
What’s your favorite sequence in the music video?
I have two. The first one is the sequence in which the forest is on fire and we show the real drama of the animals trying to escape from the fire, burning their paws and dying. I like it because it portrays something that really happens out there and is also a very emotional and sad part. The second one is the hunters shooting the Jaguar on its head. Both sequences show the greatness of the forest and the destructive power of mankind.
FULL CREDITS
MOBY – “MY ONLY LOVE”
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Zombie Studios & BlinkInk
ARTIST: Moby
ANIMATION and VFX COMPANY: Zombie Studio
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Daniel Salles
DIRECTOR: Paulo Garcia
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Natalia Gouvêa and Josef Byrne
ACCOUNT SERVICES: Stefanie Dias Original
SCRIPT: Paulo Garcia
SCRIPT ADAPTATION: Natalia Mamede
ANIMATION PRODUCER: André Carvalho
CGI LEAD: Wallan Oliveira, Claudio Junior, Rafael Segnini
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Wallan Oliveira
TECHNICAL SUPERVISOR: Isaac Buzzola
STORYBOARD AND ANIMATIC: Saulo Brito and Gabriel São Marcos
ANIMATION DIRECTOR: Patrick Botton
LEAD MODELLER: Mauricio Sampaio
LEAD LOOK DEVELOPMENT: Claudio Junior
LEAD COMPOSITION: Leandro Amorim, Isaac Buzzola
CONCEPT ART: Estevão Teuber, Anna Caiado, Feppa Rodrigues
LIVE ACTION DIRECTOR: André Lefcadito (Estilingue Films)
COLOR GRADING: Marcio Pasqualino (Psycho n’ Look)
For more information on this project visit Zombie Studio’s website.
