Synopsis
We Have Band perform inside a constantly mutating digital space where faces, hands, bodies and geometric fragments break apart, recombine and float across a black background. Rather than following a literal storyline, the video treats "Someone" as a shifting new entity assembled from Darren, Dede and Tom. Live-action performance footage is transformed into a colorful, video-game-like 3D collage, with flickering textures, animated shapes and layered images moving in time with the song's bright electronic energy.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video's central concept was to imagine "Someone" as an additional entity created from the three members of We Have Band, rather than presenting them simply as performers.
- An Xbox Kinect was used as an improvised motion-capture sensor. Its point-cloud data recorded the band as three-dimensional meshes made from dots, which were then manipulated in post-production.
- The production combined Kinect data with footage shot simultaneously on an Alexa HD camera. Images from the camera were projected onto the digital meshes, helping create the effect of the performers' faces breaking into pieces.
- Another technique involved filming the band from 14 different angles and projecting those images onto computer-generated 3D models. The result gives parts of the performers the appearance of textured video-game avatars.
- The visual effects were built with Maya and After Effects, combining 2D animation, 3D animation and live-action footage.
- Los Angeles artist Vince McKelvie supplied the animated GIFs and backgrounds used throughout the collage. His work was incorporated because of its distinctly internet-based visual character.
- The Kinect was not entirely dependable during production, so the team developed alternative methods to achieve the desired collage effect.
- The project required two intensive weeks of post-production. The band reportedly remained patient and trusting despite seeing the finished visual approach only close to the delivery date.
- "Someone" was released as an early track from We Have Band's third album, "Movements," which arrived in April 2014.