Synopsis
A lonely man drinks in a bar, a hungry boy scavenges through Brooklyn, and a young woman watches a strange television program in her living room. As unexplained forces begin to disturb their separate realities, the three encounter vivid colors, expanding clouds, levitating movement, exploding eggs, and a mysterious feast. Their ordinary surroundings gradually fracture, revealing a surreal parallel world filled with geometric forms and glowing smoke. The video ends with the woman being drawn toward this alternate dimension, leaving the transformation unresolved and dreamlike.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video was shot in Brooklyn, New York, using a mixture of real locations and studio setups.
- Production lasted four days, divided between location work and studio filming for scenes requiring visual effects.
- Cause & 1 handled the project in-house, including concept development, editing, animation, design, visual effects, and compositing.
- The floating dance sequence was created through careful rigging and rotoscoping. The performer's professional dance background helped make the later compositing appear more natural.
- The visual effects combined Maya-generated smoke with environments created in LightWave and Modo. After Effects was used for the compositing.
- The production team described the video's central concept as a world where colors and shapes behave like living organisms.
- The strange television segment features John Brodeur as the "Man from Another Dimension."
- "Lazuli" was released on June 6, 2012, as part of the promotional campaign for Beach House's album "Bloom."
- The song's title refers to lapis lazuli, a deep-blue metamorphic rock. The color was echoed in the limited Record Store Day vinyl edition of the single.