Delving deeper into the world of the Unnatural Helpers was a daunting task as ever, but the intrepid SUPERSWEET thrust up to the elbow to find out what went on behind the scenes of the fantastic 'clay-mation' video for latest single 'Girl In The Window'. Animator and director Owen Cook explains how a dead tree was central to the creation of the video and claims that the bloodthirsty Helpers wanted 'more gore and explosions'. Meanwhile, band member Dean Whitmore fully admits he personally called for the video to be 'sicker'...
DIRECTOR - OWEN COOK
SS: What did you interpret from the song before creating the animation? Did you have any input from the band?
Owen: I talked with Dean and we were both pretty sure we wanted the video to feature claymation. I wanted to film the band hanging out with claymation monsters at a party but I couldn't get up to Seattle. So Andrew's buddy Patrick Wright got some house party footage, and I made the rest of the video in my apartment in Oakland. I was lucky enough to use the talent of Max Nordile and Shannon Shaw to my advantage, who play the mad scientist unabomber and damsel in distress respectively. The band helped me decide on using more gore and explosions at the end, which perhaps adds a more timeless quality to the video.
SS: Can you give us a summary of the story of the video?
Owen: There is an old Seattle punk guy doing some birdwatching, and he sees a young woman in a window who catches his eye. There's also a sort of unabomber in another window making a bomb. Strange metallic birds cover the sky. A police man tries to take control of the situation but his eyes are gouged out by the metal birds. The unabomber blows himself up and the peeping tom is knocked to the ground. In the end he grabs his binoculars one last time to try to find something to make sense of it all.
SS: What was the process you used for the animation?
Owen: I used plasticine models and a dead tree I pulled from the ground next to my house. I also used the computer to put everything together.
BAND - DEAN WHITMORE FROM UNNATURAL HELPERS
SS: What's the tale or concept being told in the song? Please dissect the song for us if you can...
Dean Whitmore: The song is simply about loving someone you can’t have. I let Owen do whatever he wanted with the video. I thought it’d be more interesting to see how he interpreted it and hoped it’d give the tune added dimensions. The only thing I added was suggesting it could be sicker really.
SS: Why did you decide to go with an animator for the video?
Dean: We didn’t set out find an animator for the video. Owen is friends with Andrew in the band and he mentioned wanting to do a video when we played with his band Hobocop (fantastic!) in Oakland. When I saw the stuff that he’d done I said yes, yes, please, please, please.