Light emanates through cut-out silhouettes of people extracted from the real world in this eerily beautiful music video for Broken Bells. “Good Luck,” directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch and Nelson de Castro, was envisioned with the help of a creative team I had such a pleasure to be a part of.
A ghostly figure hitches a ride in “Broken Bells - Good Luck,” directed Kimberly Stuckwisch and Nelson de Castro
Stuckwish shares the intricacies of pulling off this stunning analog effect: “We laser cut over 4000 frames [of film] and used a practical stop motion light ray effect achieved by mixing old school animation techniques and practical smoke and haze over live-action footage, to create an eerily atmospheric new dimension.”
“Ryan Ross (Visual Effects), Mark Nicholas (Special Effects Supervisor), and Ian Blair (Producer) locked themselves in separate rooms for weeks rotoscoping, with Ryan animating, and Mark laser cutting card stock for each frame. Nelson [de Castro, co-director] then took the laser cut frames and put them over a light box, shooting haze & light through.”
“All of the light and haze permeating from the characters was done practically - giving it the texture you see in the video. I’m pretty sure Nelson’s house is coated in oil forever from the hazer he had going for weeks filming all the light box stop motion still frames during the quarantine! Ryan then overlaid the light and haze back in for each frame over the original image…Every shot called for it’s own unique post workflow and my brain still hurts from trying to figure this all out.”
Flynn Zanco portrays a young boy disintegrating into this “atmospheric new dimension.”
A one-of-a-kind experience, it further reminded me that great things can be achieved through perseverance and teamwork. See the entire film on Tidal, and stick around to see what I was able to contribute to this extraordinary world. No spoilers!
CAST & CREW
Directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch and Nelson de Castro
Produced by Ian Blair
Cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo
Production Design by Jade Spiers
VFX Supervision by Ryan Ross
Special Effects Supervision by Mark Nicholas
Edited by Nour Oubeid
Costume Design by Kimberly Stuckwisch
Starring: Flynn Zanco, James Forbis, Chad Carr, Linda Michaels, Kathy Gorlick, Teddy Williams, Codey Huckins, Brice Owen, Steve Zanco and C. Jobe
1st AD: Jeff Cobb
PM: Christina Jobe
1st AC: Ryan Sax
2nd AC: Caitlyn Brown
Gaffer/2nd Unit DP: Justin Moore
Best Boy Electric: Monty Sloan
Swing: Khoi Nguyen
Art Director: Steele O’Neal
2nd Unit Camera PA: Haley Meyers
Color: Alastor Arnold
Animation: Nelson De Castro
Additional Special Effects: Spencer Hall and Nicolas Putnam
Titles: Sean David Christensen
PA’s: Eric Weed, Isaias Rojano, Ted Morissette
Shot on Kodak film and processed by FotoKem in Los Angeles.