Coldplay – Adventure of a Lifetime
2015 · Directed by Mat Whitecross
7.1M Likes
Best comments
1.“Respect for the cameraman who went back in time to film this legendary moment.”
More comments
- 2.“Seeing this live with the HR of my company is the ultimate dream.”
- 3.“'Affair of a Lifetime.'”
The story
This one started on a plane. Chris Martin got talking with Andy Serkis, the motion-capture actor who played King Kong, and about six months later Coldplay were four chimpanzees.
Long-time collaborator Mat Whitecross directed it at The Imaginarium, Serkis's motion-capture studio. The band played the chimps themselves, faces dotted with reflective makeup and head-mounted cameras catching every twitch, miming with stand-in props instead of real instruments. Paris effects house Mathematic turned the data into fur, and choreographer Holly Blakey worked out the moves. Producer Hannah Clark said chimps are about the hardest creature to animate, because they move so much like people. And then there's the hair.
In the forest, the chimps find a Beats Pill speaker under a pile of leaves, dance through the chorus, then stumble onto a guitar, a bass and a drum kit. They bang on everything until it starts making sense and become an ape band. Jonny's chimp gets a hat, Guy's gets an earring, and in the end Chris's chimp climbs a tree and looks out over a forest dotted with Indian temples, a nod to the album's Indian inspiration.
It was the lead single from A Head Full of Dreams, the same album that gave us the popcorn volcano of Up&Up. Stargate co-wrote and co-produced it, it reached number 7 in the UK and 13 in the US, and the video has passed 1.6 billion views. Evolution in five minutes, with a backbeat.
