Gramatik – Solidified
2012 · Directed by Brad Hasse
2.3K Likes
Best comments
1.“Found this song listed in an old notebook I found. I don't know who owned it, but she had good taste in music.”
More comments
- 2.“This video's dope as hell. The imagination it must take to think up this kind of shit... props to whoever it was.”
The story
Gramatik is Denis Jašarević, a producer born in Portorož, Slovenia, who ended up in New York making a mix of hip hop, trip hop and electronica. He's also a true believer in giving music away. He signed with Pretty Lights Music, whose model is free downloads, and he's talked openly about how piracy helped his career. Solidified was the first single from his 2012 EP #digitalfreedom, a record aimed at internet censorship bills like SOPA, PIPA and ACTA.
Director Brad Hasse wanted to play with bokeh, those soft colored circles you get from out-of-focus lights. The trick: tiny monster cutouts set in front of fast lenses racked out of focus, so the blurry lights turn into little creatures that move and seem to sing along. Hasse told HuffPost the animations all happened in camera, nothing added in post. The story is simple. An older man smokes something unidentified, and what first looks like smeared city lights turns into a gang of goblin silhouettes that torment him. Hasse picked goblins to keep things light and quirky against a heavy track.
A handful of tiny cutouts and a lens knocked out of focus. Low tech, big trip.
