In this hauntingly beautiful music video for Flying Lotus‘ track “Tiny Tortures,” Pulse Films’ director David Lewandowski takes us on a twisted journey into the mind of a recent amputee played by Elijah Wood, whose possessions slowly self-assemble to build him a new arm.
Elijah Wood (The Hobbit) convalesces in bed with a bandaged stump in place of his right arm. Maybe it’s magic, or meds, but his room slowly comes alive to create a bionic replacement and transport him into a fractal fantasy where his limb fully regenerates. It’s all a dream, maybe the result of watching Akira too often — but he wakes up to a change in his condition that proves something happened in his altered state.
“The impetus for this idea was from a director called Jaume Collet-Sera,” said Lewandowski. “He was slated to direct a live action version of Akira. I really liked the idea of someone doing all this telekinetic, hallucinatory, visual stuff on a big budget level. And then the project got cancelled. The thought of seeing that all photo-realistic really excited me, and then the project went away so I said I just have to do that kind of animation. So I wrote an idea from that despair of really wanting to see really interconnected, mechanical, psychic floating objects.”
Production Company, Pulse Films
Video Commissioner, Laura Tunstall
Music label: Warp Records
Director, David Lewandowski
Starring, Elijah Wood
VFX supervisor, Dustin Bowser
Cinematographer, Christian Sprenger
Line Producer, Christian Heuer
1st AD, Jesse Sternbaum
1st AC, Justin Watson
2nd AC, Jacqueline Stahl
Additional Assist, Ben Dislinger
Key Grip, Kyle Honnig
BB Grip, Tommy Villa
Set Photography, Theo Jemison
DIT, Chris Hoyle
Gaffer, Cody Jacobs
BB Electric, Brandon Wilson
Electric, Doug Biel
Key PA, Lori Altobelli
Production Assistant, Blair Neighbors
Makeup/Prosthetic Effects, Kate Mullin
Makeup Assist, Casey Wong
Stylist, Michelle Thompson
Production Designer, Alexander Delgado
Set dresser, Chad Bailey
Set dresser, Logan Noh
Set dresser, Chad Tomlinson
Production manager, Bryson Pintard
Production coordinator, Matthew Pittman
Concept art, Ben Mauro
Technical Supervisor/Animation, Patrick Goski
Animation/Modeling/Lighting, Alexander Lehnert
Animation, David Estis
Character TD, Bret Bays
Additional animation/Simulation/Matchmove, Josh Johnson
Additional animation/Illustration, William Mendoza
Illustration, Jake Portman