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46. TSC, "Bunny"
1 year ago
39. THE MACHINE
2 years ago
33. Thom Yorke, "Harrowdown Hill"
2 years ago
DIRECTOR Chel White
STUDIO Bent Image Lab - bentimagelab.com
MUSIC BY Thom Yorke

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke describes this song as his most political work. "Harrowdown Hill," is part of Yorke's solo album, "The Eraser," which released in August 2006. After seeing the short films of Chel White, Yorke sought him out to direct his next music video.

White, who is co-founder of Bent Image Lab in Portland, OR, chose to incorporate an innovative technique that he and the rest of the Bent artists had been researching previous to this project. Dubbed Smallgantics, the technique takes footage of large objects (rivers, factories, city skylines) and makes them appear as though they are actually miniatures. In "Harrowdown Hill," Chel used aerial footage from the pacific north west to be miniaturized using Smallgantics.

Smallgantics, inspired by tilt-shift photography, took the principles inherent with using tilt-shift lenses (Lenses that sit at an angle in comparison to the film plane, creating a sloped focal plane which can at times simulate short depth of field and can distort the apparent size of subjects), and pushed them to a new level. Instead of the apparent blurriness of the subject matter being dependent on its vertical alignment in the picture, Bent broke the image up into its apparent planes of depth. So, just like in actual shallow depth of field, it is the subject's proximity to the lens that determines its sharpness.

The process involves splitting the footage up into several vertical planes that move back over the perceived z-axis, or into the image along its perceived depth. These planes are then affected with varying degrees of blur to simulate a shallow depth of field. If done right, the amount of blur increases smoothly as it moves along the planes of the image. Next, these levels of blur are animated to simulate a change in focus or to compensate for the forward movement of the camera.

Chel White's video for Thom Yorke's, "Harrowdown Hill," won Best Music Video at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2007, ResFest 10, and The Worldwide Short Film Festival. It was nominated for Best Music Video and Best Special Effects at MVPA and FutureShorts.

"The winner of this year's South by Southwest (SXSW) music video award is described as 'a quietly intense call to consciousness in an age of disinformation, preemptive war and unprecedented governmental secrecy.' Thom Yorke's 'Harrowdown Hill,' directed by Chel White, offers a visually compelling bird's eye view of some of the biggest challenges facing our society today, including global warming and petroleum consumption." -MusicVideoWire.com

LINKS:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_shift
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chel_White

BUY THE DVD:
microcinemadvd.com/product/DVD/553/Fever_Dreams_and_Heavenly_Nightmares_The_Short_Films_of_Chel_White.html
  • Juztn plus 2 years ago
    Love it. The best and first when it comes to tilt shift filming and the song is frickn awesome too. Thanks for posting it on Vimeo :)
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  • kateopolis 2 years ago
    Your process probably jump-started the whole tilt-shift craze.
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  • Viet Tran 2 years ago
    Beautiful.
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  • Autobotika.Niko 2 years ago
    Woah, i missed this video.
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  • Fabián Ortiz 2 years ago
    Using tilt shift, great, i love it!
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  • Benjamin Dowie 2 years ago
    Holy cow. Flaming unreal.
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  • Nathan Pierce 2 years ago
    Awesome.
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  • Eric Monroy 2 years ago
    Thom York is the best.
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  • Cassidy Cagle plus 2 years ago
    I really thought this was a cool video.
    What exactly is tilt-shift?
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  • Clara Bonn 2 years ago
    *screams*
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  • Mike Kelly 2 years ago
    Wow! This is terrific work. The film, the directing and editing are as good as it gets !
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  • Dragoș Gavrilă 2 years ago
    Classic :)
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  • sandesh 2 years ago
    lovely..
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  • sam spreckley 2 years ago
    interesting mix of techniques.. really great direction ;)
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  • Brennan L. 2 years ago
    I think the manual Z mapping was how they used to make artificial tilt-shifts (using a normal lens, then focusing digitally) until people became incredibly lazy and just applied a simple blur to everything, regardless of Z height.

    I think it makes a world of difference, but it's a lot more work.

    This is worth it.
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  • Guilherme Pedreiro 2 years ago
    very good!
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  • Bent Image Lab 2 years ago
    Brennan, you are correct. Here is some more information about the technique we developed: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallgantics
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  • Phil LeGuardien 2 years ago
    Wow. I am really moved by this piece of art.
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  • bernardo zuñiga 2 years ago
    Sorprendentemente impactante, muy bueno el video ,la verdad ,da gusto saber que en la vida existe gente haga cosas tan buenas como estas. felicitaciones.
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  • Ken Lusk 2 years ago
    Thom, you're so awesome. Excellent track my friend.
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  • Nathalie Klinck 2 years ago
    That was excellent. I've always wondered though, how is it possible to pan a time-lapse shot?
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  • Bent Image Lab 2 years ago
    Hello Nathalie.

    This is Nando, so I won't answer for Chel (the director) on how it was done here, but you can pan a time-lapse through a motion control device.

    Essentially it's a computer controlled contraption that holds the camera and is able to take shots either manually or in a pre-set time sequence. while simultaneously following a path / track.

    The length of the movement is only limited by the length of the track and the specifics of each kind of motion control machine.

    We have a couple of those here at Bent, so we often use them and that is probably how the shots on this video were achieved.
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  • Ginger 2 years ago
    the visual effect of this was mind-boggling...
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  • Jake Taylor 2 years ago
    Gorgeous :) That's the only word I have for this.
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  • Vanessa Rondon 2 years ago
    Amazing, both the video and the song
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  • deff 2 years ago
    great
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  • Lawrence O'Mara 2 years ago
    Brilliant. Smallgantics is amazing as are the time lapses at the end. Of course, the song is great too.
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  • Valdese Jones 2 years ago
    blown away.
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  • gahs 2 years ago
    amazing!
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  • VJ FORESIGHT 2 years ago
    This video has become one of my favorites, love it to death.
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  • Jean Penninck 2 years ago
    !!!
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  • Everfalling 1 year ago
    i find it interesting that most of the times I've seen that animated bird footage in a video it's never attributed to the original called "Pan with Us" by David Russo. you'd think it'd at least get mentioned in the video summery if not in the actual credits of the video... at least it's mentioned in the wikipedia entry for the song.
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  • Bent Image Lab 1 year ago
    Dear Everfalling. Thank you for your comment. David Russo IS the animator on this music video and did animate all of the eagle segments. For a summative credit list, please go to this link:

    smallgantics.com/pages/HH_Video.htm
  • Victor Ingrassia plus 1 year ago
    whew... cool... i initially had the same reaction as Everfalling. Happy to know David Russo was involved. Neeeeedless to say his work is amazing!
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  • Choi In Seok 1 year ago
    Why does Thom always sink in the water? but he's great and his eyes are shining.
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  • [Mundane] 1 year ago
    Magnifico!
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  • faustine ferrer 1 year ago
    i am in love . Absolutely breathtaking ! i love it . so deep , like deep in the water, the ideas coming out from deepin our dreams ... ioften dreamt if would end up like this ... i m afraid ! in noyade !
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  • Nigel lancelot 9 months ago
    Freaking awesome!
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  • Montse Cota 8 months ago
    Thom Yorke makes all with talent and class, love it :)
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  • alancromwell 6 months ago
    aja
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  • Kyle Hess 6 months ago
    i dont have a $5000 doller camera and lighting system, but i love making stop motion shorts, recording my music, and being creative.. id love for you to watch them
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  • 413 Studios plus 2 months ago
    post production tilt-shift effect?
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  • Amazing Work!
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  • Jack McKay 2 months ago
    Incredible images!
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  • bazu 1 month ago
    nice frame on our time!
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