Human Behaviour Takes a Violent Turn in Gayle and Blackbear's Playful Stop Motion Video

Directed by Chris Ullens, this bright and colourful dark comedy promo sees miniature Gayle and Blackbear failing at being good neighbours in the most extravagant ways. Think Celebrity Deathmatch meets Groundhog Day, a playful stop-motion tale of human behaviour gone wrong. 

Shot in four weeks, this neighbour bashing, arm cooking, hotdog eating stop-motion music video was a mammoth undertaking by seasoned stop-mo director Chris Ullens. In stop-motion jobs normally, there is usually time saved for post-production to erase all the visible rigging used, especially when things are in mid-air. In this film, as we had no time for post, the DIY aesthetics were embraced and it totally works. 

The film was a work of spontaneous inspiration as Chris notes in this story from the production - “The measuring tape scenario was never meant to happen as the scenario I initially planned instead of that was impossible to make happen in the time and budget we had. Realising that and panicking slightly, I took a zombie walk (seeing off the endless long days of animating) at 11 pm through Clapham Road studios to make myself a coffee and it was during that walk that I had my eureka moment. There was a measuring tape in the workshop (and  you can see the measuring tape in the video says ‘Clapham Road Studios’) that fitted the white miniature chair from our set perfectly, and I thought the mechanics of a measuring tape would make for a fun playful death. So yeah, inspiration is all around you, even when you’re a caffeinated zombie”.