Peter Sluszka and Michel Gondry collaborated on a music video for Björk's track Crystalline off her album Biophilia. Crystalline takes place on the surface of the moon. Shooting lasers, growing crystals, hand drawn graphics, and doors that lead us to the core of a planet open while the classic Björk beats and chiming gamelans move us through the track. Björk is seen projected and re-projected to create the eerily haunting effect of her omnipresence in this video shot on a hand-cranked Bolex film camera.
Shot on 16mm Bolex cameras, Crystalline feels more like an experimental sci-fi film than a typical music video. Lighting effects were achieved through multiple exposures that involved backwinding or capping the lens to painstakingly capture numerous passes on one frame of film.
To ensure repeatable but modifiable actions, servo controlled LED rigs were custom designed and built. Bjork's performance was initially recorded against black on multiple cameras and then projected into the set against a spinning disc hovering above a cratered moonscape. Three projectors, arrayed along an arc at 30 degree intervals with synched performance create perspective shifts when the camera moves around the disc giving Bjork an ethereal, holographic presence.
Additionally, fabricated ice crystals, streaking comets, hammered metal drums nestled in moon craters, concentric sand patterns, and Gondry's abstract 2D drawings all contribute to the cosmic vibe.
The entire shoot, including fabrication, rigging, lighting design, animation, and artist performance was completed at Hornet's stage over the course of one intense month.
