White Swan

Lolly Jane Blue

2009 / 6:13 min

An exhausted girl trapped in darkness escapes into her imagination.

Featured Gnomon Workshop

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Best Music Video Rutger Hauer’s I’ve Seen Films Festival 2010, Milan, Italy | Best Music Performance Rutger Hauer’s I’ve Seen Films Festival 2010, Milan, Italy | Special Jury Prize World Music Video Amsterdam Film Festival 2010, Amsterdam, Netherlands | Special Jury Mention Musiclip Festival 2010, Barcelona, Spain | Best Music Video HDfest Event 2009, New York, USA | 2nd Prize Best Dutch Music Video Shoot Me Film Festival 2009, The Hague, Netherlands

Directed by Sil van der Woerd | Producer Sil van der Woerd, Trent | Executive Producer Trent | Director of Photography Keidrych Wasley | Lolly Jane Blue Anouk de Groot | Concept & Art Direction Sil van der Woerd | Pre Production Sil van der Woerd, Keidrych Wasley, Djovrie Krus, Lolly Jane Blue | Production Manager Kris van Veelen | Production Manager Ass’t Jochem Weststrate | Production Design Inez de Zwart, Greetje Mulder | Costume & Hair Design Djovrie Krus | Costume Design Ass’t Dagmar Lindeijer | Make Up Niels Jansen | Grip Peter van de Vugt | Focus Puller Xavier Amoros | Steadicam Ruben Sluijter, Floris van der Lee | Gaffer Kristof Collier | Gaffer Ass’t Pepijn Robben, Jonathan Wannyn, Roel Tanghe | Gaffer Trainees Hannes de Valekeneer, Liesbet de Loof, Pol Stinders, Famke Baeck, Kristof DB | Catering Kris van Veelen, Jochem Weststrate | Runner Jelle van der Woerd | VFX Sup. Sil van der Woerd | VFX Sup. Ass’t Evaldas Cesnavicius | Concept Art Jorik Dozy, Jake Raymor, Aernout van Pallandt | Modeling Lead Josh Herman | Modeling Rajbir Dhalla, Scott Line, Devon Fay, Ingin Kim, Johanna Daluz, Coleman Gib, Amanda Yoshida, Trevor Wallace, Ioannis Karathomas, Lorin Zilka, Nicole Torres | Texturing Lead Melissa Altobello | Texturing Gideon vandeGrift, Eric Miller, Nikki Coletta, Mahzad Shahriari, Chris Kroll, Scott Line, Devon Fay, Nitin Garg | Rigging Ebrahim Jahromi | Animation Wei-Chuan Hsu | Animation R&D Danny Wynne | Lighting Lead Evaldas Cesnavicius | Lighting Devon Fay, Cristina Whiteley | Rain Dynamics Jason Burton | Dynamics R&D Tefft Smith II | Realflow Artist Alexander Nietzold | Rendering Michael Cacciamani, Evaldas Cesnavicius, Devon Fay | Rotoscoping Lead Michael Cacciamani | Rotoscoping Christine Alpas, Josh Iwanski, Chris Perkowitz | Match Moving Lead Lisa Bacareza | Match Moving Evalda Cesnavicius, Brian Shaw | Matte Painting Jorik Dozy, Jake Raymor | Compositing Sil van der Woerd, Adam Deutsch | Edit Sil van der Woerd | Graphic Design Jorik Dozy | Music “White Swan” Performed by Lolly Jane Blue | Music Written by Lolly Jane Blue | Music Lolly Jane Blue, Erik Lanters | Music Producer Erik Lanters, Lolly Jane Blue | Audio Mix Erik Lanters | Guitars Erik Lanters | Bass Guitar Noe van de Klashorst | String Arrangements Vera de Geus | Sound Scape Renee Merkelbach | Made With Support Of Gnomon School of Visual Effects, TAX Videoclipfonds, Rotterdam Film Fonds, Genarts Sapphire | Special Thanks To MijnMuseum Beringen, Alex Alvarez, Elmar Noteboom, Radost Ridlen, Manuela Schmidt de Souza | All Rights Reserved 2009 Anouk de Groot, Sil van der Woerd

About The Project

The concept of the video started with the idea of having an outfit made from cotton candy, that would melt in the rain, and then play it back in revers, so that it would grow around singer Lolly Jane Blue while she was performing.

Lolly wrote the song White Swan to the concept, and it included a story of escapism.

To balance the sweet, pink world of cotton candy that would grow around Lolly, I placed the idea in a cold, dark, inhospitable industrial hall.

We found our location in a dead coal mine in Beringen, Belgium. The main hall where Lolly is first seen, was elevated 25 meters above the ground. It was 180 meters long and covered in black coal dust which made it almost impossible to light. The building had been dead for over 25 years and pieces were heard falling within the building throughout the production.

Lolly wanted her initial miserable state to be real, and so she spent 4 of the 5 nights of the shoot laying nude on a cold, concrete floor in the rain, which was groundwater temperature. Along-while, she had to lip-sync in reverse, while the water was dripping into her ear.

We used a combination of real cotton candy and pink dyed fabric, from which we built the dress and chandelier props.

The location and cotton candy world were extended with heavy visual effects, for which I worked with a crew of about 25 students from Gnomon, School of Visual Effects, in Hollywood.

Together, we spent about 9 months completing the project. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and one that I hold very dear, thanks to the incredible energy, spirit and dedication of the students.

Production

Presentation

Gnomon, School Of Visual Effects, 2009