For you baby, this brand new suede jacket is worth it.

“How could something so horrendous be so mesmerizing and beautiful at the same time?” That’s what I said to myself when I saw the video for “Strange Attractor” by indie band Animal Kingdom. Turns out director Ben Strebel had that very idea when thinking of the treatment of the video. “The challenge: to create something that is usually considered ugly and disgusting and to turn it into something watchable, hypnotic, even beautiful” he said in an interview to promonews.tv 

London-based director Ben Strebel is definitely on his way to high mainstream success if he continues on the path he’s currently on. Directing music videos for artists such as All Saints and Vivienne Westwood, he’s also managed to become a pretty successful television commercial director as well. Working with brands such as Magnum, Nokia, BMW, Audemars Piguet and In 2012 his music video/short film Once And For All won him an award at Cannes.

These are the types of directors and music videos that i love and one can appreciate. Something so simple, yet so complicated when you delve into the meaning or the concept behind it. I take it as this; most of us have been to a party, event or even a night club where we meet an irresistible person that we can’t take our eyes off of. As the event progresses and the two become more closer, we find ourselves discarding any actions made or done by that person that would be considered “unattractive” in any other situation. In other words, once the attraction is there, it’s there to stay. Hence in the video when the beautiful woman becomes sick, it’s almost a beautiful thing.

Definitely one of my favourites from 2012.

Check out the video, some behind the scenes and the director’s cut below:

Here are some behind the scenes of “Strange Attractor”
The model does a take of spitting out the beautiful “sickness” (never thought i’d ever say that)
A machine dubbed the “Sick-a-tron 2000” mimics the projectile sickness.

The footage had to be captured in super slow motion at 2500 frames per second to achieve hypnotism.

On the director’s cut:

“The hardest part was the opening shot, which remains uninterrupted for one and a half minutes. In a matter of seconds we had to completely transform the background, from club to studio, change the lighting state, while zooming in and out of her as well as giving cues and her hitting them on specific beats. It was supposed to be fairly provocative and I think the feedback thus far proves that.”