GO ON - BEHIND THE SCENES — JAMES SIEWERT DOT BIZ

GO ON (2022) - BEHIND THE SCENES

Sonic Boom approached me to follow up our 2020 collaboration on “Things Like This”. My first impression listening to the track was the metallic twang main riff reminded me of the sound pinball bumpers would make in a 90’s computer game.

We also wanted to call back to the 3D Sonic Boom head of “Things Like This” - so I proposed a video in which whose final reveal was Sonic Boom and Panda Bear as mechanical pinball people - connected by tubular trackways. A kind of symbolic representation of their collaboration - and an opportunity for me to dive deeper into my interest in anatomy, and the body’s beautiful structures.

Technically the video was a chance for me to sharpen my 3D skills - it involved building a lot of little systems for creation of pinball trackways, bumpers and lights, which was important for me to learn in anticipation of beginning my next film.

I’m always a bit ambivalent about making purely CGI videos - the results always feel a little antiseptic. But this too-clean aesthetic has its own emotional character - there is something hauntingly empty about the 3D worlds conjured by CGI. I guess this video is my take on the vaporwave and the backrooms aesthetic that evolved out of an atmosphere of post-human loneliness.