Director Léa Esmaili, freshly signed to BlinkInk last fall, lets loose her inner maniac in this bizarro mashup of live-action, CG, and stop-motion, a perfect next step in the evolving eccentricities of American singer/songwriter Ashnikko.

Esmaili’s film follows Ashnikko’s equally over the top 2023 “Worms” video by fellow BlinkInk director Raman Djafari who handled CG character design duties on this project.

Léa Esmaili: “Working on this project was like someone saying ‘yes’ to all your craziest ideas. It’s the best of both worlds between Ash and me and it feels so refreshing to have this freedom with such big artists.
 

Léa Esmaili: “Working on this project was like someone saying ‘yes’ to all your craziest ideas.”

 
“I love still frames that leave a mark, so I thought of creating striking tableaux with the common thread being the trinkets and these human-shaped figures. Ashnikko is an artist who knows how to project herself and loves surrealism, humor, color, and contrast, which helped in terms of the video’s substance.

The challenge was in the form, with the setup of so many different crafts. It was essential that no matter the tableau or the craft, everything came together into one coherent video. For each sequence, a team of several artists was involved and we went from detailed storyboards to real-life tests.

“I love giving artists freedom because that’s when we do our best work, so I gave precise directions but left room for their own style and you can really see that in this project. It’s a true team effort.”
 
 

 
Artist: Ashnikko
Label: Parlophone Records
Video Commissioner: Imran Malik
Artist Management: George Shepherd

Production: BlinkInk
Director: Léa Esmaili
Animation Director: Renee Zhan
EP: Josef Byrne
Head of Production: Alex Halley
Producer: Maddy Williams, Jake River Parker
Production Manager: Charlie Herbert
DOP: Joe Gainsborough
DOP (Stop Motion): George Warren
VFX Supervisor: Stephen McNally
CG Character Design: Raman Djafari
CG Character Animation: Klaas Boeur
CG Character Lighting and Rendering: Barnaby Abrahams
CG Environment Build: Mike Luard
2D Animator: Alina Besanidou
Stop Motion Animator: Steve Warne, Honor Price
Puppet Maker: Catherine Prowse
Puppet Maker Assistant: Emma Niemis
Clean Up: Weiden Wong, Reg Isaac
Titles and Credits: Radheya Jegatheva
1st AC: James Wick
2nd AC: Joe Medlock
1st AD: Freddie Wright
2nd AD: Beth Jespersen
DIT: Alicia Stroud
Grip: Jay Mathews
Playback Operator: Remy Trafford
Gaffer: Charlie Relph
Spark: Gianni Morreale, Sam Cheal, Romy Roulin
Production Designer: Sehar Kidwai
Art Department Assist: Edoardo Parada, Alex Smith, Christian Johnsons, Max Stranger, Jordan Chandler
Prop Maker: Areeya Bass
Runner: Radheya Jegatheva, Divine-Favour Owoola

Post: Blinkink
Animatic Editor: Radheya Jegatheva
Character Designer: Daniel Tarrant, Bárbara Oliveira
Concept Design: Camille Perrin, Tiago Calliari
Storyboards: Theo Scott
Editor: Ruby Cara Sandler
Lead Compositor: Tom Fisher
Compositor: Ross McDowell, Corinne Ladeine, Daniel Hawkins, Maria Tedemalm
Rotoscoping: Team Digital

VFX: Artist Building
VFX Supervisor: Shivam Solanki
VFX Producer: Yash Agrawal
VFX: 2xvroum, Jyhakin

Color: Studio RM
Colorist: Jack McGinity
EP: Mike Coley
Color Producer: Ella Hill