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Hak Baker 'Irrelevant Elephant' by Jon E Price

Rob Ulitski - 11th Oct 2021

Hak Baker faces up to addiction, in Jon E Price's reflective promo for Irrelevant Elephant. 

The party is over, and Baker is shown hanging around his flat, seriously hungover and drowning in apathy, as an animated elephant begins to invade each frame. 

Starting off as a carefree, colourful character, the elephant - who appears when Hak thinks about taking to the booze again  - soon distorts into an unwelcome and menacing presence.

As his addictions take hold, the artist has to find the inner strength to take back control.

JON E PRICE:

It's always an enjoyable collaborative process [with Hak] and this is our most ambitious project to date.

"The video for Irrelevant Elephant is a product of the last 18 months. It symbolises the sometimes desperate times we’ve all endured, in this case looking to the bottom of a bottle for escapism and not putting it back. It’s a playful and brilliantly understated performance from Hak who lays bare his own relationship with alcohol in a truly honest way.

"An early reference from Hak was Dumbo’s Pink Elephant Parade and really the catalyst for the video’s concept. We liked the menace, the surrealness and the charming nostalgic style. But rather than a straight up animation, I wanted to take the Max Fleischer-esque style and overlay it to our own live action drama.

"I liked the idea of the elephant in the room becoming more of a nuisance, physically sharing and occupying the same frame, always looming. What at first seems harmless, once you scratch away at the surface, darkness lay beneath, and in our case, the party's over and addiction will rear its ugly head.

"Hak’s music is so lyrical, laced with personal stories and anecdotes so I wanted the use of an elephant to have a visual and emotional meaning rather than just something fun to look at.

"Myself and Producer Jack Filtness worked with US-based illustrator Bryson Williams and Leeds-based animator Prathik Poojary. It was great developing the look and characteristics of the elephant and how it would move and occupy space. Bryon has a great sense of identity in his work so it was really exciting to see him apply this to the elephant and then Prathik to eventually bring it all to life.

"Hak’s music, ethos and definitely his live shows are punk, no doubt about it. Individuality, DIY ethic and anti-establishment is deep rooted in his music and that’s why he’s such an exciting artist. His music is raw and colourful, so bringing it to life with film is always an enjoyable collaborative process and Irrelevant Elephant is our most ambitious project to date."

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Rob Ulitski - 11th Oct 2021

Tags

  • Animation
  • Director's notes
  • Pick of the Day
  • Alternative
  • Singer-songwriter
  • Folk
  • Addiction
  • Reflective
  • House
  • Performance

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Credits

Production/Creative

Director
Jon E Price
Producer
Jack Filtness
Production Company
Executive Producer
Tom Berendsen
1st AD
Chris Mears

Camera

Director of Photography
Harry Wheeler
Focus Puller
Emmy Robinson
2nd AC
Max Openshaw

Lighting/Grip

Gaffer
Lee Partfit

Art

Art Director
Jenny Gardiner

Wardrobe

Wardrobe
Lewis Munro
Make-up
Lucinda Worth

Editorial

Editor
Dave Davis
Editing company

Grading

Colourist
Rich Fearon
Colour grade company

VFX

Post Producer
Jade Deene

Commission

Label
Hak Attack Records

Other credits

Illustration & Character Design. Bryson Williams

Animation Director. Prathik Poojary

Production Assistant

Steve Charalambous

Grip

Michael Farrell

Playback

Chaz Northam

Data Wrangler

Jack Peters

Spark

Dax Sharkey

Spark

Kev Roberts

Art Assistant

Lydia Reed

Art Assistant

Daniel Miles

Styling Assistant

Louis Holsgrove

Runner

Phoebe Mulvihill

Medic

Richard Hayward

Edit Producer. Tatyana Alexandra

Sound Designer. Marcin Pawlik @ 750mph

Engineer Producer. Martin Critchley

Rob Ulitski - 11th Oct 2021

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