Shynola’s video for How To Destroy Angels’ How Long, sees HTDA’s Trent Reznor fulfil a longstanding ambition to work with the legendary British animators/directors/visual artists. The outcome is, perhaps not surprisingly, a searingly bleak vision of the future, with some haunting imagery – photographed by Robbie Ryan. This is a futureworld where civilisation has been lost, and the remaining vestiges of the human race irreparably changed, focussing on perhaps its last three survivors…
Shynola have explained that they “had a great conversation where the band articulated their ideas about modern identity, the effect of technology on culture and our inability to connect with others. We’re fascinated by anthropology and coincidentally we had been toying with ideas for a feature film about a post-technology civilization, in which humans have reverted to primitive behavior. Sometimes things just fit together.”
For his part Trent Reznor says: “[Shynola's] work is visually striking and consistently stands out. When we started talking about possible directors to work with for ‘How long,’ their name came up right away. It’s been an honor to finally work with them, and to get their wholly unique interpretation of the themes we’ve been exploring with this record and this song.”
How To Destroy Angels
How Long (Sony Columbia)
Director: Shynola
Prod co: Black Dog Films
Producer: Jacob Swan-Hyam
DOP: Robbie Ryan
Art Director: Ruth Crawford
Costume: Minna Attala
Editor: Julia Knight
Commissioner: Byan Younce
Watch: Quicktime movie