Tessa Chong contrasts Japanese landscapes and cityscapes for Super Magic Hats video

Music: inspired by her travels to Japan, Melbourne-based director Tessa Chong has depicted a “moving tapestry of city life” for Super Magic Hats’ track Transpose (+ movie).

Illustrator Chong was brought on board by Super Magic Hats‘ Rob Masterton after he saw the album artwork she had created for another band.

“I had dabbled in animation, but never done a music video before so it was lucky he was willing to take that risk,” Chong told Dezeen.

After Masterton had sent Chong his reference material, such as photos from his travels and other film clips, the pair decided to base the video on Japanese cityscapes and landscapes.

“It all began with the idea of animating footage from a train window,” she said. “From there, I decided it should be based around Japan, since we both had been reminiscing about our travels there.”

“The idea is that it’s kind of a moving tapestry of city life,” she continued. “It captures the feeling of being in a new city for the first time, trying to take everything in, feeling overwhelmed yet excited at the same time.”

Each element of the video was drawn in Illustrator and Photoshop, with watercolour brushes used to add texture.

In some frames, rolling landscapes in pastel colours were used to reflect the “dream-like” feel of the track.

Other scenes are much faster in pace and feature cityscapes in contrasting black and neon colours – a reference to the Vaporwave music genre, which celebrates retro video game aesthetics.

Each scene was then edited together according to changes in the music. It took around four months to complete.

Transpose is out now on Hush Hush Records and is available to purchase through Bandcamp.

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