Deux Pieds

Based on French composer Thomas Fersen’s Deux Pieds (“Two Feet”) song, this music video created by Jerôme Combe and André Bessy elaborates on the aesthetic the authors used on their previous toon-shaded video, Respire (“Breathe”). In this video the authors combine a CG aesthetic with naturalistic, fluid movements.

Two characters and their different personal rhythms are portrayed. The woman, living in a fast world, and the man, in a slow one. Camera, editing and the pace of the characters (body language) are employed to transmit these, using fast camera moves, jump cuts, a break of the 180 degree rule and ellipses when the woman is present, and slow moves and longer takes when the man is present.

Following the lyrics of the song, the video pays homage to the laziness of the character and uses shot types that go from full shots to close-ups to describe both the character as well as the environment he lives in. The story is staged in an urban setting (Paris), which is also given an important role in the video and seems to interact with the character at some points.

Conflict is handled in an interesting way. It’s established from the beginning, but it affects the characters very differently.

An interesting note, musician Thomas Fersen acted the role of the lazy man in the video. The singer played the part of the character and his movements were recorded through motion capture technique.