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Music

BRNFKD's New Music Video Casts Aliens into a Chasm of Intimacy [Premiere]

Wait for the best digital alien hug ever in BRNFKD's "Sixteen."

A literal deep-dive into the emotions around intimacy and overwhelming feelings awaits viewers of BRNFKD's new music video for "Sixteen" feat. Camille Michelle Gray. Directed by Clarita Luzian, who works under the digital art alias Render_Fruit, the video follows a genderless silver alien zooming deep into a morphing crystaline cavern. Watching the video, you become immersed in BRNFKD's laid back beats and Gray's angelic voice just as fully as the alien is immersed in water.

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"As soon as I heard the song I had this vision of going deeper and deeper into dark waters, but with a sense of calm and confidence, of letting go, love, and intimacy," Render_Fruit tells The Creators Project. In keeping with the theme of immersion in the story of this video, she even felt completely subsumed by the production process. "Making a video takes a long time," she explains. "I always feel like hibernating into a dream of deep feelings, thoughts, battles won and lost, and not being available for the rest of the world until the video is finished. Of course in the real world I go on with my everyday life but there is always a big latent part of me committed to the video, and the song is always in my head, like in a movie!"

Render_Fruit creates her etherial visuals with Cinema 4D and Adobe AfterEffects, a combo she's applied to show visuals, music videos, and short animations for artists like Kanye West, Rihanna, Frank Ocean, Miley Cyrus, and M.I.A. She also did the cover art for BRNFKD's eponymous new EP, which "Sixteen" comes from. We spoke to Render_Fruit about her process, how the concept of the video changed, and working with BRNFKD.

The Creators Project: How did you feel when you first heard "Sixteen”? 

Render_Fruit: Oh, the song… I fell deeply in love the first time I heard it, it touched my heart. I felt that the empathy needed to put my soul to work.

What was your initial vision for the video, and how did it change as you worked on it?

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Well, as soon as I heard the song I had this vision of going deeper and deeper into dark waters, but with a sense of calm and confidence, of letting go, love, and intimacy. Those are strong images already, so I worked to give them context with style and direction and bring my ideas to life. I also came up with the idea of finding the other part, the other mate after this long deep trip down into the water and staying there in a hug that lasts forever.

How much creative input did BRNFKD have on the video? What was working together like?

Working with them was so pleasant right from the beginning when we did the cover for the EP. Then they gave me this BEAUTIFUL song along with total freedom to fly and create. I think this is the best combination when a group of artists work together on one idea: everyone giving their all to their part of the process and letting the others do what they know the best. They are such talented and kind people!

What kind of concepts do you like to explore when making a music video, as opposed to a GIF? How is your creative process different in each?

I take a very different approach to each. As you can imagine, making a video takes a long time, I always feel like hibernating into a dream of deep feelings, thoughts, battles won and lost, and not being available for the rest of the world until the video is finished. Of course in the real world I go on with my everyday life but there is always a big latent part of me committed to the video, and the song is always in my head, like in a movie!

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GIFs are, in a way, less pressure, they are shorter in time, but still strong in concepts. It generally depends if they are standalone concepts (they have their own meaning and story)  or if they are synthetic concepts belonging to bigger pieces like a music video, in which case they are attached to the previous idea.

Anyway, I really enjoy doing both GIFs and videos!

What else are you working on?

I am currently working on different commissioned works: some promotional video loops for different Instagram accounts (people and products), some visual packages containing several loops for different artist's live shows, some animated posters and covers and some illustrations for print.

See more of Render_Fruit's work on her website. Listen to more BRNFKD here, or download the new EP [on iTunes](http:// http://nowadays.lnk.to/BRNFKD).

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