ALOK Memories

For Alok fans it is a moment of nostalgia, and this gift is for them. For us who recording for last 4 years the DJ Alok around the world was a moment of breathing and organizing files. At that moment we discovered a pattern of camera positioning in all the shows and then this stop-motion project was born.

Co-Direction by Gabriel Twardowski & Sérgio Twardowski
Sound Design: Mateus Polati & Jimmy Gressler
Agency: Artist Factory
Client: Alok
Thanks to: Alok Petrillo, André Bronx, Andressa Cunha, Felipe Lobo, Gabriel Lopes & Maria Alice Gazaniga.

We accompany the artist Alok on tours around the world since 2016, capturing material for his advertising, music videos, public actions, TV series, etc. During quarantine in Brazil because of the pandemic, it was a time for us to rest from the routine of shows and organize our files of the last 4 years.

We wanted to make a new movie using these old files, so we started searching about 900 hours of images (30 terabytes divided into 14 hard drives) looking for similar characteristics between the clips to see if it would be possible to execute a project in this sense.

In this two-month study, we realized there was a geographical and photographic pattern in the shows: the artist was always in the same positions (he is a DJ) and our camera movements were very similar. So, the Alok Memories project was born and became a gift for fans who are in need of shows and for the artist himself who was able to celebrate his last years of shows.

We decided to do something alive and energetic, highlighting the large number of shows and telling a story with them. Then, we draw the possible paths with the selected frames. The only way to know which one worked would be to test it from beginning to end.
There were 14 tests until we reached the best one.

When we had the film ready, we realized that it did not give us the feeling we wanted. Our solution was to bring a “material” texture layer. So we print all frames on A3 sheets on the cheapest paper. We bought a cutting base and made a template for the sheet to fit. So we would not need to find the position again in the printed material. Just insert the sheet, cut and paste. As the paper used was simple, we sanded the edges to give a printed photo paper look.

Finally, the stop-motion took 6 days. We used the Panasonic Lumix GH5s, the same camera that we recorded most of the scenes we researched. We connected the camera to the LUMIX Tether that enabled us to do all the setup and take pictures using the computer.

Altogether we had more than 100 working days between pre-production and completion, more than 1000 impressions between tests, failures and successes.

With the audio leads Mateus Polati and Jimmy Gressler, we seek to use audio to tie the narrative and bring the listener to the universe of the film, within the shows we are showing. In it, we tested several options with Alok songs, tracks produced with elements of them and tracks external to it, until we realized that classical music would tie the film as needed and would be a good solution for referring to the public’s memories and having the energetic rhythm, with pauses and ups, to represent the more than 10 shows that we are using per second. In addition, using a classical score and not Alok’s, we would be able to extend this tribute to the audience of other artists, while following the same path of their releases as the song Symphonia, in which he uses samples from the classic “Sinfonia n.º5 ”, by Beethoven. So, together with the audio leads, we chose the 3rd movement in the series “Four Seasons” by Vivaldi, dedicated to spring and moments of renewal. The track has undergone a lot of editing to adapt the rhythm of the film, mainly due to the fact that the beat is slower and more delicate.
The sound-design was created to balance the freneticity of the frames with the chosen track, uses diegetic elements. We ended up creating smoother and less cut transitions to follow this environment. In its construction, we thought about the possibility of creating a greater sound immersion by tying the motion of the film and thus bringing more life and dynamics for the film.