“Mathieu is weighed down by many questions which put him in a heavy state. But as he gives in to his sadness, the rain becomes tears and his tears become rain. He becomes one with his sadness. It’s his time to dance, and the tears accompany him.”
Music video for Mathieu Boogaerts’s “How Many” directed by Bianca Scali at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany, 2021.
Produced by Paulina Larson. Edited by Revan Sarikaya and composited by Johannes Lübke.
The visual style of the video was achieved through the cyanotype photographic printing process. Explains producer Paulina Larson:
By working with this technique we had to manage to print and expose over 800 frames/images individually over the course of 5 weeks. This process gives you very soft textures and a wonderful analog look and feel. Using this process forced us to be as simple as possible with our images, but making sure they do not lose their depth and importance to tell our story. In addition it is wonderful knowing you did all this with your hands and realizing it can be nice to shift away from the more technical and modern animation techniques.
The filmmakers made this sheet to further explain the cyanotype technique:
