Mattis Dovier’s weird and wonderful 8-bit dot animation for XXX’s music video

Animator Mattis Dovier has created this super slick music video for Seoul-based duo XXX, made up of producer FRNK and rapper Kim Ximya. Mattis has animated their track, Flight Attendant, which tells the story of a man’s mind-altering plane ride, where he sees some weird and frightening sights. Told in his signature monochrome 8-bit animation style Mattis sees the plane as a metaphor. “It’s a symbol of freedom, but it also symbolises our consumer society that appears perfect but if we look closer, not at all,” explains the animator. “Taking the plane, the protagonist wants to escape from reality, but he finds himself trapped in a nightmare.”

We last featured Mattis for the film we commissioned him to make for Channel 4 Random Acts and he’s adopted the same comic book pointillism approach. This style suits the narrative of the film well, as Mattis easily transitions from one hair-raising scene to the next – whether it’s a tray of maggot-riddled food or a flight attendant gruesomely splitting in half.

Production for the film lasted around two months and the project gave Mattis the opportunity to work on something he was passionate about: “XXX’s music is very tasteful and refined so it was a real pleasure to work on it. Korean culture has a big influence on me so I’m very happy to be able to participate in it and have the opportunity to express the respect I have for it.”