We speak to director Tom Jobbins on his excellent new video for Tune-Yards

Animator and director Tom Jobbins has just been signed to Pulse Films where his first assignment was a video for Tune-Yards’ latest single Real Thing. Never one for subtlety in her promotional films, Tune-Yards’ Merril Garbus already has a roster of punchy, colour-saturated films to her name, so Tom was tasked with creating something that stood up to its predecessors in vibrance and impact, as well as keeping things fresh to move things on for the new album.

The result is a brash and surreal film set in multicoloured factory of body parts, in which Merril battles some overbearing mannequins to break free from their clutches. We caught up with Tom to find out where the inspiration for the piece came from and what it was like to work with such colourful characters…

Before you became an animator you were a stonemason, how on earth did you make the leap from one to the other?

I guess they both involve a lot of patience. The catalyst though, was breaking a collarbone, which meant I couldn’t swing my mallet. Instead I bought a digital camera and started taking photos. I could only use my left hand, which meant I had to take them all upside down. I took hundreds of badly-composed photos, but when skipping through them fast, they started to move. I had discovered animation… personally at least. I loved it straight away, so starting with club visuals I began producing photo animations then studying academically. And here I am now.

Since then you’ve had a pretty prestigious career, what’s been your greatest achievement to date?

Winning the Best Animation UK MVA last year was amazing. That was the best! It felt like a new beginning and a fresh new belief in my ideas.

I knew I had to make something good after graduating so me and a skeleton crew (John Reynolds, art director and Matthias Pilz, cinematographer) made a music video for Hiatus for the song We Can Be Ghosts Now. It is a stop-motion love story where the characters are wooden triangles. It took ages. I thought the premise was a great idea, but by the end I was so close to it that I couldn’t tell if it was good or bad, or if anyone would care. Luckily it was well-received and we won the award. It felt awesome.

Merrill already has some amazing music videos in the bag, did you feel any pressure to deliver something even better than what had come before?

I love her videos and her music. What was done before just felt like great inspiration, but the pressure was on to make something we both loved. My mind was full of strong images when I heard the track, but none of them were that simple to create. I worked hard and had a great crew so we managed to push through. It was my first time directing live action and also my first film for Pulse Films so I really had to make it work. I think my (semi) meticulous animation mind really paid off keeping it all together.

Talk us through the concept for the animation?

Hearing the song Real Thing made me think that Merrill was being put down by un-real people, or in this case, plastic mannequins. That was the seed of the idea. I wanted to create something with limbs and pattern and something that was full of energy. With this in my mind I listened to the song over and over until I could visualise a loose story. The song is incredibly packed so this sometimes sent my mind loopy but there was a lot to work with. The more I listened the more ideas fell into place; a cocoon dance would work, a head in a box would be fun, the mannequins could have super long necks. I just had to shoot it right!

Was there a great deal of collaboration between you and Merril?

Merril was great, we worked together really well. From our first Skype conversation we seemed to be on the same page and this allowed me a lot of freedom, which in turn sped up the process. I made a rough animatic which gave her a good understanding of the idea and we could then talk about finer details. It was really refreshing that she wanted to make it as odd as possible. This went through right to the end, when after the first edit she said "she looked too good” and wanted to be made to “look weirder.” I’d love to work with her again.

Anything you’d change in the final film?

I’m really happy with the film. There are always little things that you would like to tidy up when you’re so close to it, but that isn’t always possible – and perhaps a rugged charm is better than sterile perfection. Or that’s what I tell myself.