Radiohead collaborator Chris Hopewell creates stop-motion video for Father John Misty

Director Chris Hopewell has created Father John Misty’s new music video, Things It Would Have Been Helpful To know Before the Revolution. Chris has previously created stop-motion animation music videos notably for Radiohead’s Burn The Witch, as well as Don’t Get Captured by Run The Jewels.

The video begins with protest placards displaying Father John Misty’s post-apocalyptic themes and lyrics, cleverly panning out as he sings. A puppet appears in the frame, who wanders around picking up old mobile phones from those who appear to have not survived. The video uses subtle hints of humour to add absurdity including rat puppets and boozing and smoking cockroaches. There are no other people featured throughout the video, giving the impression that the protagonist featured is the only one to survive. At the end of the short, the man connects each of the phones together to spell ‘Phones for Cheap’ in lights, rather than the SOS for help you would expect. The video was created in just three weeks at Jacknife Studios, Bristol.

The puppets featured in Things It Would Have Been Helpful To know Before the Revolution are being auctioned from today (3 August) until 13 August, with all proceeds going to the Environmental Defence Fund, available via Father John Misty’s eBay page.

Senior Vice President of the Environmental Defence Fund, Eric Pooley says: “Father John Misty’s new video is a powerful statement — a postcard from a world we never want to visit. That’s why EDF is proud to partner with Father John Misty, and why we work every day to catalyse the ‘visionaries among us’ who can help forge a better, more optimistic future.”