Wild

We give you a music video that we created for Ivan Dorn’s track “Дичь”. “Ditch”, noun — wilderness, wildfowl. Has a double-meaning — “nonsense”. The video is dedicated to the lives of endangered bird species. Voices of such species as Gallinago, Willow ptarmigan, Yellow-breasted bunting, Strix, Cuckoo and Radde’s warbler and many others are used in the song.

The video consists of nine short stories drawn in different styles. The decision to divide the video into novellas was made due to the abrupt style of the song itself and the number of problems that lead to bird extinction.

Basically the video touches upon only one topic of the relationship between the humans and the birds, but it is unveiled with the help of different techniques.

This video is a part of a massive project by Yandex.Music and WWF, in which the first non-profit label Bird Records was created. All money from the label goes to reinforcing the nests of the endangered bird species.

The music video starts inside a city scenery with many details and people. We show off birds who adapted to the environment while we don’t highlight the problem just yet. This lets us open up a dialog with the viewer by using reminiscent images, gradually diving into the agenda

Our goal was to merge the key topic of the project — the struggle of birds — into a very beautiful visual approach. Only by paying close attention can a person spot all the unacceptable things happening on the screen during visually perfect and comforting scenes.

This scene was built around the comparison of human and bird realities. A human can easily interact with fire, or use webbed materials for designing garments, while for birds these objects mean inevitable death.

Visualization of this bit was inspired by games. A bird that embodies a luminous soul is in agony trying to find an escape from trees on fire. Together with that bird, we are trying to find a path, but we pass out and die from a fallen tree

At this point, the style of the narrative is radically changed by the singer (Ivan Dorn) to being somewhat suave. His words about the Red List of Threatened Species and the role of humans in the extinction of bird species create great pressure.

We highlight this pressure by broad choreography of the Black Vulture who moves all around the screen, changing angles and filling up space

The visuals for this scene were inspired by Japanese anime giant duels, magical metamorphosis, and picturesque locations. The giant is a composite character representing a human and his wrecking activity such as deforestation, plants constructions, tourism, etc. The human is so big he doesn’t even see the birds trying to confront him

Superbird is a symbol of hope for all the birds. It looks dangerous and big, but compared to the giant-human it is weak and hardly noticeable.

This bit is a sequence of 140 acrylic hand-painted pictures. Given that every scene has unique background and bird choreography, the visual imagery is flickering, which fuels uncomfortable anxiety.

The scene in the shooting range feels tangible and real, but the toys in it are made of plush and wood. This part of the video touches upon the issue of hunting, which is can be both — a game and a tragedy.

This scene addresses the issue of pollution, therefore it is fully black and white, referring to oil, darkness, and smoke. While slideshow technique helps us create a documentary feel.

The track’s final part is a message to humanity on behalf of the birds: we can still help save endangered bird species. Ivan’s monologue seems very calm compared to the rest of the track. We wanted to highlight it by creating a slow and spaceful scene. That’s how an image of dissolving cloud-bird was created.