JAMIE XX | GOSH | 2017
400 Kids Sprint Through a Fake Paris—No CGI, Just Madness / Jamie xx "GOSH"
This isn't CGI. It's all real. Four hundred boys with hair dyed blonde, running through a fake Paris toward a fake Eiffel Tower. The first time I saw it, all I could say was "whoa."
The problem
This song actually already had a music video made for it once before. Pouring this kind of budget into a song with no lyrics, not even meant for radio, was a gamble—director Gavras himself has said as much.
The insight
The setting is Tiantongcheng in Hangzhou, China: a fake Parisian town built for wealthy buyers that turned into a ghost town when the project fell through. For Gavras, who is from Paris, there was something about this place he apparently couldn't shake. The lead, Hassan Koné, is a high schooler from Paris—Gavras spotted him on the street and cast him for no particular reason. A fake town, a fake tower, and a boy who's often treated as an outsider. All of it plays into the question of what's "real."
The idea
The 400 kids are students from a martial arts school in China. All of them dyed their hair blonde, then ran down staircases, lined up on balconies, and gathered at the base of the tower. There's no CGI at all—every bit of it is real people moving in sync. The director apparently ran the whole shoot almost single-handedly.
What happened
It won Video of the Year at the 2016 UK Music Video Awards, was nominated for Best Music Video at the 2017 Grammy Awards, won Gold in Film Craft at Cannes Lions, and took home a Yellow Pencil at D&AD.
Afterthought
Nobody asked for this. For a song that was already considered done, someone poured in this much madness anyway—without enough budget, without a shared language. And this is what came out of it. Every time I watch this video, I'm reminded that if you have the passion to see something through, recognition will follow.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2017
