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‘Tell Me Where To Go’ (Nightjar Productions 2023) is a stop-motion animation music-video, made using a multiplane camera, and shot in a home studio onboard a boat in London between 2021 and 2023.
The song ‘Tell Me Where To Go’ is taken from the debut solo album (‘Different Flowers’, out in 2023) of musician/independent artist Peter Beatty. The music video was written and produced by Peter and brings together his music and his visual art for the first time. It is directed by Peter Beatty and Joseph Boyle.
The song, inspired by “a boat trip from a few years ago”, is a joyous tribute to adventure, self-exploration and chasing love. It explores the theme of ‘the journey’ and the transformational role it plays in our lives and in ourselves. The stop-motion music video takes these themes further and reinterprets the song as ‘an animated epic’. It follows the story of an astronomer who pursues a beguiling light he discovers in the sky. He undertakes an incredible voyage onboard a boat, and in his pursuit is lead to places never seen before – it is a journey that spans time and space and transforms both himself and his view of the universe forever.
‘Tell Me Where To Go’ was shot entirely on the boat where Peter lives in central London, UK. The project began in 2021 during the pandemic.
Peter explains: “I have long been interested in using a multiplane camera and traditional stop-motion animation as a way to bring my art to life. I I also create music and had planned some collaborations for music videos. However, the limitations of the pandemic meant that projects couldn’t go ahead, so I decided to use my music as a vehicle to produce a stop-motion animation myself.
Developing the story, artwork and models, I found inspiration in a range of places – surrealist, abstractionist and futurist art, the ‘found object’ wanderlust of the work of Joseph Cornell, and also sequences from the films 2001 Space Odyssey and Everything Everywhere All At Once. I then built a multiplane camera and set up a home studio on the boat where I live in London.
Joseph is a film maker and close friend, and we had wanted to work together for a while. Joseph totally understood the vision and I knew his skills and experience would really complement the project. As it happened, he also became a neighbour of mine right around this time, making collaboration feasible. So I invited him on board – literally I suppose.”
“I’m more familiar working on bigger productions” says Joseph, “so it was really refreshing trying to create vast landscapes and big worlds but at a very small scale and in only a team of two. Peter had created a very specific look with the artwork and models. This was the starting point which then informed the lighting, lenses, tone and composition, and the beauty of the multiplane is that it gives you depth and perspective in such a simple but effective way, and this is something you can really explore.”
“I wanted the song and video to feel as joyous, immersive, and sensory as possible” continues Peter, “as if you have been carried higher and higher on a wonderful intoxicating voyage. Neither Joseph nor I had made a stop motion before, and exploring the capabilities of the multiplane as first timers was a joyful journey in itself. My hope is that this is reflected in the video – and also that as soon as people finish the journey they will want to do it again.”
Directed by Peter Beatty and Joseph Boyle (UK)