The video for Royksopp's "Poor Leno," tells the tale of a lonely little zoo-bound creature seeking companionship.

Directed by Sam Arthur of London's Rose Hackney Barber, the promo's protagonists are Lenos, members of a arctic race of little humanoids bearing a strong resemblance to the furry suit-wearing lad from Maurice Sendak's classic children's book, Where The Wild Things Are. The video shows scenes from around the zoo, depicting various caged animals nodding to Royksopp's Nordic warblings and the desperation of one Leno who is forced to dwell in solitude. Interspliced are airborne live action shots of mountains, moving into scenes of a helicopter chasing another Leno through the powder. The chase turns into a downhill slalom, although ultimately the second Leno is captured and delivered to the zoo to co-habitate with the first.

"I don't like it when people call me an animator as I direct all kinds of stuff," says Arthur, who has directed live action and animation promos for groups such as Simian and Tall Paul. "I started off doing animation as a means to make stuff on tight budgets. 'Poor Leno' was animation incorporating live action."

The video's budget meant Arthur used stock footage for the live action segments.

"I spent hours watching extreme sports videos of skiing and snowboarding to get the right edits and then messed about in After Effects. I retouched each frame and added the cartoon character to each frame of action with the snow footage," says Arthur.

He says the limited budget meant increased creative freedom. While the Sendak-esque characters had been on Arthur's mind for some time, his own small studio and a trip to the London Zoo served as inspiration for the video's caged-in atmosphere. Macs armed with PhotoShop and After Effects were at the core of the video, with a flame applied sparingly for grading and some transitions. The video's commissioner was John Moule and Royksopp are signed to Wall Of Sound records.

Arthur's next project is a video for Delamitri. Based around 1970's footballers, Arthur describes it as "a melodramatic kitchen sink drama with Fraggle-like puppets."

Webfiles:

Royksopp> http://www.royksopp.com