The video for War by Idles tells a story of four characters’ everyday lives by focusing largely on images of their hands. “While you can tell a great deal about a person and their thoughts and feelings through facial expressions, we also very frequently look for thought and feeling in other people’s hand movements, positions and gestures,” says director Will Dohrn.

“In this film I wanted to move the audience’s focus solely to four characters’ hands, combining subtle gestures and movements with more chaotic moments to tell personal stories from a unique perspective. 

“I came up with the idea to mount a camera to the forearm so the camera would move with each protagonist’s hand while looking down onto it, further isolating the hand from the outside world,” Dohrn continues.

“We built a rig that wrapped around the entire arm securely, enabling us to keep a very small cinema spec camera adjacent to the actor’s hand at all times. This allowed me to create movement that would further amplify the intensity within the track with faster, more motion-blurred movements, creating contrast between the calmer moments of human connection and empathy.”

Label: Partisan Records
Production Company: Ground Work
Director/Editor: Will Dohrn
Producer: Mel Giles
Executive Producer: Aaron Z Willson
DOP: Harry Wheeler
Production Manager: Tara Sadeghi
Focus Puller: Pete Wade
2nd AC: Henry Russell
Gaffer: Yan Murawski
Production Designer: Alexandra Toomey
Wardrobe: Rebekah Roy
Colourist: Tim Smith
1st Grip: Johnny Donne
2nd Grip: Simon Ward
Grip Assistant: Jack Robson
Grip Development: Feral Equipment, Rob Barlow, Henry Fothergill
Bookings Coordinator: Matthias De Oliveira
DIT: Matt Hutchings
Stylist Assistant: Melody Rawles
Casting Director: Bobby Mitchell
Casting and Character Stylist: Carmen Young
Colour Producer: Lauren Jones
Title Design: Alfie Allen
Image Researcher: Natalie Dohrn
Equipment Supply: Panavision