Directed by Ben Strebel, this video for Skrillex aims to show the cele­bration of a group of friends coming out of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic and experiencing a sense of freedom again.

“Sonny [aka Skrillex] and I started to talk about Butterflies during lockdown,” says Strebel. “With the effects of lockdown and everything, suddenly this visual of ghosts came to mind. It became about kids missing out on school and the lost year. It’s not supposed to be a dark rendition, and I think that was the hardest thing to steer it away from, because ghosts traditionally represent death and the souls of the lost.”

Despite these darker undertones, the aim was for the video to ­ultimately be positive. “It was really about, and for, those who’d had their year robbed,” continues Strebel. “When interviewing them, they said, ‘technically I’m this age, but ­actually I’m the age before lockdown, because I ­haven’t had a year to grow or to progress in my life’. So the video celebrates a form of end of lockdown and a sense of freedom. It’s about reuniting, the physicality of touch, of tangibility.”

Film Production: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Ben Strebel
Producer: Adam Farley
Head of Production: Samantha Chitty
Production Manager: Roma Nesi Pio
Executive Producers: Andrew Law, Rupert Reynolds-Maclean
1st Ad: Ed Bellamy
2nd Ad: Christopher Mears
Cinematographer: Benjamin Todd, WPA
1st Ac /Focus Puller: Sean Lomax
2nd Ac: Dan Jenner
Production Designer: Oliver Hogan
Costume Design: Kate Forbes
Choreography: Holly Blakey
Editor: Matt Knee @ Metal House Edit
Post Production Producers: James Sindle, Antonia Vlasto @ Electric Theatre Collective Colourist: Luke Morrison @ Electric Theatre Collective
Casting: Kharmel Cochrane