The retro fantasy-inspired music video “Across My Jaw” is an audiovisual feast for the senses.
Created for indie musician Dan English, the duo Isabelle Aspin and Brian Smee — known collectively as Jocelyn & Jocelyn — imbue the video with a fantastical vibe that complements the song’s sweeping, Beatles-inspired layers. Through a mix of drawn animation and physical objects, the visuals echo the surreal style of Ralph Bakshi and the dreamlike aesthetic of Fantastic Planet.
Co-director Brian Smee explains:
Dan came to us with a mood board filled with modernist stage design, Remedios Varo paintings, gargoyles, and storybook imagery. Around the same time, we had just seen the opera Turandot, featuring David Hockney’s incredible set designs, which inspired us to lean into the stage design angle. As production progressed, we aimed for a filmed-opera look, drawing from classics like [Michael] Powell and [Emeric] Pressburger’s The Red Shoes’ ballet sequence, The Tales of Hoffmann, and Bluebeard’s Castle.The interplay between the visuals …