'EndUp' slowshift

TYD direct ‘EndUp’ for slowshift.

An intimate journey into the micro-universe that surrounds us.

Filmed in Norway.

Words from TYD (Andreas Børsting Røe & Ole Jørgen Larssen) below.

What inspired this specific concept and approach for Slowshift?

In an age where digital sounds have flooded the musical landscape, Slowshift stands for authenticity. This is a band that is deeply committed to the use of acoustic instruments. Their sound is a testament to the richness and depth that comes from the craftsmanship of being a musician.

We wanted to reflect this in our technical approach so we decided to make everything in-camera without the use of any CGI. This resulted in the purchase of a microscope and many hours of experimentation in the office…

As we dived into this micro-world, we started to see similarities between the minuscule and the colossal.

Could you talk about the equipment that you used to capture the film?

The whole film is shot through a Besser Researcher Bino 400-1000x Microscope with an EF-adapter, using different 3d-printed darkfield condensers. We spent quite a lot of time experimenting and playing around with different light settings, adjusting both the diaphragm and lightsource itself.

The correct lighting settings we found in online guides were quite boring, so we ended up doing the exact opposite of what the different “how to use a microscope” guides were telling us to do. All the light and camera movements are achieved using the microscopes lights level and focus wheel.

And what were you putting under the microscope?

Everything in this piece is biological, living, and real. We acquired many of the specimens from the Ecotoxicology laboratory at SINTEF SeaLab. This laboratory has husbandry facilities for aquatic organisms at various trophic levels, and they gave us a variety of different organisms.

Everything in this piece is biological, living, and real.

Back at the office we combined some of the different species to create the various scenes. For example, one of the scenes contains thousands of Brachionus, which is a genus of planktonic rotifers, and a flower called Astilbe. The combination of marine and land life made some really interesting scenes.

Did you make any personal discoveries during the making of ‘Endup’?

As we dived into this micro-world, we started to see similarities between the minuscule and the colossal. The cells and creatures we were studying started to look like stars and galaxies we are used to seeing through telescopes and satellites. It reminds us that we’re not just observers, but also a part of the bigger picture in the universe.

Everything around us pulsates with life, a testament to the tangible and living nature of every element.

Everything around us pulsates with life, a testament to the tangible and living nature of every element. This world has been here since the dawn of time, and will still be here long after we’re gone. This is where we all started, and this is where we’ll ‘EndUp’.

What are you reading at the moment?

Right now, I’m reading ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold’ by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.