Grimes reveals everything there is to know about her “Shinigami Eyes” music video featuring Dorian Electra and BLACKPINK’s Jennie Kim in the latest instalment of Vevo Footnotes, out today (watch below).

In today’s release, Grimes talks about using an XR Stage for the first time and seeing special effects rendered in-camera right away, and how bringing technology to uncharted territories with director BRTHR didn’t come without challenges. “We had some major technical difficulties and never really got to show off the full choreography… We actually lost most of the footage and had to make the music video out of the last few hours we got,” says Grimes. 

The video for “Shinigami Eyes” premiered last January and is the first offering from the acclaimed producer, songwriter, singer, engineer and visual artist’s forthcoming EP Fairies Cum First, a prelude to the forthcoming album Book 1.

A complete outline of the Vevo Footnotes episode is listed here. You can watch the video below.

0:14 “My friend Nusi Quero constructed this awesome throne out of human bodies. The shot happens so fast I think people miss it but this throne is an underrated masterpiece.” - Grimes

0:32 “Here we meet ‘NO ONE,’ a powerful A.I. super intelligence who has decided to invade pop culture with an AI girl group who can bend the very fabric of space and time.” - Grimes

0:41 “Like Ryuk (a shinigami from Death Note), the A.I. NO ONE enters the human world to have fund and destabilize things.”- Grimes

0:50 “All of the background effects were shot on an XR Stage, meaning there was little to no post production or CGI. All of the special effects rendered in camera. It was very cool!” - Grimes

1:00 “We had some major technical difficulties and never really got to show off the full choreography.” - Grimes

1:08 “We had never used an XR stage before, and it typically isn't used in music videos, so we were doing a lot of things no one on the team had done before.” - Grimes

1:16 “We actually lost most of the footage and had to make the music video out of the last few hours we got. But it ended up turning out great!” - Grimes

1:28 “Here we see Cupid, played by Ryon01. One of the main plot points in the music video is that Cupid tries to shoot the girls with his arrow of love,” - Grimes

1:37 “...but because they are not human and don’t experience traditional love, his attempts fail and in the end they kill him.” - Grimes

1:46 “The moon shots are by far my favorite scenes. The moon was rendered by Nusi. Around here you can see some sneak peaks of one of my favorite artists, Dorian Electra!” - Grimes

1:57 “Obviously this was everybody’s favorite part because we’re all obsessed with Jennie. We’d been hanging out with her in L.A.” - Grimes

2:06 “...and she benevolently offered to be in the video. She was impressive AF - not a single shot of her was unusable.” - Grimes

2:24 “Dorian and I really fought to the death here and I think we kinda hurt each other but it was worth it!” - Grimes

2:34 “NO ONE eats Cupid’s soul. By eating Cupid she is able to finally experience what love feels like and perhaps it makes her more benevolent towards humans. NO ONE is very curious about humanity” - Grimes

2:50 “Curiosity in A.I. is one of the smartest moves we can make to ensure they are curious enough to forge a relationship.” - Grimes

3:01 “I think this shot really shows what the XR stage can do, hoping to with BRTHR again and go farther into the insanity.” - Grimes

Author: Andrew Braithwaite

Andrew is the founder and Managing Director of Music Talkers. He's also a keen music enthusiast and plays the guitar.