The multi-genre producer Flying Lotus aka Stevenson Ellison who also raps under the alias Captain Murphy has been chosen to score the short film A Portrait of Noomi Rapace.
The film which is directed by British artist Aitor Throup illustrates the actress preparing for a role from start to finish. Shot completely in black and white, reminiscent of Michael and Janet Jackson’s Scream video, follows the star of such films as Prometheus and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo go through the many processes of the preparation from audition to completion through the creation of a paper mache mold of herself.
Beginning with her walking in as herself, then losing her identity by putting on a black spandex outfit, she then walks into a room where a team of people helping her to move into the right positions to mold herself into the role. To help portray the pain staking process actors and actresses endure to become a character, Rapace sits in uncomfortable poses while the team applies the mache, then sitting still waiting for it to dry. Seemingly hot and frustrated, eventually the pieces of the form are completed and her work is done. Finally it is up to the director to put the pieces together, paint and dress the finished figure in a way that the character is formed to his liking.
The entire nine minutes and 32 seconds, which does not have a single word of dialog or sound effect, is set to a perfectly fitting production of six previously unreleased instrumental tracks by Flying Lotus.
Although his Fifth studio album You’re Dead which is scheduled for release on Oct. 6th features such artists as Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg, Pharrell Williams, who would have liked to appear on the album, had to decline due to it’s death theme.
According to Flying Lotus,
Pharrell wanted to contribute too, but he had issues with the kind of songs to write. He didn’t wanna make a self-fulfilling prophecy… he didn’t wanna write a song about death and then die the next day… and I totally respect that.”
The artist who hails out of Los Angeles, California has previously released four studio albums including 2006’s 1983, 2008’s Los Angeles, 2010’s Cosmogramma and 2012’s Until the Quiet Comes.
On September 14th, Flying Lotus released “Never Catch Me” featuring Kendrick Lamar.