Minneapolis Studio Make Dives Into A Neon-Noir World With Music Vid 'Alone In The Darkness'

“Alone in the Darkness” is a neon-noir music video for the Argentine indie band Siamés, created by Minneapolis animation studio Make and directed Danny Robashkin.

A long non-binary figure navigates menacing alleyways and along deserted sidewalks. Once home the individual struggles to sleep, haunted by a variety of demonic figures, and soon finding themself futilely fleeing the demons at every turn.

Facing one’s fears has become an increasingly prevalent theme in short animation – both for kids and adults. “Alone in the Darkness” is no exception. With its lush mix of black, blue, and red, the story – like the song – suggests that you can run all you want from your demons, but they’ll still be there the moment you turn around, so best you just meet them face to face and deal with your shit here and now.

To capture the continual shifts in mood, the team “designed the world to be dark, with light creating shapes from the outside in.” According to Make:

Instead of starting with white, we used black as the base. Characters were outlined in white, detailed with blue or red, and kept mostly black for high contrast. Each animator had their own method, usually starting with black lines, adding red or blue, and then white highlights, or mixing up the order based on what worked best for each shot.

On its own Youtube channel, Make posted an edit of the video that compares images from the animatic to the final video: