The Making of De Staat’s video “Witch Doctor”

Try not to be too creeped out by this music video featuring Dutch rock band De Staat and their song “Witch Doctor”—it features a completely computer-generated moshpit of shirtless men who stomp and shake to singer Torre Florim prompts.

In their CG glory, the moshpit inhabitants are both zombie-like and human-like, giving the video an eerie mood as the crowd starts its swirling circle-dance under the commands of Florim.

With choreography inspired by Sufi rituals, Florim and the band worked with master animators Studio Smack to create the video using a very low budget.

They shot it with Florim against a green screen and spent months layering moving images of men’s bodies into the scene.

Posted here are two videos, the first is the finished product, the second a making-of exposition.