A behind the scenes of the Fatboy Slim ft. Bootsy Collins ‘Weapon Of Choice’ music video.
It’s always been a favorite of mine, and now the music video for Fatboy Slim ft. Bootsy Collins’ ‘Weapon Of Choice’ has a making of clip.
Fatboy Slim released this clip, below, showing how Christopher Walken was made to fly in the video, with wires and some bluescreen scenes. It was put out there to coincide with the 4K remaster of the original promo.
The VFX appear to be credited to Ben Gibbs and Sea Level, and I’ve also found a credit reference to Jeff Kim. If you know more about the VFX, let me know. Check out the clip here:
Hi Ian,
I came across your post when I was loading an updated review of this video to my blog https://clare-ofarrell.com/2022/05/09/christopher-walken-in-weapon-of-choice-fatboy-slim-spike-jonze-2001/
I’ve included some information on the VFX that I came across in the early 2000s but can’t find a current source for it. It’s a quote from Audrey Doyle
‘Combustion also played a major role at Sea Level on the video for Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice.” In this video, actor Christopher Walken is seen dancing à la Fred Astaire, while diving, flipping and floating in the air in a hotel lobby. Walken’s dance moves necessitated the use of numerous wires as well as six large support towers and a steel-crossing infrastructure that supported the wires. Because digital removal of all this equipment from the backplates would have been too cumbersome, Sea Level re-created the lobby in 3D in inferno. Walken was then extracted from the original footage in combustion, and composited into the 3D lobby in inferno.
“This work was fairly complex because there was a lot of perspective change, with Walken coming pretty close to the camera, then moving away from the camera, and then spinning around,” says Sea Level’s Bruno.’