Seven Hours with a Backseat Driver

Morgan Hightower
Sep 6, 2018 · 2 min read

Gotye’s animated music video for his song, “Seven Hours with A Backseat Driver”. Exemplifies the qualities of stylized animation. The video depicts an anthropomorphic universe in which the main character, an elephant, is followed through an anxiety ridden world. Timing is plays an incredibly large role in the video, as a lot of the movement is animated on beat with the rhythm of the music. For example, at 1:53, a zebra and cheetah character are shown dancing on beat to the rhythm of the music.

Throughout the entire video, the main elephant character as well as several other animals are all moving through busy streets in sync with the percussion of the music to represent a sense of order and sequence. This slowly changes as the music video reaches its main arc at 3:35, when the character becomes so anxious and over ridden with emotion that they tumble down what appears to be a steep hill.

The music meets a crescendo and the character is no longer in sync with the music, as this is meant to represent a sense of disorder. The animation style itself is very reminiscent of Picasso and/or Matisse in the sense that it is incredibly exaggerated. Characters such as the main elephant character are organic and blocky, and simultaneously their expressions are exaggerated as well to clearly display the emotion that particular character is feeling in that moment, such as at 2:47 when the character is overcome with fear and anxiety.

BetweenTheFrames

Animated analysis from UMBC's Intro to Animation class

Morgan Hightower

Written by

BetweenTheFrames

Animated analysis from UMBC's Intro to Animation class

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