Rocket Fuel is quite literally a ‘behind the scenes’ music video that builds on the plentiful conspiracy stories that emerged off the back of the 1969 Moon landings, offering up an exhilarating alternate take on history and a comment on our current times.

Our brief was to create a funny, engaging music video for DJ Shadow and De La Soul’s new track ‘Rocket Fuel’. As the first single off Shadow’s new album Our Pathetic Age, the creative approach needed to create an internet buzz and make a bit of a social commentary, without taking itself too seriously. All whilst embodying the playful, up-tempo old-school Hip-Hop feel of the track.

We live in an era of fake news. So I thought what will people engage with?

2019 was the 50th Anniversary of the moon landing and it’s well known Buzz and Neil didn’t get on. Conspiracy theories surrounding the event are rife (fuelled in part by the internet) so the result was - What if the astronaut’s petty playground fight ruined the ‘mission’ and revealed that the whole thing was actually faked?

July 20th 1969 – Neil Armstrong is about to be the first man on the moon. Or is he?

Chaos reigns as the rumours and conspiracy theories surrounding the historic Apollo 11 moon landing are brought to life. With a combination of realism and high comedy geopolitics is reduced to a good old fashioned punch-up as the live broadcast unfolds on a film set. Stanley Kubrick watches on as his leading men go violently off-script…

To create an almost documentary feel the video switches between archive footage from the period and set recreations of the lunar lander, along with its own giant ‘NASA’ control room. All seamlessly graded to give the appearance that it was all shot together back on that fateful day.

Mostly achieved with practically in-camera with archive footage to give a documentary look and feel.

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