Arcade Fire’s Mesmerising Smartphone-Interactive Video for ‘Reflektor’

Arcade Fire already established themselves long ago as pioneers in the realm of music video interactivity: 'We Used to Wait' used HTML5 and Google Maps to feature the viewer's own home in the video, and a flock of new windows popped open all over your screen as the song progressed, birds flying in each of them. 'Neon Bible' similarly tapped new technology to create a fresh way of experiencing the band's sounds. Now the band has shown it has the finger on the pulse once again, with a dazzling interactive video (one of two videos, actually) for their song 'Reflektor'.

Between its groovy beat and whisperings in French, 'Reflektor' is already uber cool. But the video Just A Reflektor, filmed in Haiti, is next level: a short film whose visuals you can affect, just so long as you have three basics of the modern tech era: Google Chrome, a computer webcam and a tablet or smartphone. That's when the real magic begins. Director Vincent Morisset takes us on a journey with a beautiful young woman who switches between her world and ours. Dancers in motion-tracking costumes, gyroscopes and mixed video assets add to the technological melee. Depending on how close you wield your handheld device to the screen, and its tilt, you can watch the action unfold from a variety of viewpoints and both conceal and reveal what you're seeing via whacky kaleidoscopic tunnel vision.

Presto: the theme of reflection is seamlessly woven into the multimedia experience, with light effects swimming over the screen at your command in ways that are totally mesmeric and super fun to play with. The team consciously aimed for a strong visual metaphor that would chime with the song's lyrics, as you can see in the behind the scenes video below. They've even made it possible for computer geeks to mess around with the code, which is downloadable from the Just A Reflektor Technology page.

Via PSFK