Visual Effects for Jon Batiste - I NEED YOU

Artists of the FRENDER VFX studio were happy to see the year 2020 off with collaboration on “I Need You” – a new foot-tapping song by Jon Batiste, released in the middle of January 2021. The young musician is known to the public in many guises, from the leader of the Stay Human band performing for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to the creative director of The National Jazz Museum in Harlem. He is a repeat Grammy nominee and one of three The Golden Globe Awards winners for Best Original Score. Not only did he compose jazz songs for “Soul,” an existential animated film by Pixar but also served as a reference for the film’s music performance animation.

Rooted in New Orleans’ jazz yet experimenting with funk, pop, and R&B, Jon Batiste wrote an optimistic song that encompasses a vibrant blend of music genres – pop, jazz, and even a bit of rap. While entrusting the post-production stage to FRENDER’s professionals, the musician engaged Alan Ferguson as a director to deliver a joyful mood and Batiste’s upbeat take on life through vivid visuals. The collaboration resulted in a clear, stylish, and dynamic video with plenty of swing dancing and multiculturality. Of course, it required a finishing touch of a visual effects artist to shine out, but working all together was just as groovy as the video itself.

Jon Batiste was definitely eager to add some joy into the new reality and bring back the sweets of life. Lyrics, music beats, choreography, and VFX graphics were masterfully blended by the director to tell a simple yet charming and inspiring story. It features a young guy who meets a lovely girl in an art gallery and reaches out to her by reminding her of true values like love, genuineness, origins, and being who you are. He speaks about the burn-outs and overloads of the modern world and harks the audience back to the childhood years with their ingenuous pleasures. This is illustrated by Batiste flashing back to himself as a boy playing saxophone. The musician also communicates the good old idea that all we eventually need is to love and be loved, and this is what everyone can give and get regardless of times and circumstances.

The gallery settings and visual effects applied provided a nice opportunity to let in black social music, swing dancing, and a slam-bang atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties. Probably, it’s not just a tribute to jazz music and black culture cherished by Batiste but also a reminder of how to survive during times of change. And these messages along with the overall warm mood of the song were skillfully enhanced by FRENDER’s artists at the VFX production stage. Let’s see what was done with the help of VFX before and after images.

The following music video with VFX shows how professionals from FRENDER transformed some scenes shot in a studio into vibrant imagery full of warm colors, which perfectly chimes with Jon Batiste’s idea to bring humanity back to the world. The results have proved once again that VFX outsourcing services by FRENDER allow fulfilling various creative ideas breezily, be it an ultimate changing of an environment or just adding necessary details.