Multinational art collective Equip describe themselves as “an experiment in creating a neural playground for artists with solid identities, each operating between different micro-genres to expand a self-contained story.” Their second project, Neurotrance, draws together a stellar crew including director and editor Paris Seawell, artists Zeynep S. Schelling & Enes Güç and musician Nobuto Hauama, otherwise known as SVBKVLT producer Prettybwoy, into the blast radius of “a psychic carpet bomb, showing different layers of realities all connected by a mysterious transformative energy – an adrenal overdrive that doesn’t conform and doesn’t relent.”

Mapping a near future world of surrealist sci-fi landscapes, terraforming colonies and densely packed cities using a maximalist collision of live-action filmmaking, crisp CGI animation and brain-scrambling VFX, Neurotrance is a multidimensional head trip soundtracked by Prettybwoy’s intricate club sonics.

Hurtling at warp speed through a series of dreamlike vignettes: two fatigued organic research scientists mishandling psychotropic substances, a monstrous orchid blossoming out of the tongue muscle and sinew of an unsuspecting old man, a glitched-out consciousness projection through alternate dimensions, the film is a hyper-saturated reflection of a world in which multiple realities, virtual, physical and pharmacological, are stacked one on top of each other.

“I personally wanted to give birth to a new reality that is hard to recognise or put into a specific category,” explains VFX Director Enes Güç. “To get there it needed many different approaches in its creation process, as well as many different techniques.” Featuring contributions from artists and filmmakers from London, Berlin, Sydney, Tokyo, Los Angeles and more, Neurotrance refracts multiple imaginations into a single kaleidoscopic vision.

You can find Equip on Instagram.

Neurotrance Credits:

Cast – Domenico Caccamo, David Tarpey, Bradley Scott, Abigail Hamilton, Middie
Director – Paris Seawell
Producer – Tamas Mesmer
Music – Prettybwoy / Nobuto Hauama
Director of Photography – Ruaraid Achilleos-Sarll
Art Director – Zeynep S. Schilling
VFX Director – Enes Güç
Editor – Paris Seawell
Sound Design and Mix – Will Golledge
AD – Jack Barrie
Set Designer – Finn O’Sullivan
Styling & Costume – Detroit Law, Colette Dryburgh
Hair & make-up – Lisa Chau
Colorist – Gabe Sanchez, Roundhouse Post
VFX Artists – Enes Güç, D P Ford, Paris Seawell
Title Design – Hao-Ting Chu
1st AC – Ernest Tu
2nd AC – Joel Spence
Gaffer – Johnny Ho, Jerzy Gudjonsson
Spark – Lluc Mestre, Magdalena Maria
VFX supervisor – Surhay Kılıç, Fuat Değirmenci
Additional 3D modelling – Ezgi Şiir
Rotoscoping & compositing – Akshay S R
Studio manager – Corinna Luce, Studio Lucerne
Production assistants – Piers Culpan, Shristi Rai
Additional footage – Johannes Tito-Göhlich, Paris Seawell

Special Thanks to Tom Jenkins (Squarepusher) Andy James (Beatink) Quan, Matthew Chan (fmlik), Jaden, Liav Ben Tolila