Rushes complete stunning promo for The Darkness

Rushes have finished work on a promo for Lowestoft band The Darkness.
Directed by Alex Smith, the promo was shot in the stunning Blue Mountains of Australia. The promo opens on beams of sunlight soaring over lush green forests and materialising as the band when they reach a cliff top that is set as a makeshift stage. The light sources were created using sparks in Fire and were then animated so that they appeared to fly from beneath the helicopter camera and up to the landing position on the cliff.
This high-end production shows The Darkness surrounded by natural beauty at all angles and the band, who are famous for outlandish skin tight flares and glam rocker paraphernalia, are surprisingly straight laced as they belt out a song of first love and heart break. Beautiful butterflies were created and comped at Rushes to surround the band as they play beside a waterfall.
As the promo closes, lead singer Justin raises his guitar in the air in true rocker stance, moments later a lightening bolt shoots down the arm of his instrument and the singer and the band disappear.
Rushes VFX Artist Derek Moore said: "The end shot took some time as Alex wanted Justin to be zapped by lightning before being transformed into a light flare again. This was achieved using some Fire sparks (lightning, glows, lens flares etc), but we also had to create a proper clean plate without Justin in it, to enable us to make him fly away."
(GB)