A video directed by Jay Bulckaert for The War/Nothing More, by Yellowknife band Gnarwhal, is nominated for two Canadian music awards.
The video for the 2024 track has been nominated for independent music video of the year in the rock category of Dropout Entertainment’s Independent Music Video Awards, while Bulckaert is nominated for director of the year at the Western Canadian Music Awards.
The band initially contacted Bulckaert looking for a video to showcase music from an EP released in the spring of 2024.
“Jay had this concept swirling around his head and then we collaborated on what the final idea would be,” Gnarwhal’s Benji Straker told Cabin Radio.
Bulckaert described the creative liberty the band allowed him as “critical.”
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The video was produced using a technique Bulckaert terms “genema” – generative cinema – as it combines video filmed on set with generative AI technology.
Without AI, he said, “we would have needed to have a crew of probably five to 10 VFX artists, which we absolutely don’t have in the Northwest Territories.”
The band said they had access to limited funds and still managed to create a visually complex and interesting video through Bulckaert’s help, an impressive feat without a single VFX artist working on the project.
Bulckaert described the video-making process as “an entirely different way of making a film.” He described prompting several AI generative programs, using photos of the band posing, to get the right shots.
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“Every final shot that you see, there were probably 20 to 30 iterations of that shot leading up to something that I was pleased with enough to put in the final product,” he said.
Most of the video wasn’t even shot as video. Bulckaert described using a 360-degree camera to record a small portion of the final video, while the rest was created using photos taken on an iPhone in cinema mode, which were then used to generate AI video clips.
Dropout, the awards show organizers, says the Canadian Independent Music Video Awards winners will be announced on July 5, 2025 at a ceremony in Toronto.
Winners of the Western Canadian Music Awards will be announced at the BreakOut West festival and conference in Winnipeg this September.
