The music video is influenced by Roman gladiatorial matches and includes visual effects and an arena movie set.
Dubai-headquartered AKA Media has created a music video for Norway-based masked artist DJ and record producer Alan Walker and the Kazakh electronic dance music producer Imanbek. The duo has released the summer track Sweet Dreams.
Speaking about the music video, Yasser Obeid, CEO of AKA Media and Revered Producer, said: “This stunning music video is a story that has been evolving over the last couple of videos, part of Alan Walker’s world. This one is a ‘MadMax’ style film. Fundamentally, it describes a fight between good and evil, taking the form of a car race through the stunning desert scenery of Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah. The video took us two weeks to plan, and was filmed over three intense days. From scouting locations, ensuring the crew and cast’s health and safety, and getting hold of some world-class equipment to enable the technical shoots, me and the team worked tirelessly on the project.”
The music video for Sweet Dreams is a dramatic story, a high-octane futuristic, post-apocalyptic desert car race, fusing technology with unique cars and Walker and Imambek’s renowned musical talent.
The future bass and house artist took to Dubai’s deserts to film the new official music video that has already received more than 4.1m views on YouTube views within 72 hours of launch.
Walker chose the UAE to film his video for its infrastructure, ease of finding a variety of locations and the talent pool.
Walker himself explains the inspiration for his track, which takes a very familiar chorus and mixes into the fresh summer tune: “Eurotrance and techno were popular when I was a kid, so it really reminds me of my earliest musical inspirations. We had a blast incorporating the iconic ‘Scatman’ chorus into Sweet Dreams, and we’re really happy with how the track turned out.”
The video, while having some futuristic technology involved – a common theme in Walker’s work – was also influenced by Roman gladiatorial matches, and includes some powerful visual effects and arena movie set.
Utilising a specialised Russian Arm for capturing the driving race action, Yasser and his team employed actors based in Dubai. The custom-built cars are not road-legal, so had to be delivered to the site on recovery trucks.
Yasser concluded: “The talent involved was incredible. A young, energetic crew – Alan is just 23, we worked with 24-year-old Director, Mad Nesset, a very talented person. Director of Photography was Dubai-based Mark Hobson, a.k.a. Mark Hobz. There was such a buzz with all the talent on set, it was a pleasure to work on. This was a beautiful, creative, talented team to work with. They enjoyed filming with us so much, they are hoping to come back to film more videos soon.”