The Prodigy’s “Wild Frontier” video was created by Mascha Halberstad, a filmmaker who specializes in narrative animation. Her studio is called Superfelix and it was their first experience of working with the music band.

Back in February 2015, theprodigy.ru team made an interview with Mascha Halberstad where she told us about her collaboration with Liam Howlett and showed the creating process of the video. Thanks to @theprodi.gy for the images below.

What are your feelings about working with such a big band as The Prodigy? How deep were they involved in a process of making this video? Who exactly did the final confirmations? Liam Howlett himself?

It was really great working with Liam. Our first conversation was after I wrote the story for this video. He really liked the idea. The strange thing was that at the time I developed my idea for this video, I didn’t know anything about the “Nasty” clip and Liam told me the ideas were very similar: he thought it would be really cool to have the fox return in the “Wild Frontier” video. Also, it was his idea to put the little ant logo on the motorcycle (which I think is a great detail).

We talked every week and I send him edited clips of what we’ve done. So he was very involved, it was a real collaboration. He pushed me in a really good way to a higher level! And he did the final confirmations.

Who was the author of the first video idea and how much it was changed at the end of the day? And who is the main hero of the video: raccoon or a mouse?

I was the author and except for the ending (adding the fox), there weren’t that many changes. The main hero is Nelson. He is a wolf!

What is the main idea of the video for you as an author? What’s the message? Obviously, this video consists of many different senses and hints. It’d be really interesting to make it a little bit clear for the fans and to know your point of view.

The main idea was to do something based on the theme of Dualism. The state of being dual or consisting of two parts; division into two.

• The doctrine that there are two independent divine beings or eternal principles, one good and the other evil.
• The belief that a human being embodies two parts: the body, and the soul.

So for me, it is about good and evil, evil becoming good. Also, I wanted to make a film with a twisted fairy tale atmosphere with a modern Grimm brothers feel. For sure it is not a statement not to kill animals (although I believe it’s not ok to kill animals).

For me, Nelson is an innocent pure wolf. At the beginning of the clip, he reads a book about dualism (a philosophy of which the fox is the master or guru). That is why the fox is on the book cover! He accidentally kills the moose, but because of his pureness, the Moose turns into the first dualist. (that’s why he doesn’t need a body from another human. Kind of like Jesus who was born without intercourse!

When Nelson is being kidnapped by the kids he saves Nelson and turns the evil little kids into half-humans and half-animals they killed. So evil becomes good again. The fox shows his respect to Nelson and the Moose in the end.

The process of making this kind of animation videos is really hard and extremely long. When you started making it, have you already heard the track, or firstly it was based just on a common idea and concept?

Yes, it was a long process but we did it pretty fast. I started in mid-December and finished it in mid-February, so it all took two months of work. We animated for 25 days. I heard the track first. I really loved the music and I immediately had pictures in my head like Nelson on the bike, the kids walking away with the white bloody hare, the moose standing on the road…
There were like little pieces of a puzzle I somehow had to fit together!

While you were making the video have you got different ways of the storyline developing or finals maybe? Or it was strongly planned and realized according to a first plan?

It actually was very much like the first plan, I may be changed some small details but in general, it stayed the same.

Why every character got the lights in their eyes besides the main hero? He doesn’t have it!

All the characters that have lights in their eyes are dualists and Nelson isn’t. Like I said he is an observer.

What’s the main role and idea of the wolf character in this video? Nelson presented as the main guy, but he’s acting like an asshole, and the only Elk is the real man. Nelson also saw 2 signs (dead animals on the road) before crashing into elk. What’s the idea of these signs if he ignores them anyway?

I kind of explained this already. But because Nelson is looking at the dead animals he is distracted and that’s why he doesn’t see the moose.

Haha, why is Nelson acting like an asshole? The Moose definitely is the hero and the real man of the video, I absolutely agree. The reason why he is extra kick-ass bad fantastic is that the moose is Elmer Kaan’s favorite character and he made him extra great. Elmer Kaan animated this clip and deserves a special mention!

Why the hunters are children? Or they’re not?