‘Wild Frontier’ • Making Of The Video

On 23 February 2015, The Prodigy released Wild Frontier, the third single from their album The Day Is My Enemy. In 2025, the release marks its 10th anniversary, and to celebrate the occasion, we’re revisiting a rare 2015 interview with music video director Mascha Halberstad, conducted by Gordy. Let’s dive in!

The Prodigy’s Wild Frontier video was directed by Mascha Halberstad, a filmmaker specializing in narrative animation, and an animator Elmer Kaan. At the time, Mascha’s studio was called Superfelix, and this was their first experience working with a music band. Back in February 2015, Gordy from theprodigy.ru interviewed Mascha: she shared her experience of working with Liam Howlett and provided detailed insight into the creative process behind the video.

Gordy: 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? Was it Liam Howlett himself?

Mascha: 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).

Mascha: Me and Liam 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.

Gordy: Who came up with the initial idea, and how much did it change in the final version? Also, who is the main hero of the video: the raccoon or the mouse?

Mascha: I was the author, and aside from the ending (adding the fox), there weren’t many changes. It mostly followed the original plan. I may have tweaked some small details, but overall, it remained the same. The main hero is Nelson. He’s a wolf!

Gordy: As the creator, what is the main idea of the video for you? What’s the message behind it? Obviously, the video contains many layers of meaning and hidden hints. It would be really interesting to clarify some of them for the fans and hear your perspective.

Mascha: 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).

Mascha: 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.

Gordy: The process of creating this kind of animated video is extremely challenging and time-consuming. When you started working on it, had you already heard the track, or was it initially based only on a general idea and concept?

Mascha: 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!

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

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

Gordy: What is the main role and concept behind the wolf character in this video? Nelson is presented as the main guy, but he’s acting like an asshole, while the Elk seems to be the only real man. Nelson also encounters two signs (dead animals on the road) before crashing into the elk. What’s the significance of these signs if he ignores them anyway?

Mascha: 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!

Elmer Kaan via Instagram: “Items are animated in front of a tv-screen with the background-footage.”

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

Mascha: Yes, they are. Probably because I make children’s videos 🙂
Nope, because that makes it a bit more twisted darker, and edgy.

Gordy: Who offered the idea of adding an extra sound for the killing hunters’ scene? It didn’t appear on the original track.

Mascha: That was completely Liam’s idea! I had an image of the kids holding their hands at their ears and that’s when Liam came up with the “Moose” sound.

Gordy: What do you plan to do with the dolls from this video? Any plans for eBay? Or will you leave it for your personal collection?

Mascha: Well, I got some requests to sell them already but I have to disappoint everyone here. Liam gets Nelson on the bike with the Moose. And I am keeping the rest for myself!

Gordy: Are there any chances to see a kinda behind-the-scenes video? It’s really interesting to watch how you created this video.

Mascha: Yes! there will be a behind-the-scenes video released in a while.

Gordy: Do you plan to work with The Prodigy in the future?

Mascha: I hope so! It was a great collaboration!

In an interview with RTV Arnhem, which also premiered in 2015, Mascha shared how she got the opportunity to work with The Prodigy. It all started with a message from The Prodigy’s record label, though at first, Mascha had no idea who she would be working with. She was told that an artist was interested in her work and was sent a track, which turned out to be ‘Wild Frontier.’ She then created a rough storyboard for the video, complete with sketches. And later, Liam Howlett himself phoned her. He explained that some time earlier, he had accidentally come across her film on TV, recorded it on his phone, and sent it to the record label, asking them to find out who the creator was.

All in all, the whole production took two months, from the initial sketches to the final version. Shortly after, Mascha Halberstad won the ‘Best Animation’ award for ‘Wild Frontier’ at the 2015 Berlin Music Video Awards, while the video itself became arguably the most unexpected music video for the Essex electronic punks.

Headmaster: SPLIT
Additional thanks to: Gordy, Mascha Halberstad

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