Pictura's Best Pictures: Encyclopedia Pictura talk us through some of their best cinematic works

In the years since we first encountered Encyclopedia Pictura, the trio comprised of Isaiah Saxon, Sean Hellfritsch and Daren Rabinovitch has made short films and music videos for the likes of Grizzly Bear, Björk, Panda Bear and Metronomy, with animation skills and craftsmanship far exceeding that of their peers. Famed as much for their kind-natured creativity as their alternative lifestyle, the collective resides in Trout Gulch, a Santa Cruz community of hand-built huts full of tech-minded futurists. “I think our collective strength has to do with us getting really excited about similar things and then getting maniacally focused on making those things happen,” Isaiah says. “We each have nicely overlapping skills, but really I think the key is in just how much fun it is to get each other pumped. The collaboration is more about friendship than necessity I think.” “We’re all just really good friends with sympathetic sensibilities,” says Sean. “Our individual interests overlap, but they also vary enough to keep us perpetually inspiring one-another.” Inspiring each other has led to inspiring work and a heap of incredible moving image projects. We asked the boys to talk us through six of their best… Björk — Wanderlust Back in 2008, Björk described her new single Wanderlust as being about “the state of looking for something and almost knowing you’re never going to find it.” The now-legendary video for the song features a felt-costumed Björk being set upon by mythical creatures in a battle with nature. It’s certainly one of their darker films. “We were in some deep artistic psychosis when we wrote it,” Isaiah says. “I remember trying to channel feelings of being simultaneously overwhelmed and afraid of the power of nature, but also disgusted with civilisation – left only with the choice to dissolve one’s ego by submitting to the massive beauty of nature, dark side and all.” “Also the song is really relentless,” Sean adds. “Once things get going, there’s no break. We had to match that sustained overwhelming intensity with the visuals.” And what visuals; particularly the enormous, mystic yaks that Bjork rides down-river towards the terrifying stone river God. “They were the biggest challenge.” says Daren. “I sculpted the faces with clay and then cast with foam latex. That was then mounted onto a fibreglass frame which was rigged with puppet controls for the eyes, mouth, hairs, nostrils and eyelids that two puppeteers could operate from inside, while wearing giant cast-foam woolly boots.” The characters wouldn’t look out of place in a children’s feature film, but set to Björk’s howling song of sadness and desperation, they make for a very unsettling watch. Metronomy — The Upsetter In 2014 Metronomy released the second video from their album Love Letters. The debut music video was directed by Michel Gondry, and the second for the lo-fi ballad The Upsetter was Daren’s responsibility. The video takes place in the redwoods of Humboldt County in California, a place where Daren was immediately taken by the size of the ancient trees; “When they fall over they’re like whales – splinters as thick as your leg,” he says. “The Upsetter sounded organic. I didn’t know this at the time, but the band wrote it on a camping trip in the woods. It sounds swampy, like something could crawl out of it, so I thought this was a chance to build a character like Swamp Thing, which I love.” The video follows a bearded woman of the forest who, in a bid to find companionship, fashions a lover from moss and soil. “She’s made a life for herself in the woods, but she’s lonely. She’s a restless creative type. She creates a partner for herself but when it comes alive she’s freaked out by the weirdness of it, so she transforms herself into something weird too.” The visual transformation of bearded feral woman to swamp goddess is remarkable, and was no easy feat for Daren, who created most of the video in-camera save for some minor After Effects. “I went into the project swearing I would do no post-production because I thought that would be the most zen. Plus sculpting and building things is easier for me. The two costumes each took about a month to build. I built them in my living room onto a pair of mannequins. There were about 20 people that came to help me because there was just so much to carry into the deep woods. It was a mix of pros and bros.” The Internet This 30-second animated film captures the panicky, clicky, infinite nature of the world wide web perfectly – all dubbed over with a soundtrack by Dan Deacon. “The internet has always felt like a continuation of my home-schooled youth,” says Sean. “A place to find the answers to my questions. I think if you’re using it to better your real-world pursuits it’s invaluable, otherwise it’s a time-suck.” Isaiah agrees: “The internet can be great or shitty depending on the user’s motivations and the motivations of the people building services. It’s been amazing for us because we’ve largely taught ourse