The STORM crowd

The shot comes from "STORM", the GENER8ION video with Yung Lean that The FADER covered in April. Rows of boys in school blazers stand on concrete steps as if for a class photo, then break into Damien Jalet's choreography while one figure in the middle doesn't move. Yung Lean and the dancers restaged it at the VMAs on 27 September, and it has turned into a format. YouMind wrote up the recipe after it went round X, and Pixazo and Oakgen now sell templates that turn your photo into the still lead.

Why it works

Everything in the frame moves together except one person, so that's where your eye goes. The camera never moves and the light is flat. Then the whole crowd hits on the same beat, and that's enough to make it hit hard.

How this ingredient gives it to you

Storm Crowd is the whole shot, built in 3D. For one bar the crowd is frozen. Then they bow, snap their heads back and head-bang in unison, settle, and stand still again, so the clip loops. Pick the Crowd outfit (school blazers, all black, white shirts, khaki) and what the Still figure wears. Set the Tempo to your track, Energy for how hard they move, Looseness for how tightly they keep time, the number of Rows and the Light: flat overcast, night with a red rim, or low golden sun.

Add a title with Kinetic Title Reveal on the first hit, or run the night look through VHS Camcorder for a tape version.

One limitation

The figures are faceless mannequins. They aren't people. For a photoreal STORM video, give this loop to a video model as the motion and camera reference and let it put your face on the still figure.