"I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" (Animated) [04:14]

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Video Information

This animated video was directed by David O’Reilly with art direction by Jon Klassen. O’Reilly is an Irish film maker, and an artist who is now based in Los Angeles.

The video contains a number of stories for individual characters, and as they proceed through the video, each character cross paths. “I think there was a brief somewhere but I never read it,” O’Reilly related in an interview. “They were supportive of my idea from the word go, never asked for a single change.” The characters all “decide to make a change in their lives” as the YouTube page explains. The video opens with a grey equals sign on a grey background, and slowly rectangles turn into an animated city scene. The first character we see is a runaway girl on a train, ignoring a phone call from her mother, a nurse. We then meet a woman who is packing up her things and leaving her unhappy relationship while her partner is passed out. The final lead character is the man in the rain. We also see a young girl putting up posters about a lost dog, which has joined the homeless man on the street, and becomes part of an act for passers by. The lady who has left her home is picked up by the nurse and offered a drive. The young girl who has run away runs into the dog and man, and she sees herself in the future, and what might await her, and she runs off leaving her backpack full of food for the man. The dog runs with her, and is reunited with her owner, still putting up lost dog posters. The runaway runs past a cafe where her mother sits, and her mother calls out for her. And the city once again devolves into shapes, and then fades to grey.

The video was produced at Lumiere studios in London in a 6 week period. Lumiere reports “A 6 week deadline for a 4 minute character based animated video was always going to be a challenge but with the director on site day and night and a team of dedicated animators working with such passion and belief in what they were creating, we knew we were equal to it. From modelling, texturing and rigging to animating and compositing, Lumiere kept in line with both schedule and expectation from the director, which allowed us the all important time to go back and ‘tweak’ at the end.” The video was produced for the British production company, Colonel Blimp, the music video production arm of Blink Productions.

The UK Exclusive premiere of the video was on VidZone (a video streaming service for PS3 and PSP owners), where it was made available at 9am on Tuesday, July 21. The video was launched on U2’s YouTube channel later the same day, and it was featured on the front page of YouTube in a number of countries including the USA, Ireland and Australia.

It was announced on August 6, 2009, that the video was listed for competition at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in the category “F – Music Video”. The video did not win the award, which went to the video “Dirty ROM Dance Mix” by Nullsleep.

Video Shooting Locations

Quick Start - Leaflet

Additional Screen Captures

Video Credits

  • Director: David O’Reilly
  • Art Direction, Production Design, Concept Art: Jon Klassen
  • Producer: Claire Plaskow
  • Animation and Rigging: Chris Hutchison and Daniel Brown
  • Extra Animation: Steve White
  • Produced by Colonel Blimp
  • Produced at Lumiere Studios, London