Society - “Protocol” (Official Video)

Society’s “Protocol” is the rare instance of a music video elevating a song rather than bogging it down in high concept, low production quality, or plain old unmemorable mediocrity. The single itself is awesome, James Girdler and Brendan Lynch funneling the weary, art-damaged spirit of Achtung Baby-era U2 into a walloping trip-hop/Big Beat production with orchestral swoop. Director Laura Coulson’s visuals lend “Protocol” a more lighthearted nature — the whole thing comprises a gangly teenager named Luke intuitively grooving to the beat. As she explains, that wasn’t the original plan:

We actually cast a bunch of really great teenagers to be in the video. The idea being we would film them moving to the song, hearing it for the first time so we could capture their initial reactions. Luke’s take was so fun and really excited us. He embodied the spirit of the song so well we ended up using his take for the whole video, as none of us could take our eyes off him.

Luke’s movements are seriously mesmerizing. It’s just a guy dancing to a great song, but sometimes that’s all you need for a captivating creative work.