Artist Poppy recently filmed the music video for her single “Unravel” at Studio Eleven43 in Hollywood, working with director Sam Cannon to build a controlled, layered visual environment that combined practical scenery with LED screen content.
This collaboration was brought into Eleven43 by Jacqueline Carroll, President of the studio and a long-time creative producer and operator in Los Angeles’ experiential production space. Carroll saw the concept’s sensitivity and ambition as a natural fit for Eleven43’s hybrid environment — a studio committed equally to tactile world-building and modern LED-driven workflows.
Hybrid Production Approach
For this video, Cannon and her team chose a 2.5D staging method, constructing multiple physical layers in the foreground and mid-ground while using the studio’s LED volume as a backdrop. The approach allowed the production to create spatial depth without relying on full set builds or post-production compositing.
Cannon, who previously collaborated with Catseye to develop and direct visual assets for their large-scale tour, approached the piece with a focus on dimensionality, repeatable looks, and efficiency within a single-stage footprint.
Art Department Execution
A dedicated art department designed and fabricated practical elements to sit in front of the LED wall. These included textured panels, sculptural pieces, and layered frames constructed to create depth when viewed through the lens.
The layered build served several purposes:
- Foreground presence to break up negative space
- Practical occlusion and shadows to ground the environment
- Consistent spatial depth without moving walls or large scenic pieces
- Controlled reveal of LED content through layered voids and frames
Lighting was planned around these layers, ensuring the pieces interacted cleanly with the LED backdrop without reflective interference. The combination positioned the physical scenic elements as the primary environment, with LED content supporting tone and continuity.
LED Integration
The LED wall was used for environmental texture, not for literal location simulation. Content shifted subtly, functioning as an extended background plane behind the scenic layers rather than acting as a primary set element. This allowed the production to:
- Maintain visual continuity across setups
- Adjust mood and palette quickly
- Align the background with lighting passes on the physical builds
The approach minimized resets while preserving a tactile feel in-camera.
Performance and Camera Strategy
Poppy performed principally within the foreground layers, with controlled camera movement to maintain parallax and preserve the 2.5D effect. Shots were planned with clear front-to-back composition, emphasizing:
- Foreground frame lines
- Mid-ground sculptural shapes
- Background LED content as depth
The result was clean dimensionality without requiring motion-tracked virtual environments or heavy VFX.
Studio Eleven43 Facilities in Use
The shoot utilized Eleven43’s:
- LED volume
- Pre-rigged lighting grid
- Black box environment for scenic control
- Production support space for scenic build and staging
The studio’s layout allowed the art department to build and stage pieces efficiently while maintaining access to the LED wall for active programming and look development.
Conclusion
“Unravel” demonstrates how hybrid scenic and LED workflows can be deployed at music-video scale without leaning on heavy digital pipelines. With practical set layers driving depth and the LED volume supplying consistent background control, the production combined flexibility with physical grounding — a model well-suited to fast, single-stage music content.
Studio Eleven43 continues to support directors and artists looking to combine traditional scenic practices with modern display technology in a controlled, scalable environment.