Foals Mountain at My Gates is a bold approach in audience engagement: filmed with a GoPro Spherical camera lens, it offers viewers the possibility of ‘calling’ the shots. The video’s panoramic footage can be manipulated on Google Chrome or the YouTube phone app via a mouse or the AWSD keys. Directed by NABIL for United Realities, the interactivity compliments the catchy tune and thoughtful lyrics.

The slow zoom from a black a screen to an increasingly concave rectangle provides a clear glimpse of the directional arrows in the top left corner.  We become part of the bird’s eye view flying toward a housing estate setting where the video was filmed – the CGI mountain landscape was added later.

During a recent performance on Triple J’s Like a Version, Yannis explained that it was “filmed in the round”. When operating the arrow functions, it can be disconcerting to notice multiple frontmen, although the swooping birds enhance the eerie feeling.

This would make an interesting related text for the HSC Area of Study: discovery.