Sam Fleischner directed this haunting music video for Panda Bear’s Surfer’s Hymn as a tribute to all the surfers taken by the sea.
Every once in a while the stars align and a great music video is born out of inspiration and pure circumstance. Panda Bear’s – Surfers Hymn video has this exact creation story. m ss ng p eces was fortunate enough to be stranded with a number of highly modified functional surf-skateboards at around the same time that director Sam Fleischner expressed his haunting vision for a music video with Panda Bear, memorializing lost but not forgotten surf heroes. Months earlier, Sam had been editing a film in the same studio where Sonic Boom was mixing Tom Boy and he got an early taste of the music. He knew right away that he was destined to make a video but didn’t know until luck had it that he would get to make the video that he did.
With surf-skateboards in hand, Sam shared the idea with Noah from Panda Bear, who quickly blessed the endeavor with only one request – that everyone have good times making it. From then until completion the video was a truly collaborative effort, which came together in one 6 hour shoot and a week of work.
