The Valley of the Pagans

The Valley of the Pagans is a song created by the virtual band Gorillaz in collaboration with for the 2020 album, Song Machine: Season One - Strange Timez. The music video for the song was released on November 5, 2020 and was filmed almost entirely in Grand Theft Auto V using Director Mode. The music video on the band's YouTube page was set to private four days after it premiered.

Synopsis
The Gorillaz: Noodle (driver), Russel (front passenger), 2-D and Murdoc (back seat), are in the band's 1969 Chevrolet Camaro which has been renamed from STYLO to PAGAN. They are sucked backwards into an inter-dimensional portal that teleports them to Los Santos where the car is transformed into a Vigero with a license plate (and a modified front grille badge only visible in close-ups) reading PAGAN. They appear directly outside the Clinton Residence, where they reverse into a Patriot, before the video cuts away to scenic views of the Vinewood Sign, Pleasure Pier, Galileo Observatory, Interstate 2 and Legion Square. The band then take off with a 1 star wanted level. 2-D has Beck,, , , and on his iFruit contacts list and calls Beck who is rendered in live action on the phone display.

There is no contiguous journey tracked as the band jump from location to location in each scene, although time of day (visible on the phone) and the wanted level overlay are somewhat continuous between each shot. The time on the phone is frozen at several intervals rather than progressing in the GTA Timescale. The wanted level is the only part of the HUD shown throughout the video. The video ends with the band flying through another portal that sends their car crashing into the ocean in front of their old studio.

Credits

 * Director: Jamie Hewlett
 * Co-Directors: Tim McCourt & Max Taylor
 * Producer: Eva Dahlqvist
 * Production Managers: Lisa A. Smith, Samia Ahmed
 * Production Assistant: Laurence Moss
 * Animation Supervisor/Lead Animator: Venla Linna
 * Animation: Simone Cirillo
 * Clean Up Artists: Paola Costigliola, Kay Sales, Simone Cirillo, Venla Linna, Daniel Morales Ramirez
 * Compositing: Freddie Lewis-Walls, Bernardo Varela, Elliott Kajdan
 * Compositing Assist: Skye van der Walt
 * Matte Paint: Yann Benedi
 * Production Company: The Line
 * Gorillaz are managed by Eleven Management

Trivia

 * Despite gaining a 5-Star Wanted Level, the band is only pursued by one Police Cruiser.
 * 2-D's iFruit is gradually damaged over course of the video.
 * This is the band's third song to directly reference Los Angeles either as a subject matter or as a music video location (the others being Humility and Hollywood).
 * The panning shots of Vespucci Beach are an homage to the Humility music video which was set in the beach's real-world equivalent.
 * The video ends with the band crashing their car into the ocean similar to the way they drove their Camaro into the ocean at the end of the Stylo music video.
 * There was speculation at the time that the video may had been removed due to possibly showing a spoiler for an upcoming Grand Theft Auto Online update. However, this was simply misinformation caused by Grand Theft Auto fans mistaking Plastic Beach for the then-rumored island of Cayo Perico, which was later added to the game on 15 December 2020 as part of the Cayo Perico Heist update.