Hasta La Motion!

We recently posted a trailer for Hornet’s visual-collaboration with The Decemberists. However, off the tails of Monday’s premier at UCLA’s Royce Hall, it seemed appropriate to follow up with a more in-depth look, including notes from each director.

After deciding to make a film to accompany their new album, the band initially approached Jonathan Wells of Flux to curate, who in turn brought Hornet on-board to produce the pieces with three Hornet directors and a fourth. Although the assumptive budget of a project like this was a mere fraction of most commercial campaigns, this is a positive reminder that production companies are content-creation partners and curatorial entities — hopefully a sentiment that continues to permeate the mainstream.

Broken up into the four sides of the vinyl album, the directors each chose a side to work on with the decided theme of the seasons. Similar to Exquisite Corpse style projects like Psst! Pass It On, the directors were able to work independently of each other, and consulted one another when they got to the end of their section.

Here are extended cut-downs from the hour-long piece: Side A (Peter Sluszka), Side B (Julia Pott), Side C (Guilherme Marcondes) & Side D (Santa Maria)

Guilherme Marcondes:

The unifying theme for the project as a whole was “the woods”. Somehow we all did something involving trees, forests etc. To divide each director’s segment we created quick graphical transitions representing the four seasons. My segment, for instance, was connected to the previous by autumnal falling leaves and to the following one by a shower of snowflakes.

I developed my segment along with artist Andrezza Valentin. We wanted to do something that would look like an environment for the band to perform in front of. It should be an animated set-design that would hopefully transport the audience into that world, providing a special context for the songs to be performed. we didn’t go literal on the interpretation of the lyrics. The idea was to enhance the overall mood of the music. Our sequence of songs was the darkest in the album (which I liked very much) so we decided to go for some eerie symbolism combined with more abstract psychedelic moments. There were several elements representing the passing of time like the sun, the moon, an eclipse, ruins and human bones.

I used a high speed camera (Phantom) to shot some elements. Other elements were illustrations or photographs. Everything was composed later in After Effects. The biggest challenge was to create such a long duration film in a relatively short amount of time.

Peter Sluszka:

Listening to the Hazards of Love, an animist theme becomes apparent very early on in the narrative. I wanted to explore this aspect of the story and how it related to the mysterious, forest environment, which is why I focused on vegetation and organic elements, shooting them as if they were animated by the same spirits driving the plot and protagonists. Musically, the Prelude is stark and minimal, transitioning to a fuller second track that evokes a sense of travel and discovery. Visually, the film mirrors this progression, starting with a void as seeds spiral in hypnotically, resolving in a dense, overgrown forrest that helps establish an ambiance and mood for all the narrative to come. The third and fourth tracks continue in this vein, with animated leaves, trees, mushrooms, and flowers synced to the music in an abstract interplay with the plot and characters.
All four tracks from the first side combine high speed footage shot on the Phantom camera with stop-motion animation, photographed largely on a multi-plane set up.

Santa Maria:

After we listened to the album and heard the lyrics a few times, we decided that we should shoot video. We thought of something that could be eerie and a little unnerving as well as magical and nostalgic. So we decided to literally go into the forest with a camera a bright light and a fog machine. In the end it was more or less an experiment, along with an abstract story about shooting stars.

The band didn’t want to dwell on the lyrics so much so we decided to make a piece based on the feeling of the music. Overall the music flows very naturally and is a strange mix of beauty and sadness… we tried our best to match that with melancholy imagery.

Julia Pott

Some of the imagery was based upon diagrams and drawings found in science text books. I also borrowed from old nature magazines and journals to create a collaged background to set off the hand drawn animation. I wanted to make each scene like a moving illustration. I looked at the naive style that is currently popular in contemporary illustration. I have a whole bunch of National Geographics from the 80’s which I used as a reference for the animal characters. The season that I was assigned was summer. I tried to use imagery that I associated with summer but without being overtly bright and warm. By setting most of the film at night I could use summery imagery whilst maintaining a sinister edge. When working on more commercial projects you’re often required to squeeze a lot of information into a very short amount of time. It’s been great to work on a project in which there is opportunity to let the work breathe and use a slower. It’s also a rare chance to work alongside other filmmakers to be part of a bigger picture

CREDITS:

Client: Capitol Records
Agency: Flux
Creative Directors: Jonathan Wells and Meg Wells (Flux)
Production Company: Hornet Inc.
Executive Producers: Michael Feder (Hornet Inc.), Jonathan Wells (Flux)
Producer: Hana Shimizu (Hornet Inc.)
Editor: Anita Chao (Hornet Inc.)

(Side A)

Director: Peter Sluszka
Editor: Anita Chao
Compositor: Andrew Macfarlane
Fabricator: Matt Christensen, Connie Chan
Live Action Producer: Joel Kretschman
DP: Othmar Dickbauer
Gaffer: Michael Yetter
Key Grip: Joe Mandeville
Art Dept.: Tim McDonald, Kevin Coyle

(Side B)

Director: Julia Pott
Assistant Director: Robin Bushell
Compositors: Matt Layzell, Danny Boyle, Tom Brown
Animation Assistant: Rosie Miles

(Side C)

Director: Guilherme Marcondes
Art Direction: Andrezza Valentin and Guilherme Marcondes  
3D Artist: Diogo Kalil
Live Action Producer: Joel Kretschman
DP: Othmar Dickbauer
Gaffer: Michael Yetter
Key Grip: Joe Mandeville
Art Dept.: Tim McDonald, Kevin Coyle

(Side D)

Director: Santa Maria
Key Grip: Sarah Edney

Management: Jason Colton and Ron Laffitte for Red Light Management

Special Thanks: Dan Cohen, Danny Lockwood, Sharon Lord, Shawn Kirkham, Cem Kurosman, Angelique Groh, Zack Kortright, John Harrison, Michael Yetter

Posted on Motionographer

You have to really admire the Japanese and their animation. They can take something as mundane as how Google Street View works, and transform it into something so quirky and charming! I really enjoy all the contraptions employed to get the job done, it stokes that little fire in my heart that Wallace and Gromit sparked as a child.

Unfortunately my ability to read Japanese is about on par with my Chinese, so I’ve no idea who created the animation. If you do know, then please let me know.
Made by Pangra!

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Excerpt:

I think all directors should be animators first, because you really can take the imagination to become something tangible, something you can hold in your hand, and say, “Can you see this? No? Well, I can.” And then you make that, make that happen.

Via: ProLost Tip: Fred Kim

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More animated goodness from Chris Ware for This American Life. More info on the Vimeo page. Animation by John Kuramoto.

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Heads up, boys and girls. The full version of this Supinfocom student film is finally available to us online, after having toured these festivals, and garnered praise and awards. On the official website you will also find precious and beautiful images of colourscripts, posters, and other behind-the-scenes stuff.

I know many of you may have watched it online on Celine’s Vimeo page, but to make THIS post worth your while, I caught up with the team that made this : Antoine Perez, Celine Desrumaux, Francois Pons, and Gary Levesque and present to you a full Q&A. Probably one of the most well-answered Q&A’s I have ever read!

1. What inspired you guys to make the film? Why this story in particular? What other inspiration helped you define the artistic look of the film?

From the beginning we knew we were aiming for drama. The public has an expectation too see 3D films that are funny, gag-filled and cute. Supinfocom supported our decision to avoid this.

We begun with a simple plot, turning an ‘ordinary’ circumstance (a WW2 pilot in his plane, about to crash) into an intriguing story. We wanted to draw out the magic and the cultural signficance of the situation.

Some of our inspirations include David Lynch (notice the zig zag floor?) and Tetsuo from Shinya Tsukamoto. Another important influence is ‘The Running man’ by Neo Tokyo (Manie-Manie), in its portrayal of the dying process of the central character, in his vehicle/machine that’s really been his life’s passion. So we quickly trimmed the fat off, focusing our energy on the characters, not on themes of war/ideological oppression. ditching initial inspirations such as Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ and propaganda posters.

Graphicaly we tried hard not to force our own style, fearing that this would make the film too graphic and not appropriate. On every step we focused on the storyline and tried to build around it. I guess this is why our characters are half realistic, and half stylised. We needed them to be very human so audience will emotionally identify with the charcters, but at the same time they needed to be somewhat magical, feeding the audience’s imagination.

The pilot needed to be able to fall in love with his own death, so we gave the girl Marylin Monroe’s showgirl-attractiveness, and Marlène Dietrich’s seriousness and mental dominance. This combination made her to look a little like Jessica Rabbit—which was another strong influence.

For the pilot, we drew influence from Corto Maltese comics by Hugo Pratt–someone with a strong mind, that won’t simply succumb to death. This struggle had to be a proper fight between a wolf and an eagle! For the environment the influences were art déco interiors. We added fluid, feminine shapes (eg. curtains), to stop it from being too ‘cold’, and to make it feel somewhat personal and alive, as it represented the pilot’s headspace.

2. What tools were used in production? (software,etc)

3dsMax, Photoshop, Pro Tools, Avid, After Effects. For smoke and fire we used afterburn and particle flow. Also, computers…

3. What were the stages of production and how long does each of them take?

Development of the script started really early—two years before the end of the production. But at that time, we were still very distracted by other classes that made up the Supinfocom’s curriculum. So for a year, we developed the script and storyboard ‘part time’. The storyboard ended up taking about a month, so did the 2D animatic.

Also bear in mind that we were learning everything as we go. The full year of prepoduction was truly beneficial, it gave us time to learn from our mistakes. We started full time production the following year: 2 months for the 3D animatic ( many of them! ), 2 months for the design and modeling. The rest of the time was spent on animation, lighting, rendering and compositing. We also missed the train going to our final jury, so we could better finish the movie. that’s 8 hours of extreme stress!

4. How did you come up with the unique look of the fire? How was it created and why did you choose that look?

From the very first storyboard, the fire was stylised with half discs. This was again, Art déco-inspired. Making realistic fire has always been out of the question, for technical and artistic reasons. I don’t think at that time we were determined to make the fire look like this, but that shape became more and more present in film, it was like a trademark. It’s hard to notice, but it’s also on the chair’s back and on the stage’s lights.

5. What are the difficulties you guys came across during production?

We spent a bit of time on the character modeling and design, because we didn’t start off with a definite ideas for the ‘look’ to the film. Yet we knew everything had to be perfectly tailored for the story, including the look. So this made it hard to stick closely to the schedule.

The smoke also gave us a bit of trouble: we wanted it to have a realistic flow and texture, and yet be able to shape it and sculpt it like a more tangible volume. We eventualy gave up on this, but were quite satisfied with how it looked in the end. Also you noticed that the close-up shot were he picked up his lighter looks horrible ! That was the first shot we rendered, and we still can’t bear to watch when it comes up. The ending was also quite tricky, we tried differents edits but we had trouble keeping it simple and powerful: we had several things to say but not much time to do so. The edit you see now was made only a few weeks before the end of production. Every step had its challenges but it was all a lot of fun.

6. How did you four end up working together? Can you list the particular strength/weaknesses that each of you have?

All four of us are complementary technically but also as human beings :

Gary took on most of the animation by himself, he is a dedicated and talented animator. We were never worried by the planning and quality of the animation. Sometimes he was a bit stressed out : during the last days, we remember he temporarily forgot how to use photoshop, from stress! He played an important human role in the team by keeping our moods up. He plays amazing guitar, that’s pretty cool. Should we mention finger-skating ? Oops.

François was the most technical member of the team, allowing us to safely use Visual Effects like smoke and particles, and he built a custom rig for the film. He’s always patient and pragmatic which was good during hard times. He’s a little shy but that doesn’t keep him from being funny.

Céline did alot of different things during the production: modelling, animation, lighting and compositing. However, her main strengh is her ability to plan things. She was the most serious member, keeping up with the schedule, and making sure we didn’t fall apart as a team. She was also very involved in the story-telling and continuity of the film. However, she can get anxious and emotional. And she drinks way too much coke. Seriously, we should have gotten a sponsorship. Why do you think there is a coke bottle in the movie ?

Antoine is really creative and has been very involved in all the pre-production steps, as well as the graphical side of the movie wich is good. He is quite stubborn and that’s a strength or a weakness depending on the situation. He worked mainly on designing, modeling and lighting. However he can find it difficult to focus his mind on a repetitive task. That’s until he finds a new challenge.

7. Will you guys continue to work together? Do you guys have any specific career plans in the near future?

It’s hard to say whether or not we will have the opportunity to do another project with the same team. From the little time we’ve spent in the industry, we have noticed there is not much opportunity for this. On a happier note, Gary teamed up with ex-classmate Clément Soulmagnon to make another short film, which is being made right now in Paris, and they hope to continue directing together. Antoine and Céline continue to work together as a directing duo, and are currently writting a new project. Other than that, we’re still good friends and try to hang together when we have the chance to.

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Yankeegal : Full film with Q&A