PES: The Deep

After posting PES’s latest work, The Deep, in mid December, recently, we were able to catch up with the artist himself. Chatting about everything from his artistic background to childhood inspiration, PES gives us a candid look into his personal filmmaking process in this exclusive interview for the latest Showtime Short Stories film, The Deep (full interview here).

“For as long as I can remember I’ve been obsessed with deep sea creatures. And certain tools have always reminded me of fish and other ocean creatures. One tool in particular – an old nutcracker – looked very fish-head-like to me (I used it as the head of the eel and the lantern fish in The Deep). So I collected lots of tools and metal scraps over the past 5 years with an eye toward creating an undersea-themed piece. The challenge became, can I get these rigid objects to have enough fluidity to really make them believable as sea creatures.”

While PES’s usual style of work illustrates a stark contrast between natural and synthetic objects, for The Deep, this was not the case. Varying from his previous shorts, his approach was also different. “Each shot,” he explains, “inspired the next shot I dreamt up. It was an extremely spontaneous mode of creation.” The resulting piece is rough and improvised, while at the same time, more restrained than his previous endeavors. While most of PES’s work is built around an eclectic combination of scavenged objects, The Deep is not a short that’s amplified by electrifying visuals, but rather, a visually candid, mask-free look into the versatility and creative breadth of PES.

Full interview with PES on the making of The Deep

Posted on Motionographer

Psyop: “Whole New World”

In Whole New World, Psyop takes a deep sea plunge into a water world full of unusual and exotic inhabitants for AT&T’s “Rethink Possible” campaign. In many ways, the piece is less stylized and more cinematic, in terms of narrative and musical score, but from a visual standpoint, exhibits many of the CG hallmarks that stay true to the Psyop playbook. While the piece begins on a dark and moody note, the visuals evolve into something more beautiful: a vista of tropical inspired colors that glow like the fluorescence of coral reefs.

As a footnote, this spot, unlike many that the studio has created, is not only for commercial output, but instead, will have a cinematic release at select, stereoscopic movie screens next week and shown before The Last Airbender and Despicable Me. It will also air on ESPN 3d.

Posted on Motionographer