Hasta La Motion!

Jacksonkarinja of Rabbit morph an entire city into a living skate park in the 2-minute, live-action trailer “Transform” for Ubisoft’s new Shaun White Skateboarding video game. *Note, this is a Directors cut.

Client: Ubisoft
Title: “Transformation” :120
Airdate: Currently online
Location: Downtown and East Los Angeles
Production Company: Rabbit, Bicoastal
Director/DP: + jacksonkarinja
Line Producer: Gian Colombo
Exec. Producers: Douglas Howell, Joby Barnhart
Advertising Agency: Cutwater, San Francisco
Executive Creative Director: Chuck McBride
Creative Director: Ali Grayeli
Art Director: Marcus Cross
Copywriter: Ray Connolly
Agency Producer: Mai Huynh
Director of Broadcast Content: Jennifer Golub
Editorial Company: Arcade, Los Angeles
Editor: Nathan Petty
Asst. Editor: Aaron Owen
Producer: Ali Reed
VFX Company: Ring of Fire, Santa Monica
Executive Producer: John Myers
VFX Supervisor/Creative Director: Jerry Spivack
VFX Producer: Casey Conroy
Asst. VFX Producer: Candace Niikura
Online Editors: Brian Shneider, Shelly Dutcher
Flame Artists: Brian Shneider, Shelly Dutcher, Trent Shumway, Brian Petras, Tony Graf, Renee Tymn
CG Artists: Andrew McMasters, Leigh Rens, Joe Langmuir
Graphics: Justin Sucara, Marvin Chua
Matchmoving: David Sudd, Paul Hopkins, PvP
Digital Matte Painter: Ron Gress
Colorists: Shelly Dutcher, Brian Shneider
Music/Sound Design: Human, Worldwide
Skaters: Matt Bennett, Greg Crain, Johnny Layton, Jordan Vititow,
Derrick Wilson

Posted on Motionographer

Director David Lobser refashions a bit of Alice in Wonderland in this charming music video for +/-’s “Unsung.” Kissed with subtle CG, the visuals are as gentle and unassuming as the song itself. David did a great job balancing the beauty of leading lady Jessica Stoller with the folksy charm of her surroundings.

This video touches on something we’ve been mumbling about here at Motionographer Headquarters: We’re in the midst of a slow but steady renaissance of the music video. It’s not being driven by labels or even by a renewed interest in the creation of music videos. (Directors and bands have never stopped making music videos, regardless of who was watching them.)

What’s changed are the means of distribution (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) and promotion (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). The game has fundamentally shifted away from a top-down, broadcast model to a bottom-up, grassroots model.

This is a huge boon to bands (and potentially to labels). The old promotional model was to force a video or song onto the air in the hopes that by throwing a wide enough net, you’d catch a few buyers. Now, videos are passed like hot potatoes from friend to friend—and friends are much more inclined to pay attention to each other than to a television station that only seems marginally interested in their lives.

The result is a high viewer-to-fan conversion rate without the associated costs of broadcasting. Some music labels, like Universal Music Group, have figured out a way to make it work for them; others are a bit slower to catch on. Regardless, bands are benefiting from the direct, trackable exposure that web distributed videos are giving them.

I realize this is all old news to you. I’m preaching to the choir. But what seems to be happening is still exciting: After being estranged by MTV and VH1, music videos are reentering the mainstream via the web. It’s something everyone predicted years ago, but now it seems to actually be happening. Hooray!

Thanks to Kristian Mercado for the tip on the video.

Credits

Song: Unsung
Album: Xs on Your Eyes
Director: David Lobser
Executive Producer: Steve Choo
Production: Jonny Fego, Meredith Binder
Production Company: My Active Driveway / Little Sister Productions
Matte Painting/Design: Kristian Mercado

Actors:
Girl: Jessica Stoller
Crew: Alice Hoff Hair/ Make up.
Chapin Hall/ Grip Swing
Christopher Studly/ Gaffer
Ian Mcalpin/ 1st AC
PA: Zach Lewis
DP / Camera: Ian Bloom

Edit: Steve Choo
Animation / Compositing /Chi Peng, Matt Monson
3d / David Lobser, Gwen Murray, David Avetisov, Clay Budin

Posted on Motionographer

David Lobser: +/- “Unsung”