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

And the Emmy for Main Title Design goes to..

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The 2009 Primetime Emmy for Main Title Design has just been awarded, last year Mad Men won, and in the running for it this year was:

> Vampire drama True Blood from HBO
> Showtime’s multiple personality comedy United States of Tara.
> AMC’s industry chat fest Storymakers
> HBO telemovie Taking Chance
> And Fox’s body language drama Lie To Me.

And the winner is..

For all the details on who made what, check out this.

DUCK/Jamie Caliri: The United States of Tara

united-states-of-tara

Jamie Caliri can always be counted on to imbue a project with hand-made charm and incredible attention to detail. Ever since seeing the 2006 “Dragon” for United Airlines, I’ve been enchanted by his unique approach to storytelling.

His latest project comes through LA-based DUCK for Showtime’s new series about a single mother with multiple personality disorder, The United States of Tara. Using cut-out illustrations from Alex Juhasz, the sequence presents a series of layered vignettes populated by the show’s star. Says Caliri:

They wanted a pop-up book look. We decided to try to make as many real pop-up pages as possible and only cheat when we needed. I think it ended up being a fun mix of pop-up and animation.

Alex Juhausz really nailed a great Americana/comic book feel with his illustrations and Anthony Scott brought his usual sensitivity to the animation. The team really pulled together on this one and I think it shows. We had fun.

The United States of Tara is co-executive produced by Diablo Cody (Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno) and Steven Spielberg.

Check out the Dragon Stop Motion Software blog for some behind the scenes action on the project. Also see Jamie’s follow-up spot for United Airlines, “Heart.”

Posted on Motionographer

DUCK/Jamie Caliri: The United States of Tara