Hasta La Motion!

Michael Langan’s music video for Hundred Waters’ “Cavity” features the filmmaker’s trademark penchant for playing with multiplicity and repetition.

What begins as a deceptively simple pillar of light hovering over a nighttime desert evolves into a series of hypnotic visual echoes, as Langan sculpts forms with topographic light.

Entranced by the alien landscapes, I found myself oscillating between two states of mind: 1) wondering how the hell he pulled everything off, and 2) not caring at all.

From Langan:

We used a single flashlight drawn over the landscape hundreds of times to create the lighting effects for “Cavity.” The sliver of light on Nicole’s face involves a projector and a motorized lazy Susan, performed over multiple takes and then multiplied in post.

More from Langan

For more of Langan’s inventiveness, check out the films below.

The students of Gobelins strike again. “Myosis” is an existential love story, a lyrical tale of passion and the creative destruction sometimes necessary to stay in touch with it.

The animation is stunning, but so is the overall art direction. Impeccable control of the palette combines with elegantly framed shots to create a powerful sequence of visuals. Superbly done.

Some nice process work in Guillaume Dousse’s portfolio.

Full credits at the film’s end. Primary creators:

Emmanuel Asquier-Brassart
Ricky Cometa
Guillaume Dousse
Adrien Gromelle
Thibaud Petitpas

Posted on Motionographer

Updated with Q&A

A couple of weeks ago I posted a music video by Ben & Julia for The Main Drag’s song ‘Dove Nets’. Ben (Benoît Créac’h) and Julia (Gaudard) started working together in 2006, and recently moved to Berlin.

There are a few things that made me fall in love with this piece: the diverse illustration/design styles, the use of numerous hand-made pieces, but most of all the ‘Berlinesque’ playfulness of it all.  They have really captured the artistic spirit of the city pretty well in this piece. Although they described this project as a sort of celebration of their recent move, I’m sure this wasn’t their primary aim.

I caught up with the duo, and now have the pleasure of sharing some insight behind their production process with all of you. You can also get more info and credit list on the official site of the video here.

1. What was the brief from the record company/band at the start?

The Brief was clear “Do some Ben&Julia’s crazy stuff “.
No seriously, they really trusted us and we were free to do whatever we wanted. So ‘Dove Nets’ ended up as a surrealistic/psychedelic mix media piece.

2. what were your ideas that came up during your brainstorming process?

We were immediately seduced by the concept of a mouse who’s obsessed with doves. At the beginning the goal was to keep everything real simple, because of the budget and time restrictions, but we couldn’t help writing more new ideas, that’s when the talking books, the eyes in the plug (3rd shot), the Dove Robot, came about. We loved the idea of books telling stories without having to be opened and read!

We are mostly inspired by our travels. Also by dreams, childhood memories,  and TV shows. As an example, for this video,
“Téléchat”– a French TV show from the 80’s, was an important inspiration. “The Storyteller” is also one of our favourites.

Another important subject is the metamorphosis, the kind that Ovid spoke about. Something that’s based in mythology rather than in a new vision of ourselves. The poisoning by the cheese alludes to the use of rat poison. It congeals the blood and kills the rat really quickly. That’s an idea that’s been in our sketchbooks for 2-3 years now.

3. what were the most difficult or unexpected challenges you encountered during the production, technical and otherwise?

We put a lot of work in this music video. Everything was hard and challenging : the animated cartoons, sculptures, plaster bandage, books, and the mouse costume whose ears were made of latex. But we also learned a lot out of this, and that’s really valuable to us. When you make an entire video by yourself, the good thing is that inevitably, there would be some sort of an artistic unity, regardless of whether you wanted this or not.

4. Why did you choose this style/aesthetic and this method?

We mixed all the techniques because this was how we found an “equilibrium”. This is how live action, CG, and puppets can coexist. We try to create ‘Universes’ not ‘animation films’. This is our way to change the world we live in, into a better place…at least for 3 minutes

5. Finally tell us a little bit more about your background and the project…

We are Ben (Benoît Créac’h) and Julia (Gaudard). A French/Swiss duo of Art Director/Director.
Julia studied decoration in Vevey (Switzerland), and Graphic Design in Central St Martin’s, London.
Ben studied editing at CLCF and 3D/Special Effects at Isart Digital in Paris, where he also worked as consultant.

In 2006, we started working as a duo, aiming to create something very original out of clever mixes of all sorts of techniques, be it traditional or digital. We are now represented by Stink. ‘Dove Nets’, which took us 3 months to produce, is our second music video, made as a kind of celebration of our recent relocation to Berlin.

Posted on Motionographer

Cisma’s latest short film, “Le Sens Propre,” continues in the surreal tradition of “Handmade” and “The Fly and the Eye,” fleshing out a body of work that grows more interesting with each new project.

The narrative of “Le Sens Propre” loops around itself in a dreamlike Gordian knot. The film’s real focus is on perception—the little surprises that blossom when expectations are upended and conventions are twisted.

From a production standpoint, there’s no 3D involved. The hand-crafted tableaux feel palpably real, which only further underscores the film’s surreality.

For a Q&A with Cisma and some production stills,  read on.

Disclosure: “Le Sens Propre” was underwritten by Adobe, an advertiser on Motionographer. This is no way effected our decision to share this work.

Posted on Motionographer