On Ras Kassa’s MySpace page he refers to himself as “Ras Kassa the Guru,” which is a pretty accurate description based on Kassa’s significant contributions to the music video scene in his native Jamaica. Kassa is a self-taught creative director, editor, writer, producer, cinematographer, musician and painter who has distinguished himself in television, commercials and home DVDs. As a director, Kassa first gained international attention when he directed Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley’s reggae track, “Welcome to Jamrock,” a gritty depiction of the streets of Trenchtown, Jamaica that received major airplay on mainstream stations around the world and a number of music video nominations and awards.

Never one to limit himself to one genre of music, Kassa has also directed music video for country music legend Willie Nelson. Currently represented by Karma Kollective in Culver City, CA, Kassa founded Guru Films earlier this year in Kingston, Jamaica as a production company and entire movement within the Jamaican filmmaking industry. MVWire recently spoke with Ras Kassa about how he broke into the music video industry, and how his Jamaican roots influence his directorial style.

MVWire: How did you get your start?

Ras Kassa: I got my start through music, I was in a band and … you know I play roots – rock – reggae with a kind of Rage Against the Machine vibe, so I used to play guitar and sing lead vocals in the band. This guy called Trevor Bailie invited us to come by the studio a few times and we started practicing (studio) engineering. Trevor was one of the first people to make a music video in Jamaica. So people started calling him up to make videos and he was like, “Yo guys, I am going to get back some cameras and get this going.” All right, cool. From there this cat called Kevin Lee was doing his thing and…I just wanted to help him out on set and did almost everything except the make-up. So, I was preparing myself.

I used to work a lot on sets, before I came up front. X is my friend and he taught me a lot. I worked with Francis Lawrence, Paul Hunter, Marcus Rayboy—a lot of cats that are top name. Back in the day they use to come to Jamaica and shoot a lot.

MVW: What’s the scene like in Jamaica?

RK: Shooting videos is a new thing in this country. Our music and our culture is more than a beautiful image. There is no Jamaican that you know that make it big in the US as a recording artist and they not try to bring that Jamaican vibe across. The culture is very important to making videos down here for reggae music anywhere. Gentleman is from Germany and he makes reggae music and is just like every artist in Jamaica. Where it can’t look too glossy they don’t want it to look too plastic…they don’t want it to come across like they are RICH. Of course everybody wants a pretty car and pretty girls but they want to keep it real. That is a big thing to me because I see myself like somebody that preserves a visual culture.

When I started in this game we were two cats that really make videos and it was a different style. Our film school was watching MTV and watching everything on TV: car commercials, comic books, and fashion magazines. Before I got into video I used to work with this still photographer William Richards (Fuji, Snoop Dogg…) he is from Jamaica but based in New York. Composing a shot is something that I really get into. Back in high school I paint and draw…. I take all those examples and put it into motion. My dream was to have a music video on MTV TRL, so I did that. I was the first director that lived in the Caribbean. When we were viewed on TRL that was a big thing for us and the region because we don’t make it to TRL. Plus shooting on film is something that we don’t get to do too much because our music does not make that kind of money, we don’t have the facilities in Jamaica.

MVW: The difference between a major label artist and local video?

RK: When you have a Caribbean artist that is great big they are going to go to X as the director because he got that Sean Paul hit. That was that, it was fresh and cool but that’s not the culture or the root of what dancehall (music) is about. America still has not seen the real roots of dancehall. Let’s say a Sean Paul video his next album he shoot this big dance in Jamaica called Pasa Pasa that go on from 11:00 at night until 10:00 in the morning (with) people dancing in the street, that’s the real deal. When I did that video “Welcome to Jamrock” that was another video that went places, not to TRL but it went places—and that video was like $500,000 Jamaican dollars, which is like $10,000 US dollars.

That actually got me two Willie Nelson videos…that’s crazy. I would love to make a video for Jay-Z or Naz, Kanye or somebody like that but even if I don’t, being in the Caribbean I made two music videos for Willie Nelson—that’s huge. Come on, I am just a Jamaican….I’m on CMT, you know what I mean? The country music set up—that is a whole different vibe.

MVW: They just saw your work and contacted you?

RK: Jamrock was out and Chris Blackwell (who produced Bob Marley, U2, etc.) from back in the day. He was the producer of the Willie Nelson album; they were hanging out and wanted to make a video. Chris suggested making the video in Jamaica and mentioned my name; they saw Jamrock and were impressed. Christy Barber from Top Gun contacted Yamani and said they wanted to make the video with me. We got the track and still did not believe it and I was like, “All right,” so I wrote the treatment and sent it, they loved it. They said, “OK, we are going to send you another track,” I was like, “Yeah, right”…and the sent me ANOTHER Track (laughing).

Actually my original concept for “Welcome to Jamrock” is actually something that I am turning into a feature film right now. I am in the process of writing that and I am not going to say too much, right now. I have a couple of people waiting on that based on the synopsis that they read. I am not trying to make a Rude Boy shoot ‘em up kind of film, people expect that from Jamaica. I want to make it documentary style, which is the style I love, to keep it real.

MVW: What is it like shooting music videos in Jamaica?

RK: (If only) Behind The Music or Access Granted or one of those shows could come to Jamaica and cover us shooting a local artist on a limited budget—say, $10,000—and come and see all the things that we go through, and then when it get up on the screen… You can’t say this guy John Brown who makes big hip-hop R&B videos is much better, it’s that he gets the budget to make those videos on film and he shoots on film every day. We can do it as well…that’s my point with this right now, using music videos as a skateboard to feature films.

MVW: … and your most popular video to date?

RK: “Welcome to Jamrock”… it is like a version of City Of God Jamaican style, raw, real like you never seen it before. Whatever you see right there… that is the real deal. That video created a lot of vibe in Jamaica as well… like the tourist board—they were saying this video should not represent Jamaica and I am saying what are you talking about, this is a political song, this is talking about issues – this is not a song saying come to Jamaica “Feel All Right” and some fucking hotel. This is a song that is saying, “Yo, this is what (Jamaica) is doing with the money, this is what our country is going through and what the people have to endure.” We have to tell it like it is. This song brought back the knowledge into the street. Where we shot that video is in Trenchtown. (When) Bob Marley came to Kingstown, he stayed in Trenchtown and that is where we shot the video.

MVW: Are there any new projects you are working on right now?

RK: I just shot this video “Rise In Love” for Alaine, she is a reggae artist. I just used our surroundings, a flower garden that looks like a jungle and took her out to the pier where the concrete goes all the way to the beach in the ocean and shot day for night in the evening.

MVW: You never have to hire an art director, just shoot outside!

RK: The culture is an outdoor culture, going to dance outdoors (rather) than going to a club so much. Making music videos in… Jamaica, Trindad, Aruba, it’s a whole different level.

“The Moonman (award) was always a carrot at the end of the stick for us to some extent; it was always out there,” said Los Angeles-based art director Zach Mathews. “Now it seems like it is gone, it really does.”

In response to this recent change, Mathews sent an e-mail to MTV staffers he has worked with in the past, and copied the message to several music video production executive producers. “Within six hours…after I wrote the email, I had responses from nine production companies—I sent it to two,” said Mathews. “People…were sending me their support and airing their own frustrations about the production companies getting shut out this year more than ever before for both voting and the actual show itself.”

Since the VMA’s inception in 1984, numerous directors, art directors, DPs and other industry professionals have built their careers around winning one of these coveted awards. Mathews has handled the production design on about 70 music videos since 2003, and has worked in the art department in lesser capacities on hundreds of music videos since 1994. He won the 2005 MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction for Gwen Stefani’s “What You Waiting For.”

“I heard that the nominations were out… I went online to see who the nominees were and was shocked to find that most of the professional categories were done away with or seemed to be done away with,” said Mathews. “It was in fact such a surprise that I didn’t want to believe it was true, so the letter was actually a request for an explanation.”

At this year’s VMAs there are only three categories that represent music video production: Best Choreography, Best Director, and Best Editing.

*complete listing of the VMA categories and nominees

“It was a really sweet song, so I wanted to make “Underneath It All” a little less innocent, that’s why I came up with the idea to make it a bit sexual.” – Sophie Muller

Interview with director Sophie Muller:

MVW: I really like the new video. It seems pretty straight forward.

SM: It was kind of difficult making a video for this song since it is more of a personal lyric. I wanted to do something really simple. Just focus on her speaking to the camera. It was a very straightforward video. It was a really sweet song, so I wanted to make “Underneath It All” a little less innocent, that’s why I came up with the idea to make it a bit sexual. I thought that would be an interesting and tasteful way for Gwen to perform the video.

MVW: Who worked with you on the visual effects?

SM: I co-directed this video with Logan. They came up with an idea that everyone was happy with and we were all quite keen to work with them.

MVW: How did you come up with the concept for the video?

SM: Each of us tried to think of what we could do. The simple basis of the idea was that I will stick with Gwen giving her really good performance to camera and have Logan do lots of effects. When we actually came down to it, I realized that idea was too random and we had to be more specific. So I came up with the idea that Gwen would do a kind of strip to camera. She started off with tons of make-up and hair, kind of really over done like a stripper. As the video proceeds she looses her make up at the ends the make up and overdone look is gone. The idea was stripping back to being your simple self. We had to do it using visual metaphors. She was going to be talking her clothes off, but that made it too complicated. Instead we made it into sections where in each section she was less made up. In the end section we came up with the idea to include Lady Saw and using the entire band. This was a last minute decision, so we could only include it in the end section. It was a bit like the scene from Sound Of Music, when they were riding bicycles in time with the music. We changed it to show that they were in Jamaica in order to get the Jamaican feel to the video. This is where Logan did their visual effects. Logan was around all the time on the shoot and I was around shooting their bit. It was a good collaboration.

MVW: In the background you had the heart in a couple of scenes.

SM: When doing a performance video, I like to have the camera in front, not moving to the side, giving it one angle. Then designing the background to compliment whatever the atmosphere you want in that particular shot. The Heart makes a nice frame, it was based on some fashion we saw. We did it for the one scene where it gets black, then someone took the heart and placed it against the other set and we saw that it fit in that set as well.

MVW: Was it difficult deciding on the set design?

SM: It was all put together really quickly. We all just went in one day and decided what the first set was going to be like. Kind of ornate fancy room. They built that very quickly. We then came up with the heart with much simpler graphic. It then goes to the pink wall which adds Jamaican flavor.

MVW: How did you bring out the stunning look of the colors?

SM: It was simply teasing the colors. We just matched the color scheme. The color that goes with the pink wall is orange, so we had the boys wearing orange track suite. Then there happened to be this lime green crate lying around, which we just hammered on the wall to create a make shift basketball court. That was a really last minute idea and we did not have a basketball set. Seems in Jamaica, they usually use crates with the bottom cut out. I originally wanted Gwen to wear turquoise, but the stylist suggested lime green to match the crate.

MVW: Did you do anything to pull the color out even more in post?

SM: I pushed it a little bit to make it more contracting, but nothing fancy at all. I used Symphony, which is like an online AVID. I edited my section and gave the whole video to Logan so they could put their bits in. We discussed little bits, like in between each section they did little stars and the scene where she kind of slaps her bottom.

MVW: Where did you shoot the video?

SM: It was all shot in one studio.

MVW: Gwen has such a stong camera presence and the
Caribbean vibe to the song is great.

SM: She is a good performer. So I liked the idea of letting her perform alone rather than a band performance. We could not think of a way to make it good and have the band in the performance as well. Because of the shortness of time, we all agreed that it was best to have Gwen do the performance. The song was more of personal lyric, it’s one person’s thoughts.

Interview with Director/Visual Effects artist Ben Conrad of “Logan”

MVW: How did you end up working with Sophie on this video?

BC: We were treating the track and presented a lot of boards and some of the frames we wanted to do. It was kind of a split between the label and the band. The band was comfortable working with Sophie. They liked some of the frames we did and wanted to have just little moments of “Logan” integrated with a real personal piece about Gwen. It was just better this way with Sophie capturing Gwen’s great performance. It was really intimate and their personal relationship evokes a lot of that great performance from Gwen.

MVW: I understand that you did the effects accenting the video. How did you create these effects?

BC: Off set, Alexei and I shot some glitter and water then used those as a star element to make the 3-D clouds. It was made pretty simple for Gwen to just to give it that religious fantastic look. This was directed by Sophie as well. She had a real clear idea of how she wanted to present Gwen.

The bike scene was where we unleashed. This was the one moment where you see the entire band together. For this scene we shot singles of all the band members on bikes in front of a blue screen on a 12 foot turntable. We stood them up there and shot away as many angles and rotations as possible. The band members were rigged to a lift that picked them up above the ground so they could peddle. We laid out tracks so we could shoot two of them together riding side by side and had grips pulling them back and forth on the small track.

When Alexei, Sophie and I originally talked about the idea, it was to include some of the footage they shot while in Jamaica. Gwen wanted to do something about Jamaica of course and how they would get around on bicycles while staying there recording the track. However we wanted to create something unique for that little moment and came up with the scene with the band members. We kind of gave it a “Sound of Music” through Jamaica look.

MVW: There is one scene where she smacks her side and stars came off of her?

BC: This was one of the original frames we submitted to the band. Originally when we were thinking about the track we thought about the peeling away of the earth layers relating to the track and the metaphor of the song. The echo emanation side protruding from Gwen’s shape relates to that within the concept of the song and serves as a graphic treatment in relation to the song. In all the treatments we wanted to stay within that idea of peeling and emanation of layers.

MVW: You usually do more CG kind of work. This was definitely not the norm for you.

BC: We are really trying to combine to more live action, performance, props and sets. It was a great experience for us to watch Sophie work. This was a really great learning experience for us. I have a hard time even thinking about our stuff as visual effects because to me, it’s more of a personal take on graphics.

Credits:
Production Co.: Oil Factory
Directors: Sophie Muller / Logan
Visual Effects: Logan

There were mixed reviews from many fans, fellow musicians, and industry folk about the set Converge was developing as I waited to meet their tour manager by the back stage entrance to House of Blues Orlando. From this perspective I could see the entire crowd, most of stage left, and most of the security guards throughout the venue a little confused as to why there wasn’t more moshing. There were little sects throughout the sea of people that were chanting along, and pumping their fists to drummer Ben Koller’s beat; but on the contrary, some were just standing there, wondering what was going on.

After their set I eventually got backstage to interview Ben and front-man Jacob Bannon. It was the second date on the “Mastotour” and I asked how they felt about the show. Jacob said, “It was a big stage, but you know…a good vibe. Ben added, “It was definitely a concert at Disney World, so we were kind of out of our element. We would’ve rather played a show in Albany, New York…at a dirt bar, but it was pretty fun.”

A majority of their music videos to date have been live shows shot by fans throughout the years that were captured on a DVD called Converge: The Long Road Home (Deathwish Records). More live videos can be seen on their website by High Roller Studios originally based in Philadelphia, PA (now in NJ) but their most recent video for the title track “No Heroes” was directed by Ryan Zunkley. Knowing that most of the artwork accompanying their albums, promotions and website has reflected some of Jacob’s lyrics, I asked what the process of making music videos has been like for them.

Jacob stated, “Strange. Really odd.” Ben agreed, “Yea!” Jacob continued, “I’d say that our last video was probably the most comfortable video. The environment was really low key, and it was just two brothers (Ryan and Eric Zunkley), two hardcore kids from Cleveland. They just did an awesome job, and it was the first music video they ever did.”

Having been on Epitaph for 3 years now, he said “we’re kind of set in our ways.” There is something to be said for that, and it may describe why some of the audience that evening was confused by the shrill brutality of arbitrary song structures Converge had in their set. These guys have been around for more than a decade. Signature songs like Concubine, Eagles Become Vultures, and No Heroes only proves that they are still way ahead of their time!

Converge

“This is an exciting time for music videos. With PDAs and the internet requiring more creative content, I truly believe that we will see a resurgence in the demand for quality music videos,” says Executive Producer lauren schwartz. “Being someone who has always had a passion for music (and is a singer/songwriter on the side) the idea of opening BOOM to blend my love for music, our knowledge of great production, and a desire to have all these assets under one roof, made the BOOM move a natural next step.”

Initially, the music video division will focus on the talent of brandon dickerson, with possible future signings. dickerson was most recently represented by Merge@Crossroads in the music video arena, was the owner/director of his own successful music video company Spiral Films and enjoyed a brief stint at Propaganda before they closed.

dickerson is known for pushing technical boundaries presenting a combination of subtle humor, authentic performance, and beautiful images in both his commercial and music video projects. A rare talent, he works in a wide range of styles both in commercials and music videos.

“I’ve always enjoyed directing Music Videos,” comments dickerson. “From no-budget one-man indie rock shoots to high gloss VH1 fare, I continue to enjoy the creative process. My main goal is to craft inspired visuals that naturally fuse with original songwriting. If the two become one you end up with everyone happy – from the video commissioner to the lead singer’s girlfriend.”

In the commercial realm, one of his most acclaimed spots (garnering numerous awards including the Cannes Gold Lion, D&AD, and an AICP award) for the SF Jazz Fest shows off his subtle visual comedy talents. He also has a vast portfolio of “real people” work for PDFA, and Autodesk, among others; and is known for his music video-inspired fashion work with such clients as JC Penny, Converse, Mervyn’s and Dockers.

In the music video arena, his talents are just as diverse, working in several different genres — from edgy with such artists as Switchfoot &, Thousand Foot Crutch; to classic pop like Jump 5 and Play; to beauty and glamour including Sixpence None the Richer and the top-selling, internationally-recognized Lebanese Diva Elissa filmed in Prague and Beirut.

dickerson drives his passion for storytelling by pursuing a variety of creative talents beyond commercials and music videos, to include documentaries, screenwriting and photography. In the vein of a true “creative content” master- dickerson has served as both director and photographer for commercial campaigns, putting his imprint in both the film and print world for such clients as Famous Footwear and Converse. And in the music video world, he is often called on to shoot album covers and has done so for such artists such as Jeremy Camp, Matt Redman, and the band Everyone.

Drawing on true-life inspiration, dickerson’s short film satirizing the work of “professional music video actors” was showcased at Resfest in 33 countries around the globe, as well as the MVPA’s Directors Cuts Festival and the Coachella Film Festival.

For more information, please visit www.boommv.com

In recent years, Clinchís passion for imagery, music, and stories has come together at Three on the Tree Productions, a New York City-based boutique film company that Clinch founded in 2003. Clinch has expanded his horizons to include music videos, concert films, and documentaries into his repertoire. His most recent project is a music video for Tom Waitsí latest album, ìOrphans,î a creative endeavor that started out as a series of publicity stills before taking on a life of its own. The video, ìLie to Me,î rhythmicallyóand energeticallyóanimates Clinchís still photos of Waits playing his guitar near a roadside cafÈ.

MVWire: Could you talk about how you were awarded the video?

Danny Clinch: I was photographing Tom for publicities for his new box set CD – Orpahns and we were out at this little bizarre roadside cafÈ that is out in the country of Northern California around were Tom lives. I have done a fair amount of film work, a couple of music videos, documentaries, concert films, etc. The idea for these photographs is Ö Tom showed up with a truckload full of old vintage speakers and cassette players and radios, etc. and decided that we would build this speaker cabinet behind him. (It was) what you think a Tom Waits speaker cabinet would look like, with all these crazy bells and whistles. Then we plugged his guitar into it and we were shooting these photographsÖ it was just sort of an amazing location; everything came together and we were all so excited about itómyself and my assistant and Tom kind of built this thing together, over a cup of coffee.

We were super excited about it and Tom looked at me and said, ìItís too bad that we do not have a video cameraÖ this would make a great video.î Then he said, ìMaybe I can have my wife run out with her video camera,î and it didnít go farther than that. I said, ìWell, check it out. Why donít I load something in my 35 mm camera, Iíll burn through it really fast as I go through the motions and we will create something that is just really raw and I can animate those stillsñrun them together and we will create something that is just really raw, something that is not lip synced, something that is just super down and dirtyñyou know, style.î Of course, he got a big smile on his face and he was like, (in a rough Tom Waits voice) ìYeah, that sounds great.î We jumped on it; he went through it a couple of times. He did sing the chorus a few times so it might appear there is a moment of lip sync in there, maybe not. We loaded it all into the computer and started pushing it around.

MVWire: Did you talk to the label about it at all?

DC: I just called them and said, Tom said that he wanted to consider turning this thing into a video. Matt at the label said, ìWhat would it cost to do it?î We gave him an idea; they just wanted to keep it super Lo Fi. We were going to throw some animation into the mix, some drawings that were done on glass, it was pretty cool. In the end I think they just wanted to keep it super Lo Fi and I was all for it. We just stripped it down to the barest essentials.

MVWire: So the video was something that was inspiration, in the moment.

DC: The opportunity to do something like that with Tom was just Ö I didnít care what it was going to cost.

He is fantastic; he is one of the most creative guys, he is very restless as wellÖ He doesnít like to sit still for too long. If you are taking a photograph of him, you might get two frames of the same pose and the next thing you know he is off doing something else. You have to be able to work fast, which is why I think I got the gig with him.

He is all for the creative process; he is always coming up with ideas and participating. You have some people that just sit there and are looking for direction all the time and there are others that actually participate in the creative process, and thatís what he does and he is always bringing something to the table.

He is definitely into itÖ he is a super creative guy and has a lot of great ideas, a lot of them are super simpleóa lot of time the more simple the better

For example at one point Ö the publicist had asked me to get couple of simple head shots that they could use. After a couple of frames he looked at me and said, ìOK, are we done here? Because I feel like I am getting my hair cut.î

MVWire: What was the actual process of creating the video?

DC: I shot the stills with a motor drive on handheld. I just shot a bunch of frames consecutively and had him kind of running around and he was really giving it up which was really kind of cool.

I shot it several times over and over again and then said, ìLetís do a few close ups of your face, feet and things like that so that we would have some things to cut away toÖ letís do a couple that are really wide.î Basically I was thinking like an editor, I was coming in close then backing up wide, having him doing some motion.

I had never done anything like that before. When I got back and loaded it into the computer I talked to a friend of mine that knows the process and she was very excited and she said, ìYou shot this on a tripod, right?î I said, ìNo,î and she said, ìOoo.î And I said, ìWhat do you mean?î She said, ìWell, if you shoot it on a tripod, the background stays steady and the subject moves throughout the background, and thatís how you get it animated to make sense.î I said, ìYou (know) what, it doesnít have to make senseóitís Tom Waits.î

MVWire: What went into creating the black and white look of the video?

DC: I used color film for the most part. I drained all the color out of it in the edit and added a lot of contrast to itÖ (and) edited on Final Cut Pro.

MVWire: What was the editing process once you had the images loaded into the computer?

DC: Another friend of mine, Tosh, he is really an animator and we started to work on it. As I said, we were putting animation in with the stills. He started it and loaded it into the computer and just started to align the cut together. Once he did that, he put the images in some sort of order. I came in came up with the idea of stopping at certain points and having areas where you could actually freeze on the photo.

I did belabor over it; it is Tom Waits and I wanted to give it my best.

About a year ago, Matlosz’ visual effects skills attracted the attention of the producers of the hit NBC sitcom, “My Name is Earl.” Now in its second season, the series depicts how the title character, Earl, tries to improve his karma by undoing all the wrongs he had committed earlier in life. Matlosz’ team was tasked with creating some stop motion animation for some scenes in which Earl’s brother Ricky hallucinates that everyone around him is animated.

MVWire recently interviewed Matlosz about how he initially landed the project and put together the stop motion animation segments for the “Rob a Stoner Blind” episode of “My Name is Earl.”

MVWire: Talk about starting the project.

Jim Matlosz: A friend of mine works for a company that does 24-frame playback for several TV Shows called Jargon Entertainment. I shot some smaller budget stuff for them like internet interstitials and lower budget broadcast commercials. The owner does all the 24-frame playback for the TV shows; he overheard a conversation that they wanted someone to shoot some stop motion for My Name is Earl. He was very interested in it but (had) limited experience with the format. Shortly afterwards I met the guy and he found out that not only had I worked on “Nightmare Before Christmas” but had shot a short indie film called “Oedipus” that played at Sundance in 2003.

He talked to the producers about me and that was about November of last year. So there was talk about us shooting in February/March of last year. The truth is they didn’t have a script; all the scripts were approved and finished, (so) they’d get back to us the following season.

In July of 2006 Jargon Entertainment called and said they have a script and want us to read it. They are probably going to green light it, (so) let’s put a budget together. By the end of July 2006 the script was approved and budget was approved after some severe cuts.

We started building puppets and sets in August, and started shooting October 1st.

MVWire: Was it a long process?

JM: We already had our crew put together for budgeting purposes as far as animators, people to build sets, people to build puppets, people to break down dialogue… myself to shoot it, lighting, grip—all that kind of stuff.

The puppet makers started about mid-August building the puppets, which gave them six weeks. You have to do sketches … How do you want them to look? Do you want them to look exactly human or characters? We went with more of a caricature design. Chris Rybolt was actually one of our puppet makers (who) is also a sketch artist (and) also did the final sketches. They started building the puppets once all the sketches were approved. My friend John Millhouser designed and had the sets built by some mutual friends of his that are miniature and stop motion set builders. They had to be exact replicas of the live action set, scale to scale, everything had to be exact. I mean, down to a bottle of beer on the counter or something on the shelf; flowers and curtains and the exact same materials on the floor and everything. The minute detail is pretty amazing.

MVWire: How many people did it actually take to make the episode happen?

JM: As far as puppet makers there were at least four or five. The lead puppet maker was a guy named Rob Ronning, a good friend of mine who also did “Nightmare Before Christmas,” “James the Giant Peach,” “Monkey Bones” as well countless commercials.

We had three or four set builders, a total of four animators but only two working full time. (With) myself as camera, grip and electric, (and) data wrangler…Once the show was done I would transfer to a Zip drive, make backups and hand that over to the editor who would then convert the file, remove all the flicker convert to a 1920 x 1080 QuickTime and then ship it over to production.

MVWire: How were the puppets made?

JM: They are foam armature puppets that have dated back since stop motion began back to the original King Kong in 1933 and even before that. They are cast heads made of a hard resin, and then what they do is replace the eyelids to get blinks and mouths to get dialogue.

MVWire: You guys kind of did your own thing, right?

JM: We were invited to the live action set and were there most of the day. I was there for most of the live action shooting to get an idea of the reference and interact with the director, basically just feel it out. This way when I got into the animation world I would know … have a better feel for what I was trying to portray. I took a bunch of reference stills but never looked at them. We had a QuickTime of the shot and would use that as a reference and add my own personal touch.

MVWire: What were the cameras and lights you used on this project?

JM: We used Canon digital still cameras – 20Ds—my preference for shooting stop motion. The drawback is that it does not give you a live video signal out.

MVWire: How did you pick up working in stop motion?

JM: I worked in visual effects and then I was out of work for almost a year. Then I was lucky enough to get picked up as a camera assistant on “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and was on that show for nine months. The DP was brilliant, inspirational; I learned a ton off of him. I didn’t touch stop motion for another ten years.

Credits:

Animated Segment produced by Jargon entertainment:

Producers: Lucas Soloman / Sean Buck
DP: Jim Matlosz
Animation Consultant: Chris Calvi
Animators: Joe Mello / Chris Finnegan /
Tennesee Reed Norton
Sketch Artist: Chris Rabel
Puppet Fabrication: Rob Ronning and Company

Starring multi-platinum and multi-Grammy winning OutKast members André Benjamin (André 3000) and Antwan A. Patton (Big Boi), “Idlewild” tells the story of the loves and ambitions of two struggling performers is told through intricate musical numbers and vibrantly choreographed dance sequences. Set against the backdrop of a 1930s southern speakeasy, “Idlewild” explores the lives of Percival (Benjamin), the club’s shy piano player, and Rooster (Patton), the club’s showy lead performer and manager. The all-star cast is a roster of some of the most notable performers in film and music today and includes new songs from OutKast’s forthcoming album, also titled “Idlewild.”

In addition to the film’s music sequences, Checel cut the film’s title sequence –working hand-in-hand with both Barber and DJ Swiff from Outkast — as well as various transitions throughout the film.

“It was exciting to have the opportunity to work with Bryan on the feature and bring our unique collaboration and process, one forged in music videos, to the long-form realm,” says Checel. “We really see film as very elastic, and did some crazy manipulation of the images, along with high-energy edits, which set the tone for the project overall.”

Adding to his contribution to the feature, Checel edited the accompanying Barber-helmed OutKast music video “Morris Brown,” an effects-driven piece that places the band in fantastic and fanciful locations. For this project, Checel edited much of the video via his laptop at the effects company Moneyshots.

“The music video offered a radically different creative challenge,” he continues, “because each element – all the cars on the roller coaster, for example – were shot separately on green screen and necessitated a constant dialogue between Bryan, me and the Elad Offer of Moneyshots. I worked there so we could all be together and benefit from the continuous exchange of ideas.”

Watch: Atmosphere “Say Hey There”

Directed by motion design and production collective Lightborne, “Say Hey There” is a voyeuristic view of an evening in a seedy roadside motel. Within the low-lit rooms, you see a variety of different “slice of life” experiences that range from an orgiastic suicide girls’ sleepover to gospel singers singing on the road to who-knows-where.

Atmosphere is a group built on hip-hop principles influenced from the pioneering years of rap music, but with their own personal, honest and original mid-western contribution. The “Say Hey There” video was inspired by Atmosphere’s non-stop and grueling tour schedule and all the shenanigans that come with life on the road.

Slug (aka Sean Daley) is the lyricist of Atmosphere and part owner of Rhymesayers, an indie hip-hop label, which represents many other artists. Ant (aka Anthony Davis) is the producer of the group. The label has had a longstanding relationship with Lightborne Creative Director Chris Gliebe who was responsible for designing Atmosphere’s logo, the Rhymesayers logo, and several album cover designs for other artists on the label. Lightborne was later commissioned by the group to create the video for their 2003 song, “Trying To Find A Balance.”

Upon seeing the promotional materials and cover of the group’s new album, Gliebe was enthused by the candid look of the photography and chosen subject matter.

“The struggle of life as a touring musician is what much of this album is about as evidenced by sarcastic title,” explains Gliebe. “That’s where the motel theme came into play, as well as casting some of their friends to play parts. I decided to take the sleazy motel, road/life concept one step further in my treatment and push it into the realm of retro motel fetish with stylized pin-up girls, colorful locals, and weary travelers all mixed together to create a colorful visual feast.”

The wardrobe, casting, lighting and set design were created to have a dark cinema noir type of feel, but with a few modern twists. Besides Slug’s interactions with the various girls in the video, the other characters help to create odd back-stories and additional meaning to Slug’s heavy lyrics.

Gliebe cites Atmosphere’s busy tour commitments as the main challenge to picking a location and shooting the video, which was rescheduled several times. Finding the right motel and cast also proved to be much harder than initially thought.

“Rhymesayers and Atmosphere has always put a lot of trust in Lightborne and me to come through with a quality product,” concludes Gliebe. “They are very involved in the creative decision-making process, which is why they are so successful as an indie label. It’s easy to get good results when the client and you share common interests, viewpoints, and aesthetics. There is also a certain level of comfort when you’re working with a return client that puts everybody at ease and allows you to create something really great.”

Lightborne