And we won’t hurt you.
Hello Rubber House! I’ve just discovered this animation studio, based in Melbourne. Led by Gregory Sharp + Ivan Dixon, Rubber House has directed and animated two music videos for Gotye’s album Making Mirrors. I was able to catch Don’t Worry, We’ll Be Watching You during Gotye’s recent tour to NYC!
Coincidence! Ivan Dixon was just announced the winner of The LoopdeLoop LIQUID Screening. Congrats Ivan!
~Joy
Look! An animated music video that’s legitimately scary and just adorable. “My Heart Belongs to You” by Lev Polyakov.
The hamster is crushing on a red headed school teacher (meow!) and rescues her from evil demons, obviously. And the music by Colin Huggins kicks surfer butt.
It’s up for Best Short on Reel 13. So if you enjoyed the light comedy + epic adventure of this video, it’d be so weird if you didn’t vote. Voting ends for this week on Wednesday at 5PM. Holy sh*t it’s Tuesday. There’s still time!
I’m excited to discover this contest and might even submit my own if the mood strikes. Everyone should! Here’s some motivation — the winner receives $250 and is broadcast on Reel 13 Saturday night on THIRTEEN. On television.
I feel like a princess.
~Joy
Every year the Woodstock Film Festival gets better and better. Last week we attended the 2010 festival with some seriously cool highlights.
1. From the left, my fiance flew to NY from England that morning to surprise me. BONUS!
2. The Woodstock 2010 Festival trailer Joy, James and I created was a huge hit and got a great response from the audience. Click here to watch and see how it was made.
3. Saw a brilliant film called “Don’t Quit Your Daydream,” produced by John Loar and Adrian Grenier. It’s about a band, The Good Listeners (Nathan Khyber & Clark Stiles) as they road trip through America recording their third album. Go out and buy it immediately and while you are at it, check out their other albums.
4. The Animation Screening was sold out BOTH days! The psychedelic and sexy films were very well received by the hippies. In the photo from the left: Signe Baumane, Peter Ahern, James Buran, Bill Plympton, Noelle Vaccese, Joy Vaccese and Dustin Grella.
5. We saw Luke Matheny, director of a short called, “God of Love.” It’s a great film we caught at the Martha’s Vineyard festival a few weeks ago.
6. We recognized Nathan and Clark from the Good Listeners at the after party. They are really cool guys and got us on the guest list for a show they were playing at Levon Helm’s Barn.
7. Concert at Levon Helm’s. It was a rad experience, The Good Listeners opened and played a mind-blowing show and Levon Helm’s Band was incredible.
8. We had to leave to get to the Awards ceremony. Got there late to find that Peter won Honorable Mention for his animated short, Down to the Bone. He wasn’t there to accept his award because we were at the coolest concert ever. Congrats anyway, Peter!
9. Oh yeah! And Keanu Reeves won the Best Actor Award. WHOA!
To see more photos of the Woodstock Film Festival 2010, click here.
Noelle
After an 8 hour flight home from the UK last night, I had big plans for sleeping. But then my friend James had an extra ticket for The Tallest Man on Earth at Webster Hall. Oh, the sacrifice.
The Tallest Man on Earth, Webster Hall - Sept. 27 2010
It was a great show and by our second shot of Jameson, he played “The Gardener.” This is always the highlight for me, the tippy top favorite of my many favorite songs of his.
I made the trip across the big blue ocean for the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival. Joy, James and I worked on a music video, Golem, for The Maladies and it’s screening in the Animation Program this weekend.
We were also asked to make the Festival Signal Film again. Keep reading to find out how we made it:
There were two rules to making the film.
One – it had to be based on the 2010 poster by Portia Munson, which was created using flowers from Munson’s Catskill garden.
2010 Woodstock Film Festival Poster by Portia Munson
Second rule – the film had to be done using pixilation.
I was still in England so Joy and James called me on video chat to discuss. As James explained their concept, I could see Joy in the background, putting on too much makeup and wearing a funny costume. They said they would handle the live action while I animated the flowers which I’d send to them to put to music.
We got started. Joy and James dressed up as mime gardeners, a fairy and a rooster and took about 2,000 pictures of each other in their backyard. I watched classic Sesame Street stop motion for inspiration and spent hours digitally cutting out 105 flowers and 1 insect from the poster. I think I counted about 340 flowers in total but I could be wrong because I got dizzy.
You can imagine my excitement when they sent me a link to the finished movie. Their part was so fun and well done for two animators who work almost exclusively in hand drawn and computer animation. The live action seamlessly melts into my dancing flowers to The Tallest Man on Earth’s “The Gardener.”
We’ve been making the Woodstock Signal Films for three years now – here’s 2008 which Joy and I did together and here’s 2009, which we made with James and Arthur Metcalf.
There are going to be a few signal films in the festival this year for variety, two others were created by Aaron Hughes and Ivan Joy. I can’t wait to see what they came up with!
Noelle
Here is a 6 second clip that somehow could not fit anywhere in the music video, “Golem.”
For more deleted scenes, click here.
~Joy
One of my favorite music videos that uses pixilation – remember “Wishful Thinking” by the Ditty Bops? This video is so damn cute.
It starts off with the two band members cutting out the set and little characters, as if they are actually making the animation come to life. They playfully try to kill each other throughout the entire thing and the Vaudevillian style lends itself to pixilation – rather than just doing it to try something different. It really gives it that old silent movie feel.
Enjoy.
Noelle
Hello again,
~Joy
Meet Petra Mrzyk and Jean-Francois Moriceau, two French artists who recently got together with Mathematic to create a music video for Sebastien Tellier’s song “LOOK.”
