Celebrity Grave | Frank Gehry’s World Cup of Hockey Trophy

Bold art always invites a backlash. World class architect Frank Gehry knows a lot about this.

Gehry has a commitment to taking risk, and he understands criticism comes with the territory. “If you show any kind of architecture in early stages that represent anything outside the norm they get clobbered,” Gehry said in 2012 “because people say, ‘Well, you can’t do that,” 

His work at the edges of commercial design has made him the most famous architect in the world, but his creative risks have also lead to public embarrassment.

In 2004 Gehry was commissioned by the organizers of the World Cup of Hockey to update design of their championship trophy. The original trophy looked like cheesy corporate hood ornament, and Gehry was hired to build prize befitting of the 21 century. For Gehry, Toronto-born and lifelong hockey fan, the pressure was on.

“I had no idea of what I was getting myself into,” Gehry confessed during a press conference at Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame. “We only just made the deadline by the skin of our teeth. But I’m thrilled to be part of this.”

Leading up to the project, Gehry was at the top of his fame. His 1997 curving titanium design for the Guggenheim gallery in Bilbao Spain, was an undisputed triumph. Critic Paul Goldberger celebrated the it saying “The building blazed new trails and became an extraordinary phenomenon. It was one of those rare moments when critics, academics, and the general public were all completely united about something.”

Gehry seemed like a safe choice for the redesign. After all, he was the most famous architect at the time. However, when the trophy was unveiled. Dead silence followed.

Journalists were confused. Tradition-obsessed hockey fans were aghast.The trophy was not what they expected. To begin with, it looked nothing like the Stanley Cup.

Online comments mocked,“The Fruit goes in here, and it makes the freshest, tastiest, healthiest juice you’ve ever tasted! BUT THATS NOT ALL!!!..” Poor reviews where posted in Canada’s largest newspapers.

Gehry, a Toronto native and lifelong hockey fan himself, was aware the trophy looked nothing like the Stanley Cup. He approached the project with the same boldness that made the Bilao gallery look nothing like a conventional home for art. He offered a minimalist silver cup, embedded in a multi faceted translucent base. The chosen materials represented, obviously, the metal blades of the hockey skates cutting through the ice. The silver cup was removable and each year, the names of the winning players would be engraved on the cup and embedded in the glacier-like holder, preserving the names for all time.

Gehry handled the reaction to the design with grace. “I can tell you don’t like it,” Gehry joked. No one was laughing. Bravely, Gehry’s patrons stood by him. Ken Jaffe of the NHL and the WCH Organizing Committee said Gehry “gladly accepted the assignment and vigorously developed a great looking icon for the game.” No changes were made to the design.

The trophy unveiling was a failure. Had Gehry decided to play it safe, he could have designed a traditional-looking trophy and had a more pleasant press conference. But doing so would have disappointed his real fans, the people who love him because takes risks. As marketer Seth Godin would say, “If you cater to normal, you will disappoint the weird.”

Photo by Andy Hall, Guardian UK

Today the first in a series of failed projects by my favourite directors… First up, Chris Cunningham, creator of classic music videos such as Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker and Bjork’s All is Full of Love. Visit his creepy personal site here.

Chris Cunningham’s Neuromancer 

Cancelled November 2004

Even creators considered by many to be modern masters, have trouble getting projects of the ground. Consider Chris Cunningham, perhaps the most talented director of the Jonze / Gondry / Romanic music video wave in the 1990s. Cunningham was signed to direct the long awaited adaptation of William Gibson’s Neuromancer in 2000. After years of script revisions and preproduction (rumour has it Cunningham had drawn a huge amount of concept art and storyboards) the project was cancelled, due to fact that Cunningham was not granted final cut (ie complete control over the final edit of the film). The executive producers reserved final cut for themselves on account this was to be Cunningham’s first feature. Cunningham has since switched his focus to music production, gallery art, and live events.

From Wikipedia…

In 2000, Cunningham and cyberpunk author William Gibson began work on the script for Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer. However, because Neuromancer was due to be a big budget studio film, it is rumoured that Cunningham pulled out due to being a first time director without final cut approval. He also felt that too much of the original book’s ideas had been cannibalised by other recent films.

On 18 November 2004, in the FAQ on the William Gibson Board, Gibson was asked:

Q: Is it true there’s a movie of Neuromancer in the works? A: Perpetually, it seems, and going on a quarter of a century now. The most recently rumoured version, to have been directed by Chris Cunningham, is now definitely not happening.

In an August 1999 Spike Magazine interview, Gibson stated “He (Chris) was brought to my attention by someone else. We were told, third-hand, that he was extremely chary of the Hollywood process, and wouldn’t return calls. But someone else told us that Neuromancer had been his Wind In The Willows, that he’d read it when he was a kid. I went to London and we met.” Gibson is also quoted in the article as saying “Chris is my own 100 per cent personal choice…My only choice. The only person I’ve met who I thought might have a hope in hell of doing it right. I went back to see him in London just after he’d finished the Bjork video, and I sat on a couch beside this dead sex little Bjork robot, except it was wearing Aphex Twin’s head. We talked.”

I find it inspiring that Mr. Cunningham had the strength not to compromise his creative vision for a project. The temptation is, even if the film were to turn out trite, the exposure would have given him instant house-hold name recognition and a big pay-day. 

Cunningham has since released several personal projects, including Rubber Johnny and a remix video for Gill Scott Heron.

Guardian UK reports “Now Cunningham is tired of videos and adverts. “Making commercials,” he says, “is the dustbin of film-making. It sucks you dry.”“

Liam Titcomb

Liam Titcomb | Love Don’t Let Me Down

Director Jesse Yules www.jesseyules.com

Rejected May 25th, 2012. What they ended up making… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dPb2Zn6puU

Concept

A summer walk through an unconventional cemetery, with portraits of the dead carved into trees.

Mood

Warm and sublime.

Approach

We will shoot at magic hour at the Scarborough Bluffs in Toronto.

Using carved foam and special effects painting, we will dress tree trunks in a rural area to appear as if portraits have been carved into them. Some of the portraits will look freshly carved, others will seem weathered, as if they were carved a decade ago.

We follow Liam as he wanders through the park visiting each of the unique portraits.

One of the carved faces has a dark mouth that opens into a hollow in the tree. It has been filled with bird seed. Birds and squirrels crawl in and out of the ancient wooden-head.

As the video ends, Liam begins carving a tree.

We see that Liam has carved the portraits of two figures facing one another.

Cut to black.

Delivery

Aprox. 4 weeks after receipt of the production funds.

Metz

METZ | Wet Blanket (Version II: Initiation) Listen Here

Director Jesse Yules www.jesseyules.com

Rejected June 12th, 2012

Metz

METZ | Wet Blanket Listen Here
Director Jesse Yules www.jesseyules.com

Rejected June 10th 2012

Concept

Werewolf groupies murder the band.

Mood

Let the Right One In vs Teen Wolf

Summery

The video will be one continuous shot, played in reverse, as if the audience is rewinding a security tape.

We will open with a shot of three female werewolves partying and drinking blood from beer steins. In the background, three bodies are suspended from the ceiling, wrapped in plastic. Plastic tubing has been inserted into the bundled victims to allow their blood to drain. The plastic tubing leads to a dispensing nozzle (similar to the hose on a beer keg at a frat party).

The tape winds back further. We see woman wrapping the band members in plastic like human spiders, and hoisting up their cocooned bodies to hang from the ceiling.

The tape winds back further. One by one, we see the band members murdered by the werewolves.

The tape winds back further. We see woman transforming in front of the camera.

The tape winds back further. The groupies look like regular young women, hanging out with the band.

We close with a traditional shot of the band posing with the girls. In an homage to the ending of Micheal Jackson’s Thriller, we freeze frame and zoom in. One of the girls has demonic eyes.

Cut to black 

Technical 

The werewolf girls will have prosthetic fangs. Hair will be applied to their chests to obscure their breasts. Two LED lights on thin wire will float in front of the actresses eyes, creating an animal “glowing eyes” effect in camera. 

The footage will be grainy and desaturated. Similar to a security video, or a snuff film. 

The Rituals

Rituals | Mesmerize

Director: Jesse Ewles www.jesseewles.com

Rejected by MuchFact May 30th, 2012

Concept 

The band reanimates a mummified corpse using a car battery.

Mood 

Dark, ambient. Moments of humour.

Direction

A) We open with a shot of a blackened, mummified human driving a pick-up truck at night.

B) Flashback: Three men arrive at a swampy lake in Northern Ontario in a pick up truck.

C) The men locate a tree stump near the lake with rusted chains wrapped around it. They unwrap the chains and begin pulling them. Bubbles erupt from the lake. The men pull a coffin from the lake wrapped in plastic drop cloth. 

D) Using a box cutter, the men cut away the plastic. They pry open the casket with a crowbar. Inside is a blackened muffed corpse. 

E) One of the men pops the hood of the pick up truck and attaches jumper cables to the vehicle’s battery. Using alligator clips the corpse is wired to the battery. The truck is started. The corpse sits up with a jolt of electricity. 

One of the men reveals a remote control, similar to one used on remote control cars or aeroplanes. The man pushes the nobs on the remote control. The corpse stands up robotically in response. 

F) The man with the remote control sends the mummy after his companions as a joke. Startled, the two companions rush away. One of the frightened men stumbles. The mummy jumps on his chest. The man with the remote control struggles with it’s switches and buttons. The mummy is no longer obeying him. 

G) The mummy begins strangling the companion violently. The first man drops his remote control and tries to pull the mummy off his companion. The mummy is too strong. The first man grabs at the copper wires still connecting the mummy to the car battery and yanks them away from the mummies body. The mummy is continues to attack.

F) The third man returns with a large thick tree branch. He strikes the mummy in the chest and frees the man who was being strangled. The mummy staggers back, bracing it’s self on the hood of the truck. The three men rush away from the scene into the woods, with the creature in pursuit.

G) As the video ends we see mummy turn around and begin loping towards the idling truck.

H) We return to the open shot of the mummy driving.

Technical

Camera 7D Canon DSLR + Canon EF 24-105mm zoom lenses + shoulder mount. 

Effects The mummy will played by a thin actor performing in heavy body paint, with prosthetics and special effect make up on his face hands and feet. 

We will shoot in daylight at magic hour.

Sparks and smoke during the car battery sequence will be shot practically.

Hooded Fang

Hooded Fang | Tosta Mista

Director Jesse Ewles www.jesseewles.com

Rejected by MuchFact April 30th, 2012

Concept 

Hooded Fang party at a movie theatre walking on top of the seats and other guests as they perform. Behind them, on the big screen weird black and white science fiction footage is projected. By the end of the video, the whole crowd crawling over one another / moshing / dancing.

Art direction / Mood

Rambunctious, art punk party.

Approach

Step1 We will shoot weird black and white science fiction images similar to those in the Weekly World News. Examples may include the Fiji Mermaid, Batboy, cannibal zombies, alien heads, CIA agents, pirate gold, bigfoot ect.

Step2 Hooded Fang will perform at the Toronto Underground theatre. As they sing, the band will climb on top of the theatre seats, walking around on top of the audience members laps and shoulders. The weird black and white footage from step 1 will be projected on the movie screen behind them. By the end of the video, everyone in the theatre is climbing on top of one another, dancing / moshing.

Technical Treatment

Camera 7D Canon DSLR + Canon EF 24-105mm zoom lenses + Steadicam Pilot & Vest Arm Kit. Black and white sci-fi footage will be given a “super 8” look via Magic Bullet Suite.

The Elwins

The Elwins | Sittin’ Pretty

Director Jesse Ewles www.jesseewles.com

Listen to live version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rw_0bq-1Ic Great video in it’s own right.

Rejected by MuchFact April 30th, 2012

Concept

The Elwins have a medieval joust wearing armor constructed entirely from 

balloons.

Art Direction / Mood

Fun, viral, pop psychedelic, stop motion.

Approach

Step 1 We will construct costumes using 2000 twisting balloons, similar to the those used by magicians to make balloon animals. The characters will include three knights wearing balloon suits of armor, three princesses wearing balloon-crafted dresses. The knights will ride stick ponies with large horse heads completely sculpted from balloons.

Step 2 We will act out a joust in stop-motion. Each time a knight makes contact on another knight with his balloon sword or balloon lance some of his armor will pop, and disappear. Once a knight has all of this armor popped, he will be eliminated from the tournament and run from the jousting area in only his underwear. At the end of the video champion is crowned and he receives the hand of the princess.

Technical Treatment

Camera Stop motion 5K stills. 7D Canon DSLR + Canon EF 24-105mm zoom lenses.

Studio We will be shooting in the large room at Silver Line Studios. 

Pig Magazine

PIG Magazine Interview (Translation)

Italian version here: http://www.pigmag.com/it/2012/06/05/almost-famous-jesse-ewles/ 

1. Hi Jesse, where are you now? What are you doing at the moment?

Hi! At this very moment? I’m eating a piece of spelt-bread toast with humus that my girlfriend Jessica Rae Gordon made me.

2. You’re very young talent. How did you find your passion and when did you start to work?

My enthusiasm for the work gets renewed daily. Mostly because I’m curious and I have a good internet connection…

Originally I was attracted to film because it encumpasses all of the arts I was curious about. Filmmakers curate experiences by combining sounds and visuals in interesting ways. I think the internet is allowing filmmakers (and everyone else) to take that curation several steps further. Urban-noir filmmaker David Lynch for instance doesn’t just make movies anymore. He doesn’t just combine sound and image to give an audience an experience. Lynch’s website offers many different items, some digital some physical,  that can be considered “Lynchian”. He makes ambient music mp3s that will make you feel unsettled, even while strolling around your friendly neighbourhood on a sunny day. He sells dark roast coffee to sip on before a transcendental meditation session. He has a video that teaches you to make his favourite food, Quinoa. It’s the same world-building a great director would do when creating a film, but it’s been made more real. Lynch is helping curate real people’s lives.

This opportunity to do real life world-building is exciting. My world view is that of a tinkerer. I like to take things apart and put them back together again, leaving out a few screws to see if the thing will still run. Sometimes stuff doesn’t work (I have a whole blog about stuff that didn’t work) but that’s what experimenting is all about.

3. What is the gap between the first feeling you have when you start to work on something, and the feelings you have when your project is completed? Does your work fit perfectly with your idea / imagination?

No project arrives into the world exactly as conceived… and that can be a very good thing. Filmmaking is collaborative medium for most directors and you’re hope is that the great people you’re working with will be able to elevate your ideas. You hope they can take the direction they are given, and create compositions that are much better than what the filmmaker could have done on their own.

I think filmmaking can be approached like gardening. You have a seed, that is the idea. You place that seed into comfortable conditions — comfortable conditions vary depending on the idea. Action sequences for instance, seem to “want” to be shot in circumstances that are somewhat precarious for the crew. A scene when a character is ruminating on this future is best shot in a quiet place with a locked down camera.
As the seed sprouts and grows, the gardeners job is to train the plant up a lattice, gently steering, while letting it grow in natural directions. By harvest time, you probably don’t have exactly the plant you were imagining, but you’re still happy as long as it’s healthy and bears fruit.

4. I often see animals in your videos. How do animals inspire your virtual worlds and concepts?

People have always had a fascination with animals, especially those of us who live urbanized lives and see animals rarely. You tend for instance, to find more die-hard vegans in urban areas as opposed to on rural farms. The situation reminds me of Philip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep. In the book as the natural world hovers on extinction humans keep both real and synthetic animals as status symbols. The pets are badges of empathy and demonstrate that the owner is still capable of love and compassion.

For my part, I find animals interesting for the same reasons ancient people did. They’re good tools for storytelling. If you look at old fables, animals were often used as stand ins for humans, so the story would not be held up by the details of the protagonists background. If a wolf is central character, most people in the audience have an idea of what a wolf is and how it acts, the storyteller doesn’t need to explain where the wolf is from, or its philosophy.

5. I think every kind of project in life is like a pregnancy: what is your favourite phase, and why? (I mean: when you start and finish a project in your life -not only professional stuff- what is your favourite moment according to the metaphor I gave you)

Hmm. Well… much like pregnancy, conceiving is the fun part. Labouring to bring the idea into the world takes the most effort. Watching how your children make their way in the world after their born is the most scary and rewarding part.

Some other thoughts I like…

There is no sharpness without friction.

And…

Seek out difficult challenges. Things that are hard to do are rare (and therefore valuable) because they are difficult for people to copy.

6. In your work, how much is “handmade” and how much is “digital manipulation”?

It’s 50/50. My images are almost always real objects or paintings I have photographed and animated in the computer. There are very few 100 % computer generated images.

Svankmajer is cool. I was really into his work when I came out of college because it was so tactile, and I had just spent a year making an cold CGI student film. You could see Svankmajer’s fingerprints in the clay, and can imagine Svankmajer, this mad filmmaker, down on all fours strangling the clay into place.

Lately my heroes are people I think of as fearless. Kurt Vonnegut or Alan Moore or Seth Godin or Richard Branson or Margaret Atwood.

8. What’s the difference between making a video for a band, and making a video for every other kind of client?

There’s no real difference I can see, apart from the fact that musicians usually have a taste for fringe work and business people generally like more commercial stuff. As far as the ease of the process goes, the personalities of the clients make more of difference than their backgrounds. Dream clients are typically patient, curious and brave. They take their time selecting a director who they really love, and then dive into the project. They generally don’t stress about deadlines because they know if they don’t have time to do a project right, they probably don’t have time to do it over.

9. When I appreciate an artist, I like to know something personal about him, like how his standard day is, what he reads in the toilet or the safety valve he uses to vent his anger. Would you tell me three things about you personally? (not necessarily the same as I suggested)

This might give you an idea of my personality… I was in an open-mic storytelling show last winter. My story was about porn. NSFW https://vimeo.com/23015659

My personal life is pretty quiet. I’ve tried to build a simple life, so that I can take risks and attempt to do hard things in my work. I have unique group of crazy, irreverent friends that are my only valuable asset. Everything else I own could go up in a fire and I wouldn’t really miss it.

If you’re looking for more specific details… I cut my own hair and I like to make Gordon Ramsay’s F word recipes.

Zeds Dead

Zeds Dead | Living Dead
Director Jesse Yules www.jesseyules.com

Rejected May 17th, 2012 | What they made instead.

Concept

Post-apocalyptic beach party.

Approach

Intro 0:00 - 1:00 Using a series of slow motion tableaus, we show a group of horribly disfigured, zombie-like people posing in 50s style beach-party scenes. Behind the zombies, a rear projection screen plays looping footage of an idyllic beach with waves breaking on the shore line. The beach scenes will be lit with a moody red lighting, as if to suggest the events are taking place under a giant heat-lamp. The scenes will feel “staged” as if the beach set has been constructed in a bomb shelter miles bellow the surface.

Middle 1:00 - 3:35 As the pace of the track speeds up, we will cut more quickly to various other beach activities shot in slow motion. Activities include volleyball, hula hooping, crushing sand castles and fake water skiing in front of the projection screen.

Exit 3:35 - 4:30 We cut to face of a dreary-looking lab tech(s) with a thousand-mile stare. The lab tech is sitting in front of a large monitoring station lined with hundreds of colourful lights. A monitor in font of the lab tech displays the beach scenes. Looking bored, the lab tech turns a dial marked “ambient radiation”.

We cut to an image of the sun projected on the rear-projection screen. It glows noticeably brighter. The beach zombies gaze at the burning sun reverently. They lean their heads back as if enjoying the added heat. Slowly their skin begins to melt from their bodies.

We see the lab tech once more, looking desensitized. He turns up the heat further.

To close, we repeat the slow motion tableau pans from the opening of the video. The zombies are still posing enthusiastically, but by now, they have been fried to skeletons by the heat of the room.

Cut to black

Band Involvement

Depending on Zack and Dylan’s comfort level, they can participate in the zombie sequences or simply act as the lab techs.

Completion

Aprx. 4 weeks from the date the productions funds are received.

We Have Band

We Have Band | Love What You’re Doing Listen Here

Director: Jesse Ewles | www.jesseewles.com

Rejected September 3rd 2010

Concept

A video featuring three ancient Tai Chi masters shot in slow motion. The eyes of the masters will flash red and blue to the beat of the song. The movements of the masters will be inter-cut energetically with pop psychedelic animations of Chinese dragons. The band will not appear in the video. The art direction for the dragons will be similar to this:

Technical Treatment

The video will be inter-cut between two scenarios.  Scenario one will feature three Tai Chi masters performing on a set of ruined over grown steps.  The Tai Chi routines will be performed and filmed at twice normal speed, then converted to slow motion in post.  This will give the movement of the performance added intensity and make the footage ominously beautiful.

Scenario two will be an animation based on a Chinese dragon.  The dragon will be an elaborate stop-motion puppet decorated with jewels, metallic textiles and silky fibers.  The animation will feature the dragon snaking through a natural environment with fantasy / pop-psychelic elements (ie rivers of jewels ect)  The dragon peruses the tail of a second dragon.  Eventually he catches it, and in the final shot we see that there are dozens of identical dragons all connected together mouth to tail into a giant psychedelic chain.

????? | ????

Rejected May 14, 2012

Concept

An animation following a stunt bike, as it drives through various colourful L.A backyards.

Approach

The video will be one continuous tracking shot of the stunt rider driving through a variety of Los Angeles backyards. The characters in the backyards will be looping animations.

Mood

The vibe will be similar to the NES classic PaperBoy, except the images will all be hand painted in the style of David Hockney, and the images will move from left to right instead of diagonally. The overall mood of the video will be warm, relaxing and cheeky. The video equivalent of melting neapolitan ice cream.

Shot List

A) An Evel Knievel-style stunt man stands on top of a dirt hill surrounded by colourful streamers, palm trees and a few photographers. The stuntman drives down the ramp picking up speed and charges into a huge loop to loop. He then hits a second ramp and flies over some wrecked cars. The stunt man completes the jump but fails to stop at the victory circle. The bike flies off the course and breaks through a safety barrier into the neighbouring backyards.

B) The motorcycle crashes through multiple backyards inhabited by the following…

A sexy pool party. People are sunbathing and diving. The motorcycle goes over the diving board, lands on the other side of the pool.

The motorcycle passes a steel drum band.

It passes a man scuba diving in his pool.

Girls in a hottub.

A vacant house filled with stray cats.

A homeless man with a barbecue built into a shopping cart, cooking weiners. A flock of seagulls take.

Two 70’s wrestlers, wrestling on a trampoline.

A movie crew filming muppets.

A collection of colourful billboards.

A pornography shoot.

70’s bodybuilders weightlifting.

A group of people rollerskating with a dog.

A ferris wheel.

A fry truck.

Classic cars.

An LA gang, harvesting marijuana.

A graffiti artist painting a mural.

A robot dinosaur eating cars.

A garage band.

A helicopter taking off.

A group of cheerleaders stacked into a human pyramid.

Two Dogtown skateboarders, skating in an empty pool.

C) The motorcycle drives down into the empty pool with the skate kids. The bike flies up the opposite side of the pool into the air. We see the motorbike fly out of the backyards and zoom off of a cliff face towards the ocean. We watch the motorbike fall. A rainbow parachute pops out from the stuntman’s back. He glides slowly into the Pacific, being cheered on by some surfers and some curious dolphins.

Fade to black.

*image by David Hockney

Bruce Peninsula

Bruce Peninsula | Corrugated Screen Test

This a test for the Bruce Peninsula video I made last winter. The idea was to shoot the band footage while it was projected on a corrugated screen. One half of the footage was projected on the lefts side of the corrugations, the other half of the footage was projected on the right side.

The effect worked, but our broken dolly and lack of matching projectors make the footage mostly unusable.

Odonis Odonis

Odonis Odonis | Busted Lip Listen Here

Director Jesse Ewles

REJECTED by Much Fact April 13th 2012

Concept

Dark imagery projected on a stretching latex screen.

Mood & Art Direction

Dark 90’s feel. Seamless blend of sex and horror and humour.

Approach

Step 1: We will create a montage of 90’s inspired images. These will include plates of the band under gloomy daylight, running through a dead forest. Portraits of people with Hypertrichosis (werewolf syndrome). Images of women’s mouths chewing.

Step2: We will construct a large latex screen. The montage footage will be projected onto the screen. 

Step 3. A nude actor will be placed behind the latex screen. The actor will stretch the latex to the beat of the song distorting the projections in time to the music. Periodically, a light behind the screen will illuminate the actor, revealing their form to the camera.

Technical Treatment

Camera: 7D Canon DSLR + Canon EF 24-105mm zoom lenses.

Screen: The screen will be constructed from .45mm thick white latex rubber sheet.

Portable.tv

Portable.tv Interview (unabridged)

This week I did an interview with Portable.tv regarding my video for Of Montreal. I decided to publish the unedited article here —You can view the original by clicking “Portable.tv” above, in case that’s unclear. :)

So Spiteful Intervention is a very mixed media, did you create the artwork as well? How did they come together like they have?

Yes, I painted the majority of the work. My good friends Lee Stringle and Cameron Tomsett came in to help with the final push so we would hit the deadline.

Our approach was to take hand-painted characters and animate them by mapping them to a 3D meshes in Autodesk Maya.

The imagery or idea behind it seems a little dark, what general mood/feeling did you want to generate with it?

Originally I had wanted to do a 3D video in a similar style to artist Jeff Koons collages. That idea was rejected. Treatment one was too pop-arty for track. The first few times I listened to the song, I was focusing on the poppy rhythm of the piano and the change at 1:39. Both reminded me of the Beatles White Album for some reason… anyways, I completely missed how dark the lyrics actually were. The song’s all about self-loathing and battling dark thoughts, so I felt having Kevin’s head morph into various creatures would be the simplest, and most fun way to illustrate that idea. I think the colours, the loose painting and the bounciness of the images, combined with how sad all of the drawings look, matched the song pretty well.

You’ve done quite a few film clips, how do you approach each one with a different mindset and originality?

I’m  curious. I like taking things apart and rebuilding them in different ways.
In art school we were always encouraged to find one distinctive way of working, and to put all projects through that filter. There’s the Alex McLeod filter, and the Martin Wittfooth  filter, the Jessica Rae Gordon filter. They each build little worlds, with their own sets of rules. It’s a great approach for business as Milton Glaser would say. The main thing I took away from illustration was the mechanics of world building.

I think my filter is influenced by the internet I think. My work is filled with the mutts that are created when when the world’s culture begins to have sex with itself and spawn mutants. My videos are experiments, never intended for mass production. If I was writing this for an council grant, I’d say it’s about metamorphosis and the images that live in the crossover between the analog and digital world.

What general process do you go through when coming up for an idea for something like this and how do you develop it?

I like to use the music as a seed, and imagine a world growing out of it. This leads to experimentation by necessity. I’ll listen to a track and think, this song reminds me of a Saturday morning cartoons, or this song reminds me of Voyager Space probe, or troll under a bridge… the songs take you a lot of different places. Especially if you have a mind that’s so full of rubbish absorbed from the internet.

For Spiteful Intervention, I knew I wanted to make images that were dark and creepy, to match the lyrics, but also had a pretty silliness to them, to match the song. I started to think of various images that had that vibe, I could use as influences. Black velvet clowns, the 16th century paintings of fruit arranged to look like faces by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. I also riffed off artist William Blake’s images from the Divine Comedy.


You work with a lot of different media and mediums, do you have one thing you like more than all the others?

My favourite aspect of making videos is that they can be experimentations in storytelling. I chose to make videos in the first place as an alternative to film school, so trying new things and learning the best approaches for setting a certain mood is the whole point. Moving forward, I’d like to work towards becoming a good multimedia storyteller. So for me, it’s not so much about doing more animation, or more live action, but instead developing a long form style where each of those worlds coexist. Not in a Roger Rabbit kind of way. More like how fantasy and naturalistic ideas coexist in our imaginations. For feature film, I’d like to direct meta stories like Slaughterhouse Five (the book, not the crappy movie) or Alan Moore’s  the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic, not the crappy movie) or the scifi book Snow Crash. Stories that leave room for absurd cartoons amidst violent and pornographic worlds. :)