The Fox and the Chickadee

About a month ago Evan DeRushie asked me to be involved on his short film "The Fox and the Chickadee". I instantly said "Yes, I will." It is now seeking additional funding.

Check out the link below, and donate and/or spread word of this stop motion animation.

http://www.indiegogo.com/thefoxandthechickadee

Timber Timbre - Black Water

All we needed was some sunshine while working in a dungeon we call our studio. While half our space was being used to shoot a short animation, Winston and myself were in the other half creating sets, and puppets for Timber Timbre's music video - Black Water. It was two months of planned building and creating; going over shot lists, checking that we had everything, making sure puppets were functional and that we would be ready for the 3 days of shooting in a flour covered room.



The most stressful of the puppets were the fish creatures. They were made up of clear balloons and had LED lights wired into their bodies that lit up. The wire that was fed through the balloon was tightly wrapped with an elastic band around the mouth piece to prevent the air from escaping. This method barely worked. The faces of the creatures also caused problems. They were held on by clear tape, and once the fish was covered in flour it made it nearly impossible to make any adjustments to the face. The tape would not stick to the flour covered balloon. However the dangling floaters made up for it. They were a lot of fun.




We needed the look of sand blowing around underwater so we were constantly blowing on certain areas to achieve the effect. It created such a mess. Flour was everywhere; on the floor, up our noses, and even in our pants.

3 Spots Aired

Here is one of the finished spots I worked on. Directed by Matt Unsworth

MuchMusic / Doritos The End - Werebag from Matt Unsworth on Vimeo.

Doritos - The End

To bring you all up to date with the new Doritos campaign, they are holding an online contest open to all. The idea is to submit a short written ending to a previously shot commercial - you can go here www.writetheend.ca to check it out - and than the ideas are voted upon.

MuchMuch in conjunction with Doritos recently shot 3 demo commercials/endings at Film Fort Studios. We had a week to shoot the 3 stop motion animated spots and under the Direction of Matt Unsworth we were able to get it all complete.

The sequences can be seen on MuchMusic on a regular rotation.

Duncan(s) Stor(e)y

Here is a recent portrait video I shot. Duncan is from Grimsby and is the younger brother to Basil - a former documented candidate. This short, documents our trip to beamer falls in Grimsby. We tried to capture a live recording of Duncan's song on tape with some frogs in the background but for some unknown reason we could never find any. When we were quiet the frogs would all start chirping in every direction around us however there were no frogs in site.

We then drove to St. Catharines, to find the fish, but like the frogs, there were none.



cheers

Shitty Puppets Make Shitty Music Videos

In September we began creating puppets at the Exploding Motor Car Studios. It was for a non-music video concept for AIDS Wolf. We assembled the puppets with basic fabric, and sewed the fronts to backs tall enough and large enough for our arms to fit inside. We then cut out the shapes of the mouths, and painted each character and tacked on old foam peanuts, and scraps from previous videos.

To create the effects of poo smearing, we used oatmeal mixed with pudding and it made me hungry for cookies. The large turd monster, was created out of a disassembled plastic bag igloo from a Tegan and Sara music video and bound with some excess cheesecloth. The large monsters head had a hole in the back so I was able to reach in and stick my hand out of the mouth and manipulate it like a tongue. Once my hand was in, it was covered in pudding to look slimy.

The video starts off like a "How We Made" video, like previous videos and progresses into a chaotic battle between a band and their shit.

Enjoy!

Ken Sean Carson's 50th Birthday

Ken Sean Carson, better known as Ken or the fictional boyfriend of Barbie, was first introduced in 1961. This means he will be turning 50 next year.

To celebrate, etalk has teamed up with Director Adam Makarenko and myself to animate a few segments for the show.

The segments air now until mid February on CTV's Etalk.

How We Made RSR - You Don't Exist

Finally some time has opened up, and I was able to assemble the pre-production home video footage for Reverie Sound Revue's music video Directed by Jesse Ewles.

In Part one, we explore the EMC studio as Daijiro Hama and Yukiko Hara design and craft together a dress. The Dress is partially constructed from parts of a garbage monster designed by Winston Hacking and built by Exploding Motor Car.



After scrambling through 10 hours of footage for the last month and a half, I've finally finished editing Part 2 of the Reverie Sound Revue home video footage.

In part 2, we finalize set dressing and begin shooting the video. Making appearances are Jesse Ewles, Marc De Pape, Kenji Sato, Beth Gondek and Ria Jones of Apt. 909.

Ten Million to One

My Cousin is once again at it in the Fringe Festival. Taking over London and Hamilton venues. This year his act is based off chance and probability called "Ten Million to One" This year I have animated sequences incorporated into the show. It's all stop motion animation shot off the wall, with a few cut out overheads and a projector.

Here are some still images of the animation.


Go check him out. Here is his website for all the info! Fingers crossed but a Toronto show is on the way!

Resident Rob

"Resident Rob" is a portrait video that focuses on Rob Ferguson; a friend from my hometown who's interests revolve around video games, especially Resident Evil. Robs passion for Resident Evil has lead him wanting a tattoo of the Umbrella Corporation logo for quite some time. While filming, Rob explained his interest in Toronto and how he wants to go there. As a surprise, his friend Billy Housh and I decided to take him there when they were shooting the movie "Resident Evil 2". It was awesome!

How We Made Ohbijou - New Years.

The people at The International Film Fest Breda have asked Exploding Motor Car to show some of their content at the 2010 festival. The music video we made for Ohbijou will be screening and when asked to show some stills or videos of us making it I decided to finish assembling the footage I had shot, to give to them.

While working on the music video, we documented the process and tried to capture just about every step of the way. 8 hours of footage later, I have built this behind scenes for the festival in two parts.

Romo Roto - Caterpillar Massacre

Here is a fast paced music video we created for friends Tomas and Alex for their band Romo Roto.

check the band out here!
hope you enjoy!

Man Made Hill - Kool Cops

Before the Christmas break I had the opportunity to work with Randall Gagne of Man Made Hill.

Here is the music video I helped out with.

my frog loop

I wasn't too sure what I was doing. Here is some blind animation of a frogs jump cycle. The blue will be keyed out and replaced with live footage. Here are the results.

FROG LOOP

Wham City

I finished this promotional video last night for the Wham City and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Canada) held at the Deleon White Gallery. This video took longer to animate then the length of the festival itself. So much fun!

Trash Palace

Here is some promotional material for Trash Palace. A Toronto weekly screening .



I animated this using Dragon Stop Motion in a night. It was done all in one shot, and was digitally punched-in in post to be able to read the font. Unfortunately the popcorn was stale by the end and was fed to the rats.

I Don't Exist

...in this photo. However I am in frame consumed by an enormous closet monster.



Reverie Sound Review - You Don't Exist
Music video shoot

On the weekend, Exploding Motor Car shot a music video directed by Jesse Ewles for band Reverie Sound Review
On set, I had the luxury to puppeteer a giant monster created out of garbage and scrap material. It took one month to build and is fairly heavy, especially after being inside all day.

Video to be released before Hallowe'en
Behind Scenes to follow

Ohbijou - New Years

This music video was shot during the garbage strike in Toronto On. It became really muggy inside our studio but that didn't stop myself and Mike Weiss from animating over the 2 and a half weeks.

here is the video!!!


Documentary to come....

Too Late

I haven't had much time to update this blog. Been busy working on a music video for Ohbijou.

Here's something I animated for the last film fort screening on June 13th.



Documented footage to be posted soon!

December Film Fort

For the first time, Winston Hacking and myself decided to make an animated poster for Film Fort.

Here it is on youtube