Congratulations! It's a... MUSIC VIDEO!
Over here at WFM we are expectantly waiting/slaving over our very first piece to ever ever go public.
We've been working on a music video "Keep it Runnin'".
It's been a wild and interesting ride. The music video itself has had a very very interesting life. A life that could only live within the walls of an independent studio. Never in a bajillion years would a large corporation ever consent to anything remotely as awesome as what we did.
Here is the story of the life of our music video.
- Almost 2 years ago, Patrick and Bomber were at Giant Studios testing out their motion capture studio with our rigs for Streetch & Stylee. They plugged in a Cool Beans tune "Keep it Runnin'" and let the data fly while Bomber and Patrick got their groove on, all suited up. The footage they got was phenomenal, and the characters looked great. It was intended to be just a test, but the footage was just too damn good.
- About a year ago the studio decided that we needed to get some animation out there. So, why not use some of the dancing/mocap footage and release a music video?! We spent a few days making a really cool Saturday-night-fever-esque dance floor and rendered out the footage. It was awesome. But it didn't exactly qualify as a music video, and there wasn't enough animation to go for the entire song. We focused on our other projects, knowing we had a gem in the making, but didn't have the time then to concentrate on it.
- Cut to last spring. We decided we should finish the video. Seeing as the song was about a race between the Cool Beans and the Bad Seedz, why not film real-life kids in a race and cut that with the mo-cap dancing?!? Super cool idea, eh? Now, just where could we host a race? And what would kids race on?
We brainstormed for a few days, when it hit us: BIG WHEELS. Those awesome toys that we all loved as kids! We could stage a race and have kids on Big Wheels and tape it all!
But, where to have the race? Brooklyn! Yeah! We'd have it in our own backyard! But a little thing called street permits and insurance made it impossible to have our race in Brooklyn.
Then one of our interns said "Why not have it at a go-cart track?".
Bingo! Right ON! I had been to Myrtle Beach as a teenager and been to a crazy go cart track! So, we called the track and they were down! We booked it. We called Big Wheel.
We got over 20 sponsors on board.
-August '06. The entire WFM crew caravanned down to Myrtle Beach and by the time we got there, we were able to say "The World's Largest Big Wheel Race". We had t-shirts, banners, announcers, 1,000 prizes, food, water, and the Cool Beans themselves. We turned the entire race into a huge promotion for exercise and healthy eating!!! We only chose healthy partners and we talked to kids about nutrition and being active. The fact that is was over 100* didn't help us much, but we had a great turnout. The only problem was, while these kids were super awesome kids, for some it was their first time on a Big Wheel... the footage wasn't quite up to "Racing extravaganza" level...
- October '06. We got a group of fantastic kids from New Jersey through a really great guy, Greg Hildebrandt, to come to a green screen studio and ride Big Wheels. We filmed them up, down, over and around. The footage was rockin'.
- January '07. We bought a blue screen set it up in our studio and decided to film some pre-race footage with super-wacky characters, Skip Weatherall, Shotzee McPotzerelli and Sally Sue Shenanigans. The footage again, was phenomenal.
- February '07. We are now in final animation, compositing and editing stages on what is now not just a music video, but an entertainment piece! We like to compare it to "Thriller".
Now, a few of you may look at this timeline and at this project and think "oh man, they've been through it all". But, we like to look at this project and think "Oh! MAN! We learned it ALL!" We did all of this on a very very modest budget. Pulling in favors, working late nights and doing things like shooting blue screen in our studio. We did the impossible.
We learned:
Motion Capture
Green Screen
Live Action Shoot
Event Planning
Marketing & PR
Blue Screen
Compositing
Rendering
Animation
Voice Over
Acting
Each one of those phases of production we'll have to rely upon again, but next time we'll be old pros at it.
We got our feet wet.
We learned the ropes.
The best part?
The project rocks. Quite simply, it's a fantastic, fantastic piece of animation extravaganza.
And now, we are on to our next phase...
Sales & Distribution.
Wish us luck, though we know we don't need it.
We've been working on a music video "Keep it Runnin'".
It's been a wild and interesting ride. The music video itself has had a very very interesting life. A life that could only live within the walls of an independent studio. Never in a bajillion years would a large corporation ever consent to anything remotely as awesome as what we did.
Here is the story of the life of our music video.
- Almost 2 years ago, Patrick and Bomber were at Giant Studios testing out their motion capture studio with our rigs for Streetch & Stylee. They plugged in a Cool Beans tune "Keep it Runnin'" and let the data fly while Bomber and Patrick got their groove on, all suited up. The footage they got was phenomenal, and the characters looked great. It was intended to be just a test, but the footage was just too damn good.
- About a year ago the studio decided that we needed to get some animation out there. So, why not use some of the dancing/mocap footage and release a music video?! We spent a few days making a really cool Saturday-night-fever-esque dance floor and rendered out the footage. It was awesome. But it didn't exactly qualify as a music video, and there wasn't enough animation to go for the entire song. We focused on our other projects, knowing we had a gem in the making, but didn't have the time then to concentrate on it.
- Cut to last spring. We decided we should finish the video. Seeing as the song was about a race between the Cool Beans and the Bad Seedz, why not film real-life kids in a race and cut that with the mo-cap dancing?!? Super cool idea, eh? Now, just where could we host a race? And what would kids race on?
We brainstormed for a few days, when it hit us: BIG WHEELS. Those awesome toys that we all loved as kids! We could stage a race and have kids on Big Wheels and tape it all!
But, where to have the race? Brooklyn! Yeah! We'd have it in our own backyard! But a little thing called street permits and insurance made it impossible to have our race in Brooklyn.
Then one of our interns said "Why not have it at a go-cart track?".
Bingo! Right ON! I had been to Myrtle Beach as a teenager and been to a crazy go cart track! So, we called the track and they were down! We booked it. We called Big Wheel.
We got over 20 sponsors on board.
-August '06. The entire WFM crew caravanned down to Myrtle Beach and by the time we got there, we were able to say "The World's Largest Big Wheel Race". We had t-shirts, banners, announcers, 1,000 prizes, food, water, and the Cool Beans themselves. We turned the entire race into a huge promotion for exercise and healthy eating!!! We only chose healthy partners and we talked to kids about nutrition and being active. The fact that is was over 100* didn't help us much, but we had a great turnout. The only problem was, while these kids were super awesome kids, for some it was their first time on a Big Wheel... the footage wasn't quite up to "Racing extravaganza" level...
- October '06. We got a group of fantastic kids from New Jersey through a really great guy, Greg Hildebrandt, to come to a green screen studio and ride Big Wheels. We filmed them up, down, over and around. The footage was rockin'.
- January '07. We bought a blue screen set it up in our studio and decided to film some pre-race footage with super-wacky characters, Skip Weatherall, Shotzee McPotzerelli and Sally Sue Shenanigans. The footage again, was phenomenal.
- February '07. We are now in final animation, compositing and editing stages on what is now not just a music video, but an entertainment piece! We like to compare it to "Thriller".
Now, a few of you may look at this timeline and at this project and think "oh man, they've been through it all". But, we like to look at this project and think "Oh! MAN! We learned it ALL!" We did all of this on a very very modest budget. Pulling in favors, working late nights and doing things like shooting blue screen in our studio. We did the impossible.
We learned:
Motion Capture
Green Screen
Live Action Shoot
Event Planning
Marketing & PR
Blue Screen
Compositing
Rendering
Animation
Voice Over
Acting
Each one of those phases of production we'll have to rely upon again, but next time we'll be old pros at it.
We got our feet wet.
We learned the ropes.
The best part?
The project rocks. Quite simply, it's a fantastic, fantastic piece of animation extravaganza.
And now, we are on to our next phase...
Sales & Distribution.
Wish us luck, though we know we don't need it.
posted by amanda at 7:18 AM
0 comments
