Lifelong Friendship Society (We Go Hard)

Own Your C, a project I worked on with Lifelong Friendship Society got some love on Motionographer.com today! Not only did I get a chance to animate and help out on set, but I fulfilled my day-long dream of dressing up as an underground elephant king and dancing on a television set.

... and apparently I work for a company with " lo-fi hipster aesthetics." If only that applied to Burger King spots as well.

ALSO: The music video All Over Again that I directed last year made it into the finals for "Best Music Video" at this year's Midwest Independent Film Festival! Hopefully that works out. If I had known about it sooner I would've tried to rally everyone into an online voting frenzy but alas I was unaware. Check out the trailer for this year's nominees here.

UPDATE: Alas, we didn't win... but there's always next time.

88-Keys "True Feelings" is online!

Yes, it is available for viewing on my site as well but clicking on the link above will give the Computer Beach Party site a little more love! Hope you guys like it.

First Screenshots from 88-Keys' "True Feelings"

Sup fam!

Here's a couple of very vague & ambiguous screenshots from the upcoming music video for 88-Keys that we're working on. The video should be done in less than a couple of weeks (shit!) so be sure to check back soon for the finished product!

oh so inappropriate but oh so right.

(video removed from Youtube)

This really isn't appropriate at work or if your mom is watching this with you over your shoulder. That said... mom, if you're reading... don't watch this.

EDIT: The video kept getting removed from the various links I posted, but it looks like it is being permanently posted at the following URL: www.dancefloordale.com

88 Keys

Marked Animation is reuniting with brothers-in-creativity Convivial Enemy and Partially Frozen on a new music video collaboration with the artist 88 Keys. It will be the first project we've worked on together since Locksley's All Over Again video of yesteryear. The new project will include a mix of animation and live-action footage... so really, everyone wins. Production begins at the end of this month and things should be wrapped up by the end of September.
For those of you who aren't hip on the hippo hop, 88 has produced and worked with artists like Mos Def, Kanye West, Talib Kweli, and Musiq just to name a few. He's also a fairly dapper guy and highly excels in general gentlemanliness.

Feel free to download his latest mixtape, "Adam's Case Files" for free here.

Congratulations, Traditional Animators!

... it looks like there's still jobs available out there for you after all. Check out this teaser trailer for Disney's next movie, The Princess and the Frog.

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/princessandthefrog/

I haven't really paid Disney that much attention lately, so while that I'm a bit surprised that they're venturing back into the traditional animation, I can understand that they'd like to give it a better sendoff than their previous effort.* Unfortunately I'm a bit skeptical of this trailer and just how beneficial this movie will be to the company. It seems like Disney is in a creative rut, and while other animation companies like Pixar offer audiences a wide array of styles and storytelling, Frog looks like many other Disney works, complete with the princess, the watered-down "humor," and the loveable-yet-subtly-racist supporting cast.
I'm not a Disney-hater by any means. Up until the last thirteen years, their animation reigned supreme and stood ahead of any real competition. The wildebeest scene in The Lion King still holds up today and is as breath-taking to watch as it was in 1994. I watch the original Fantasia on a consistent basis and I think it's one of the most artistically and technically advanced features that they've ever put out. The Emperor's New Groove was one of the biggest surprises I've ever experienced watching a movie and I think it's a fantastic comedy with great writing and chemistry between its characters (Patrick Warburton steals every scene he's in). I just think that the fairy tale formula is a little tired, and the "updated & hip" fairy tale is just grating. I'm hoping for the best, but I'm not expecting anything spectacular.


* If it's any indication of just how successful Home on the Range was, I couldn't even remember the name and only came across it by googling "Disney" and "Farm" (I remembered that there were cows on the poster).