Cardboard musical instruments

Other crazy cool music video with Mike Southworth from collide entertainment where I get to play with cardboard which I think is becoming one of my favourite mediums to work with.
The music video takes place around 1985 where the band The Matinée are around age 5-7 years old and are on their very first tour. My part of the music video project is to build all the instruments (Drums, bass amp, guitar amp, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and bass ) using household items. So the kids The Matinée put on a huge music concert for their parent and stuffed animals in the living room.

The biggest challenge with this is making the instruments be able to take a beating from Five, 5 year old hyper boys and still look homemade. I also wanted to replicate The Matinée’s real instruments since the video will switch to them in present time. I wanted the instruments to look like they fit the kids and so could not copy the actual size. Here is what I came up with.

The Cardboard Amps

Were made using cardboard boxes as the foundation then painted. For knobs I used beer/pop bottle caps and lego as power buttons and standby buttons. Then to finish off the amps used jump/skipping ropes as patch cords.

This is a play on 1980’s Marshall Stacks using cardboard, beer/pop bottle caps, and lego

Wanted these to resemble vintage tweed fender amps

The bass cabinet had to have a real monitor that was used to playback the song the band would be rock'n out to so I cut out some round holes and put landscaping cloth so the sound can still travel through it.

The Drums

These were the greatest challenge because they had to be strong enough to take a beating which they did and they stood up to it. I had to incorporate wood so I made stands out of wood with plywood bottoms.

Top view of the drums 80% finished

Adding The Matinee logo to the bass drum

Guitars
I built a couple of different guitars because I was not sure which ones they were going to use in the video.

Fender Strat. almost complete.

acoustic formation backside

acoustic from front.

Microphone 

Had to use my daughter to give me an idea of what size to make it. even know she is way younger.

Power Wheels - re-paint

I also had to quickly paint this girls I jeep that was originally purple, pink and light blue princess designed power wheels. So Red, Black it changed.

The Matinée - The Road

Won - Music Video Of The Year

Shake It Wins Music Video Of The Year at WCMA’s!

Sooo Great, one of the music videos that I had the opportunity to work on won music video of the year.

Congratulations goes to my good friend Mike Southworth from Collide Entertainment and all the great people (crew) I had the honour of working with.

If you want to see the elements that I helped out in, you can check out the other blog posts:

http://adamprojects.blogspot.ca/2013/08/shakers-acres-trailer-park-sign.html
http://adamprojects.blogspot.ca/2013/09/shakers-acres-trailer-park-part-2.html

Visit: Collide Entertainment
http://collideentertainment.com/2014/10/05/shake-it-wins-music-video-of-the-year-at-wcmas/

Chemical Reaction - Chalkboard Animation Video

Hilary Grist strikes again. 

Mike Southworth and Hilary Grist asked me to help to make a video for the song "chemical reaction" from Hilary's album called "come & go" which got released June 26, 2014.

Album cover - Come & go

I was asked to help make some drawings and help with input for the story of the video. Mike and Hillary had a lot of amazing ideas and with a great brainstorm session between the 3 of us the video was starting to come to life.

Drawing by Dana Irving with help by Hilary Grist and Adam Thomas

Mike and Hilary transformed their whole apartment into a giant chalkboard. One wall was about 35feet long by 10feet high and the other wall was about 8 feet wide by 10 feet high.

Hilary's Skeletal by Adam Thomas

One of my concerns with this project was having too many "cooks in the kitchen" but everyone had the same end goal in mind ... it ended up all having the same look and feel even though there were 5 different people drawing.

The Grist mobile and parking sign by Adam Thomas

Who did what?

 It's really hard to break down what each of us did because there was so much overlapping in help with each others drawings ... here's a list of our main creations each of us worked on:

• Hilary Grist - Equations, bird animation, music notes, wine glass / animation, plane animation, science lab, road animation, heart band-aid animation, Love birds animation, blimp animation, butterfly animation, helped draw city, chalk ladder, world, stars, planets. Hilary self portrait. 
• Mike Southworth - science lab bubble animation, Science lab explosion, Swirl into blackness, road animation, heart band-aid animation, Love birds animation, blimp animation, butterfly animation. 
• Adam Thomas - Hilary's Skeleton, X-ray cover, Science lab explosion, Swirl into blackness, the Girst mobile (Car), road animation, parking sign, Open sign, butterfly animation, roses falling, helped draw city, built real rope ladder. 
•  Dana Irving - Rolling hills with the fence, clouds with the cupids and original drawing of the entire city. check out her amazing art work: http://danairving.com/ 
• Sitji Chou - animated Hilary's drawings. which were then hand-drawn a frame at a time in the video. 

How long did it take?

The video took a full two 2 weeks of trouble shooting, drawing, pain-fully slow acting (by Hilary), more drawing, erasing of the drawings, drawing, erasing, drawing, easing (repeat thousands of X's).

There ended up being 3,500 drawings to complete the video one frame by one frame at a time. I think it turned out amazing and well worth the time spent. I know you will like it!

Watch Chemical Reaction by Hilary Grist

Video credits: 

Published on Jun 20, 2014

http://www.hilarygrist.com
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/com...
Bandcamp: https://hilarygrist.bandcamp.com/albu...

All hand drawn on a 35ft x 10ft chalkboard! :)

Directed and Produced by Mike Southworth for http://collideentertainment.com
Drawing and Animation by Hilary Grist, Dana Irving, Adam Thomas, Sitji Chou and Mike Southworth.

Equipment provided by Waveform Media and Alterna Films
Additional photography consultation by Dan Jackson

Smoke and Mirrors - Video

I had another opportunity to work with the Canadian band Scatterheart on their music video called "Smoke and Mirrors".

I helped the band build 3 - 8'X8' walls covered entirely with mirrors. We made a triangle shape with the walls which created this really cool kaleidoscope effect.

I also had to build some kind of opening/door so each band member could get in and out of the mirror room. The door had to also be covered in mirrors so you would not see it in the shot. The lighting guys took advantage of this opening by putting a stack of lights in it which gave a really cool effect in the room.

Opening to the triangle room of mirrors

Each of the crew got to have a quick photo-shoot in the mirror room.

Me in the mirror room

If you notice you can not see a video camera in the room ... that's because one of the mirrors is a "one-way mirror" so when the room is bright you can film through this glass and from the inside of the room it acts as a mirror.

Another very effective look was putting 4 full body mirrors together to form a tunnel. In the video you will see just how amazing this looks.

Watch Scatterheart - Smoke & Mirrors

Video Credits:

Published on Jun 11, 2014
Created entirely in camera with no additional special effects
Written Directed and Performed by Scatterheart
Director of Photography: Byron Kopman
A Collide Entertainment Production
Edited by Mike Southworth and Doug fury
1st AC: Kelvin Wong
1st AD: Adam PW Smith
Grip/Gaffer: Brooks Robinson
Set Construction: Adam Thomas and Scatterheart
Coloured by Mike Southworth and David Tomiak
Song produced by Scatterheart
Recorded and Mixed by Doug Fury at Fortissimo Sound

Shakers Acres Trailer Park (Part 2)

 This is continued from: shakers acres trailer park sign post

After I finished the Shakers Acres Trailer Park Sign, Mike (Collide Entertainment) asked if I could go to the location and help set-up for the music video shoot.

We had to build a stage that looked basically like a pile of junk as if the trailer park folk might have thrown it together but it had to be strong enough for the band, The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer to play on.

Picture of the stage almost finished ... looks real safe ... Not!

The sign on location with the stage in the background

The Finished Video, 
Shake it by The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer.  

Shakers Acres Trailer Park Sign

I was asked by Mike (Collide Entertainment) if I could build and design a sign for the set of a music video for the band The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer. 

I had a 3’X3’ piece of 1” plywood with an Arborite finish that was used as a counter top in a part of my house that I took out. I was never going to use it but it will make an amazing sign, since it already has an old look to it. I cut the top round using a skill saw tied to a string which was anchored to the bottom center of the plywood. I need some letters so, I experimented with the size by printing out letters and found that 6" was a good fit.

I tried a solid stain (greeny/blue) to see what that would look and work like and also added an orange coloured border. I thought by using a solid stain that it would easily scratch to give that old tin look. which worked perfectly!

Once I had all the letters in place I was able to trace them and they left a mark in the paint outlining where I needed to paint.

I finished painting the letters and was not satisfied with the shape. I cut the sides on a slight angle then added a little detail by cutting more angles at the bottom of the sign to match where the sign will join the pole that holds the sign up. 

Let's make it look old. I started to put some black rain stains and scraped some of the letters as if they had peeled off over the years. 

Put it on a stand using an old support pole that I found in my basement and attached it to a X-mas tree holder ... the sign now stands on its own. Added an arrow and thought we needed more bullet holes ... of course!

Here is the finished project with aged arrow and bullet holes. 

Here is another shot of the whole sign on the stand.

What a fun project ... amazing what you can do with some stuff just lying around. I should go into the fake vintage sign business eh? I can not wait to see what it looks like in the music video.

Tall Buildings - Welcome to Cardboard City

Mike Southworth a friend of mine gave me a call and asked if I would be into building a set for a video. "Sure", I said not knowing what I was getting myself into. The idea was to build a cardboard City on top of a cardboard life size Grand piano. My main job was to build the Grand Piano and put some buildings together and help establish a look for this project.

Another environmentally friendly project! 

Had some used 4X4's laying around to use for the legs. It did not matter what shape they were in since they would be wrapped in cardboard. I was on my way to Rona to buy some plywood for the top of the piano but stopped at my neighbour's house to see if he had some ... Yes he did ... recycled and Free. Mike scored a keyboard that never got picked up from the repair shop that was going to the garbage. Most of the Cardboard was picked up from the alley and I had some moving boxes that were given to me.

Trying to figure out how to make the piano???

Finally the basic shape for the Grand soon to be Cardboard Piano

It took a full 2days to get to this point but as you can see a Cardboard Life size Piano sit in front of us.

The 2 main building in the video - with lights

Mike's amazing bridge - with some of buildings I made around it.

I was there for the first part of the project while Mike and Hilary with help from some friends chugged along. After many days and hours of cardboard addicted work, in-between tours and summer the video is finished. Enjoy!!!

Hilary Grist - Tall Buildings (Official Music Video)

The Making of 'Tall Buildings' by Hilary Grist

Buy on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/imaginings/id384516084

 ||||||| Credits ||||||| 

Directed, filmed and edited by Mike Southworth for Collide Entertainment. http://www.collideentertainment.com

Set construction and design by Adam Thomas, http://adamprojects.blogspot.ca/  Mike Southworth and Hilary Grist

Additional building construction by Cory Lake, Adri Lake, Tim Cyr, Dawn Pemberton, Kathy Fitzpatrick, Alison Maira, Mike Zobac, James Scholl, Steph Jackson, Ryan Grist, Charmaine De Los Reyes.

Clothing by Motel http://www.motelrocks.com/shop/ Clothing supplied by Brooke Roth at Skout Lighting by Toby Gorman, Mital Gorman and Mike Southworth

Additional styling by Dani Barnes http://danibarnes.blogspot.com/

Funded in part by the generosity of 100.5 The Peak, Music BC and The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group