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

Tea Tray for Gong Fu Cha

So I have been wanting to buy a tea tray for Gong Fu Cha (Chinese method of tea-making) but I did not want to spend much money since the ones I usually liked were expensive. I saw a really simple modern designed tea tray at a tea shop in china town called The Chinese Tea Shop so I studied it quickly, and thought that I might be able to just make one.

This is the tray that I studied for a basic design from The Chinese Tea Shop and the one I would buy if I could not make it. This tray is very reasonably priced, a good starter tray.

My grandfather had built a 3 legged table using a beautiful chunk of Yew. The table was left outside for a couple of years and the legs fell off but I kept the top. I thought it would be a good test piece that looked about the right size plus it had a nice natural feel being all beat-up and weathered.

I first tried hand carving the channels into it. After spending 30 minutes, not getting anywhere, I remembered that I had a router. I went out and bought a 1/8" round router bit and made the groves for the water to drain out.

Used router to make the grooves, sanded and varnished. 

For the drain I bought a 1/4" pipe connector drilled it into the side on a slight angle. Then attached a clear hose to drain water. I put the other end into a nice pottery vase to catch the water.

The Finished Tea Tray for Gong Fu Cha handmade and it works great! Oh and it's one of a kind!

Ha ha ... now I can spend more money on good quality tea which tends to be quite expensive ... but so worth it! I think it's TEA TIME!!! Who wants tea?
Cheers!
Adam.

Display all your tiny treasures with a simple shelving unit

I had this old cupboard door that I couldn't throw away because I thought I would be able to use it one day. That day became ... today.

I wanted to build something that would display my tiny Chinese teapots and tea accessories in a nice warm natural way, I also only had 2 hours to build this. Here is what got created ...

Original beat up old cupboard door.

Painted the panel using a solid stain paint that was a nice retro blue / green colour. 

After it dried, I used my electric sander and sanded more than I usually would because I wanted it a lighter colour.

I then found 4 pieces of scrap wood and cut them some what random and then pre-drilled them from the back of the panel.

Screwed them in making sure the board stayed in place.

All screwed and in place. Done.

Here is the finished product. I just screwed it into the wall.

This makes a great shelving unit for your small treasures. Another way to hang this unit would be as if it were a picture using eye screws and wire on the back. Then using a picture hanger that attaches to the wall, hang the unit on it (just make sure that the picture hang will hold the weight of the shelving unit).

Until the next moment of inspiration.
Yours warmly,
Adam.

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.