LE SELTZER

So a few months ago I was thinking I need to branch out and get outta the music video game and into where the money is at! ADVERTISING! (I've been told I'm wrong about that) So I asked my friend Noah if he wanted an ad for his new fizzy flavoured water company called LE SELTZER. I've known Noah for a while and he's maybe hooked me up with more work than most people cause he worked for a music management company and got me to do FOUR music videos in the pandemic. At the time animation was HOT and filmed video was COLD (flu like symptoms). The videos I did for him were:

SUUNS - FICTION

BESNARD LAKES - Feuds With Guns

BESNARD LAKES - Our Head, Our hearts, on fire again

GRAHAM VAN PELT visualizer

In a way I can thank Noah for having a part in LAUNCHING my temporary career cause since I did these vids I haven't had a "normal" job again. Though for a few months now I've been getting closer and closer to needing a "normal" job again. I guess a 5 year career as an animator is pretty cool and I should be happy with that and return to being a dishwasher.

So Noah said he'd LOVE for me to do a quick ad but the company doesn't have much money so they'd have to pay me in cans! When I told my brother that I was getting paid in cans he got so worried that he ALMOST got me an animation gig through his fancy job but I haven't heard back from him in a couple months now so I guess that ain't happening. Maybe it's cause he realized soon after that the cans weren't empty ones but ones filled with fizzy flavoured water and I'm doing just fine without his help.

So I agree to do the ad and I have a good time doing it cause I get to spend a bunch of the time "working" at the pool! I went to the pool cause I decided the ad would take place by the pool and I needed to immerse myself in the pool environment. Interestingly, the other day, I saw Alex and he said he saw me from afar that one day at the pool and he said I looked like a loser on the Titanic writing in my "leather bound" notebook. He was making fun of me! He also made jokes that I was drawing the little kids jumping off the diving board. I responded by letting him know it was NOT a "leather bound" notebook it was just a regular sketchbook that happened to be black and that I was WORKING!! FOR CANS!!! He said I looked like a "ding dong" which caused me to become distracted for that reminded me of the ad...

You see, in the ad a guy grabs a can and he starts going "doingy doingy doinging" on the tab of the can and then a shark appears and does it too and then the lifeguard blows their whistle and points to a sign that says "NO DOINGING".

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/7a0eb6_b58cd3b241ad474ca3052fe590a3b255/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Noah likes it and I wanna do a series of these. I also want to do a fancy FILMED one where the whole city comes alive to the DOINGING cans. The hot sweaty rhythm of summer in the city. People from all walks of life grooving and DOINGING their cans. Just like a CocolColo ad or Modolo or maybe ALL drink ads? Except this one has sound effects that go with the rhythm of the music. It would actually be a hit and hopefully make Le Seltzer RICH and instead of getting paid 250 CANS I'd get paid in 250 CARS!!

OTTAWA ANIMATION FESTIVAL

3 weeks ago was the Ottawa Animation Festival that is International! I guess I'm kinda late to write about it but I still feel it's worth writing about so here come the JUICIEST details from my boots on the ground reporting from the (second) BIGGEST ANIMATION FESTIVAL IN THE WORLD!

That's the poster

So yah, I've been to this festival before. Crazily, the 3rd animation I ever did (Freak Heat Waves - Toxic Talk Show) got into this fest back in 2018. I didn't even know what the festival was or that it was a big deal, I just went cause it's 2 hours from Montreal and I love highways. Back then I was even in the "International Commissioned" category and I'd come to learn over the next few years, after I'd failed to only be included in the less thrilling, "Canadian Panorama" category, that that was also a pretty cool thing to be a part of. I remember I thought it was funny I got into a commissioned category considering the budget for that video was $500. Haha, good memory. But the big difference with the commissioned category was you get a FREE hotel! Meanwhile the "Canadian Panorama" meant you had to rent a room at the Horse Breath Motel across the river. At the Horse Breath Motel the beige decor runeth deep and the room is but a novelty sized ashtray. And also at the Horse Breath Motel when you're tossing around at 3am on the beige mattress you decide that in the morning you will find a rideshare home and skip the coming days networking opportunities.

Nothing like a highway

A beige night alone at the Horse Breath in 2023

Speaking of networking, I finally kinda learned how to do it! What you gotta do is find drinks and hopefully there are free ones. If there aren't free ones you gotta go to a liquor store and get drinks there and you have to drink them very fast so that you get all jacked up real quick. Then you run into the place with all the people who's names you'd like to know and you go up to them with your hand stretched out and you say "nice____" you have to fill in the blank here and it's usually "nice shirt" but it can also be "nice hat" "nice shoes" or even just "nice to meet you!". Weirdly everyone responds pretty okay to all this stuff cause apparently they're all doing the same embarrassing thing. I used to go to music festivals and the last thing you wanna do there is try and make friends with other bands in a networking style. That's what sell-outs and wannabes do and the only people who do it make very bad music. In animation world it's all good. You can be a big dork cause there's actually almost no "cool" people in this world so being a big dork is just kinda cool! Once I learned this and became more comfortable, I completely let my guard down and went from Dr. Cool to Mr. Moustachio!! The most random guy at the party, for sure. Mr. Moustachio had a cool style voice similar to Mickey Mouse, but higher and more nasaly aka funnier and also he had an imaginary kitten under his trenchoat called Mrs. Dog that he pretended to talk to in barks! People were very impressed! Mr. Moustachio shot lasers out of a hole in his top hat!!!

Mickey Mouse is a famous cartoon I referenced a few seconds ago

So yah I networked like crazy and I met all these people for the first time in my animating "career" and they will NEVER forget my name for sure. The first crew I met were a bunch of NYC animators who turned out to be my best friends for the rest of the visit. They went by the names India, Ash, Kristi and Rome. We met when Rome used the ultimate networking line, "Nice shirt" on me. Later I asked India if I should go up to a man named Chris who everyone was trying to talk to and she said "yes". I was so into the networking I wanted to try for a big dawg! So I went up to the man named Chris, who happened to have made an award winning animation with this guy I kinda know called Cole and I said to Chris "Hey, I know Cole" and he was like OH, cool and then he said, "Let's take a pic together and send it to Cole". That's when I got worried that Cole maybe didn't know who I was really and I was gonna come off as a phony. So the next day I was doing a fancy animators INTERVIEW in front of an audience. I thought there'd be like 5 people but the place was full. There was like 50!! When I saw all the people my stomach turned cause I was hungover and it was like 9am...so yeah, I felt I had to go the bathroom really bad. I thought about running out at one point before my turn cause I was afraid I'd # 2 in my 501's but then they called my name up to talk and so I gave a high-5 to the interviewing guy (who also has the name Chris) and after 3 minutes I didn't have to anymore. Asking Chris asked 6-10 questions and then the audience asked another 3-5. One of the questions came from the star animator I met through NETWORKING the night before, Mr. Chris, and he (just like Asking Chris) asked a question. It was something about my old band "SLAM DUNK" and I said "How the hell you know about my old band??" and he said something like "Cole has told me v good things about you..." So NOW everyone in the audience is like, okay, so the star Mr. Chris is DOWN with this new guy and so now I'm feeling like I'm # 1 and I'd totally forgotten about # 2!!

Looking extremely professional in a very professional setting. To my left is Asking Chris. He also runs the whole fest so when he asks, you answer!

Later, Mr. Chris invited me and my new best friends Ash and Kristi of the city NYC, to a fine HIGH TEA. The HIGH TEA was to be hosted by the mad hatter of the ball, Sir Nigel. Sir Nigel was apparently the director of a one Kung Fu Panda and a Shrek, and also wore many expensive bits of clothing. We couldn't believe we were included in this decadent HIGH TEA taking place at the Fairmont Château Laurier on Parliament Hill! So we went there and behaved very politely, which I find hard to do, but after some time I could tell Sir Nigel and his Off-White hat were not too opposed to some tomfoolery! I impressed the Sir by putting entire tiny cakes in my mouth and I think this made everyone feel more relaxed. At one point, Kristi of NYC was trying to seem sophisticated by putting her pinky in the air while sipping tea but she launched her pinky too early and wound up hitting a very tiny silver milk jug. Milk spilled all over the table and more ice was broken yet. We laughed not too uncomfortably. Sir Nigel told us tales from the great Hollywood sets and said names such as "Leonard Dicaprio" and "Bad Bunny" and "Will Smith". I told him stories about my film-making adventures in Canada's underground indie rock scene. Names such as "Mark Grundy" and "Scott Grundy" came out of my mouth while clotted cream and scones went into his. When the HIGH TEA finished Sir Nigel showed appreciation by giving us stickers of a cartoon version of himself. This helped to never forget his vibe.

A fine HIGH TEA with Mr. Chris, Ash and Kristi of the city NYC, Mr. Moustachio, Sir Nigel and finally a young animator ma'am.

Later that night we were invited to the EXCLUSIVE after-party in the festivals offices! I sang karaoke on the little sound system cause I was really trying to make sure they don't forget me. I think they will remember me as a loud man, which probably won't get me any work in the biz but maybe one of them runs a carnival that needs new carnies? For karaoke I sang How Bizzare, In The Summertime and Rawhide. By the time I did Rawhide my voice was so raw and I simply could not hide it. By 3am I got to bed but was so jacked up from the day. I thought of all my new friends, both real and pretend for the sake of niceties. Some friendships rendered true, others lost in an animatic of what could have been. As I waited the next morning for my rideshare home I reached into my pocket only to find the sticker gifted to me by the mad hatter Sir Nigel. I had a lot of time to think so I wondered if he'd follow me back on social media app. In the coming weeks it became evident that it was all perhaps a dream sequence as no follow followed. But I doth not hold a grudge for a dream is still worth sequencing if not for the dream of life. And with that in mind I recall the festival as fondly as my finest fortunes. For its dangling lanyards, its divine miniature sandwiches, and if just for a moment, its palpable stank of hope wherein a struggle is lifted and replaced with life anew, as Shreks # 2.

Oh yeah, so my video played, people clapped and the theatre was full to the brim! WEEE!!!

The theatre before these people saw mine and a whole bunch of other peoples videos play

HOW IT WAS MADE! HEAVEN 4 REAL VID!

This video had a VERY fast "turnaround". It was filmed July 21-23rd two thousand twenty five and and finished by August 6th of the SAME YEAR. I think this is probably my fav Heaven For Real song and when Mark (from the band) played me it I was like PLEASE let me make the vid! We'd been trying for a vid for a while now but it wasn't working. We tried doing it in the winter but no vid came out and we tried doing it last year too but no vid came out then either. I was starting to think Mark was starting to think I'm a phony who just TALKS about all the ideas and never follows through. Anyways, I guess MONEY TALKS BABY!! especially when u aint had any jobs in a long time so yeah I went kinda crazy doing this one and I just wanted some money so badly so I could continue funding my crazy twisted lifestyle. I sorta stopped doing filmed videos a few years ago after finding it just stressed me out too much having to think of all these moving parts that gotta come 2gether for 1-3 days of filming and it's just so many details and it drove me nuts. The last few videos I filmed (Wood Andrews - Sunsets, Napster Vertigo video...hmm...theres more..) I barely slept the nights before filming. I'd just be thinking so much about HD vs 4K and shutter speeds and angles and driving to pick up gear and if my credit card was gonna work and I'd picture the ppl on set waiting while the tripod legs flung out in all the wrong directions and also everyone looking at me while I thought hard on the spot about what the video even was. By 4am I'd be awake thinking how I'm gonna be half asleep on the set and how I invited all these people to help make the video and I'll never figure out how to defling the tripod legs and I might end up tripping on to the "craft services" table and splashing some tim hortin all over the SONY A7SII or the Blackmagic but then I'd be like well at least I'm not gonna break a RED or an ARRI AMIRA or wahtever SO by 6am I'd be sound asleep and at 9am READY TO FILM!!!!

BUT now I'm back into filming after going to talk to a professional about how 2 get to sleep and it's been more chill! Also Bea (who did the camera in this vid) said she wasn't really into filming anymore lately either for her own 2 stressful reasons but look at us now! Bea and I have different techniques for dealing with set-stress. Hers is to plan everything ahead and and be really meticulous and organized. Mine is to plan nothing so that when it's a total failure I can say to myself (and out loud to others) that I didn't actually plan anything so I'm not surprised it's not any good. Anyways, I think we make a good team despite these opposite approaches.

Bea on set planning and planning with the stars while Scott falls asleep standing up

I found these goggles on the ground a day after I said I needed some goggles. I don't plan I just cross my fingers and hope that it works good enough!

OKAY SO THE VIDEO

The video has a bit of an ambitious concept. I was sitting there in my room for a day or two THINKING and thinking of what the video could be. I actually told Mark (the singer) at first that I wouldn't be making a video with a narrative or maybe even jokes in it. Hah! I knew I wanted spOOOky and it fit well being played with Nosferatu type stuff. The old one not that shit looking new one. So yah, I was sitting there sketching while the song played and I thought hard trying to get my brain to start wandering..I realized I just needed ANY starting off point and I can elaborate on that...I looked at the paintings I'd done on the wall and the third one I looked at was this one of a weird hair salon...

A painting of a weird hair salon

So then I thought HAUNTED HAIR. I told Mark, "I wanna do something with HAUNTED HAIR". I asked around and no one had heard of a video with HAUNTED HAIR before. Not even James and he's seen every bad horror movie ever! Later I found out through Ashley about a Canadian movie called Peanut Butter Hair (not the name) that has a kid with haunted hair but by then it was too late cause she told me that after I finished the video plus whatever, there can be TWO things about haunted hair in the world.

I just search engined and it's called The Peanut Butter Solution...

WHATEVER!

So...a couple days later, the clock is ticking and I'm thinking of this video idea and what could happen and we needed a treatment for the label ASAP. I had like 4 hours left to think and all I had was the hair is haunted thing..THEN I scribble someones head coming off cause the hair cut it off. And then I was like woah, this head could fly around with the hair flapping!! That could work! That was kinda the breakthrough moment concept wise. I realized it reminded me of the movie Hausu. A head flies around in that maybe? Oh well, it's 2025, u know how hard it is to come up with a totally 100 percent original idea?? So yeah, someone gets their head cut off by their own hair (not what happens in Peanut Butter Man or Hausu!) but in a fun way not the other way...

When the head came off on the drawing I was like, "that could work"

The next big part of the vid I guess was that the body of the person runs around without a head. I looked up Halloween costumes and Tara and Bea helped think of how to do that. Tara is handy and she really helped whip this thing together. It's a hat with a coat-hanger on top and then some foam and tape that make the neck and then more coat hangers turned into arms and then wrapped with foam and then some fake hands stuck on the bottom. U get it??

Tara trying on the hat making sure it's perfect before adding hands and things

Fake hands in a bag

A blurry picture of the final product!

Me talking to Allie who is peering through the hole in costume. She's wearing that hat contraption, the arms are fake. U get it?

So that's the costume...what else...

Marlena Moore (the famous singer) came through with tons of costumes and set stuff. Thanks!! We wanted a John Waters vibe for the room and it actually turned out so nice with the colours but the plan was always BLACK AND WHITE so we just had to pretend not to notice how good it would be in colour. It was good practice for the future when we make a longer version!

Matisse the star PRE animation. She is pretending her hands are tied up by the hair!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/7a0eb6_45fa3721bbe4470c8f56303e8375bf33/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Throwing hair in the air that gets blown by a fan for the scene where TARA is cutting hair

We made fake posters for the wall. Here's a funny one I made by altering a real one. Most people like Bank Heist, Miss Guilty and Le Croissant.

For the animation sequence I just had to cram it in real quick that the headless body finds this new head! It was tricky explaining the story in those 20 seconds but I think it's understood. The animation was also originally in colour cause it's just easier to do that than paint black and white. At first Mark said it's gotta be in colour in the video and I didn't totally agree but he hadn't seen it the black and white version yet and then he did and he was like, "NEVERMIND, it has to be black and white!" and I agreed! It was too confusing in colour...like is it connected to the story?? Yah.

Oh yeah IF you're wondering how I did the hair, it's 2D animated too but at a different frame rate than the video footage. BORING STUFF: This is about as technical and smart as I can sound....the video is in 24 FRAMES PERS SECOND, as is standard for "film". If I were to animate 24fps ("animating on ones") then it would take me twice as long to do and also just look too weird and uncanny or something. So the animation is 12fps. Watching it with the filmed video footage at 12fps makes the hair look way better! But the video kinda must be 24fps so the hair has to be the one looking janky and not so smooth. Every frame of animation is doubled. I still like how it looks but I gotta say, watching the animated hair at 12fps is better! I was bummed for 20 minutes after adding the hair to the 24fps track but I got over it. What can yah do! Maybe something idk about?? I dont really know much technical stuff about animating.

The animation was ALSO originally in colour!!!

Okay so huge shout out to MATISSE and TARA for their acting. They both did such a great job and it was fun to do a vid with Tara again! I'll update if there's more I'm forgetting.

You can watch the video in the video section of this website!