Two St. Albert animators have, for the second consecutive year, received the highest recognition by the British Columbia film and television industry.
John Busby and Marc Demers’ production company Blatant Studios won Music Video of the Year at the 2010 Leo Awards held at the Western Bayshore Hotel on Saturday, June 5.
This year’s video win is for Vancouver indie singer Dan Mangan’s Road Regrets. The animators’ talents were first recognized in 2009 when they won for the video Morphine sung by the nationally recognized rockers Tupelo Honey.
Of the awards ceremony, Busby, the animation director says, ”We were up against some pretty good videos, ones I really like. I wasn’t entirely confident we’d win. When we did, it was a relief. Dan was there and it made it that much better. He was such a big part of it.”
Busby first heard Mangan’s music from his new album Nice, Nice, Very Nice while listening to The Peak Radio 100.5 FM as he was riding to work with his girlfriend. Intrigued by Mangan, Busby immediately contacted the singer to develop an animation video, a medium with “limitless possibilities.”
Excited about jumping into risky territory, Mangan gave the animator three songs to choose from: Road Regrets, Sold and The Indie Queens Are Waiting. “I like the constant rhythm of Road Regrets. It slows down in the middle and there’s a change of pace and energy. The music is half the script.”
Busby’s original idea was to have a 1950s car go through life in a series of adventures. “But Dan liked a Ford Model T. He wanted to bring it back further to something with more character.”
As Demers, the video producer, secured financial support from MuchFACT, a funding program set up by MuchMusic, Busby and animator Jessie Davidge burned the midnight oil at Blatant’s Gastown studio for about two months. The duo manipulated a program for this four-minute video using a mix of 2-D and 3-D animation.
The faceless Model T is chased by a train, plunges off a cliff into a river, drives under the sea and eventually is propelled into space. “We deliberately had no face. I wanted to see if I could give it enough character without a face.”
In addition to the Leo Awards, Road Regrets has also been officially selected for the 2010 Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival, Animamundi in São Paulo, Brazil and Rushes Soho in London, England.
“This is definitely one video I will remember, mainly because it’s animated. I had no limit on the imagination and the response has been really good. I hope it’s the first of many.”
