Wow, 2011 was the year of the lyric video, so when independent label Morse Code Management asked me to make one for up and coming artists East Arbor 19, I jumped at the chance. The initial idea was simple, incorporate an instrument line up refelecting the band members, add some elements from the song and blow them all up.

I really liked the visual treatment I had started to develop on a previous experimental project The letter ‘R’, so I decided to evolve that further incorporating lyrics. The approach of restricting the colours to 2 + black & white, and adopting a print makers look is an interesting and challenge self constraint. Especially in the world of motion graphics in the digital age where the whole spectrum is a mouse click away. I think the results benefited from this approach and the whole piece has a Mod movement, punk aesthetic  which is in keeping with the bands sensibilities.

The typography is (and should be seen as) a clear homage to the godfather; Saul Bass… and especially the elegant yet simple hand drawn lettering on Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. In fact argueably a direct lift from that work.

One notable similarity and an unintentional one is with the Never Mind the Buzzcocks title sequence. Half way through the project and after a lot of 3D modelling and dynamics trial and error, a friend nonchalantly mentioned the similarity. Having not seen the work before I quickly checked YouTube and was mortified at the similarity. I think some of the models where even the same ones from the same source. I don’t no whether you could call it a Zeitgeist, just a really obvious idea, or maybe I had seen the work before… forgot it… then thought of it again, but it I think the two although similar are distinctly different enough to feel like separate works.

watch East Arbor 19 – Ooh La La

Another month another lyric video for Warner Music, this time the 21st centuries answer to Salt & Pepper gutter mouthed East London heroines Stooshe.

It was immediately obvious I needed help doing this one, as the label and myself wanted graffiti to be centre stage of the piece. It was a no-brainer to get the talented Mr Tom Oswald on the phone and co-direct it with me. We’d worked together before and he’s a great graffiti writer and a good friend. We wanted to hold no punches and tell the filthy dark ghetto tale in a bright poppy way.

The style of the video had to be vivid, happy graffiti/ street graphics, a cute but streetkid-savvy cartoon. A mixture of type animated in time with bespoke illustrations, highlighting ideas within the track. The typography has a different personality corresponding to each girl of Stooshe, with a different individual hero text rendered in a 90’s graffiti black book style.

What we ended up with was a riot of fun and funk illustrating a sad sorry tale in a scandalous and sassy way. A road-smart, no compromise depiction of a tale, bursting with style, attitude and energy, at once comical and poignant.

watch Betty Woz Gone (official lyric video)

A while back I had an idea for a video which involved someone cutting out shapes which come to life to dance in the space around them. I mentioned this to label guy Mark Hadfield whilst slightly inebriated at a gig and he loved it. He suggested I tweak the idea for an artist on their new label One More Tune, and a commission was commenced.

Thinking about the idea some more it was apparent I needed help, so who else than uber-cool fashion photography mogul Sarah Cresswell to co-direct with me. We set off tweaking the concept and came up with the idea of a totalitarian institution, within which a boy and girl do battle via creative means across a stark room. The boy would be cutting shapes, and the girl drawing them… the two forces would collide in the centre of the room blurring the boundaries between aggression and courtship.

I’m not sure we achieved quite those ambitious heights, but it was a laugh trying.

watch Phantom :

credits
Director / Edit / Animation / Post – Jess Gorick
Director / Director of Photography – Sarah Cresswell
Camera Assistant / Edit – Jim Holroyde
Boy – George @ Models 1
Girl – Lisa @ Union Models
Hair & Make Up – Cheryl Corea
Location – The Russian Club

Warner Music asked me to treat on a music video for dance/dubstep act DEVolution.  I saw it as a fantastic opportunity to work with the incredibly talented photographer Sarah Cresswell. We henceforth joined forces and decided to co-direct the vid together. The brief was simple, Hot girl dancing to the track… with as much body popping as possible. This was no small ask as we soon found out super hot body poppers don’t grow on trees.

The idea was simple, we wanted the video to have a viral feel to it, and so many of the vids on Youtube consist of guys & girls dancing along to their favorite track in their bedrooms. We liked the idea and wanted to take it one step further, our heroine was dumping her boyfriend over video chat. She would then start dancing along to the track to show her recent x what he was missing. When the base kicks in we wanted to discard the bedroom homemade vibe and take the video in stages, eventually reaching a climax of lasers, brute lighting, wind machines, smoke & fog and confetti all kicking off and over the top. The overall sense that he had really f**ked up in letting her go, sexy but empowering at the same time.

watch DEVolution : Good Love

credits
Label Exec - Anton Partridge & Sam Stubbings

Label Producer – Natalie Arnett
Director – Jess Gorick
Director / Directory of Photography – Sarah Cresswell
Producers – Sarah Cresswell / Jess Gorick

Girl – Dominika Van Santan @ Rudeye
Boyfriend – 
Dominic Nutt @ Models 1
Choreography – Rie @ Rudeye
1st Camera – James Holroyde

2nd Camera - Simon Kennedy
Camera Assist – Chloe Coates
Spark / Gaffer – Rob Wheeldon
Set Design – James Askham

Hair & Makeup – Louis Byrne / Jaimee Thomas @ Frank
Stylist - Natasha Wray

Runners – Katherine Oliver / Toby Warren
Studio – The Worx
Editor – James Holroyde

Post – graphic onions

Another chance arose to work with Anthony Dickenson on a Nike commercial. This time it was Barcelona FC vs Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League final. It doesn’t get more A-list in football than this. The client was Wieden & Kennedy, the production company Pulse films, animation & graphics by myself with grade, compositing and post-production at Rushes.

I was asked to design and create a specific tearing mechanic to ‘rip’ from one player to another, team to team as they uttered the words from a gladiatorial like mantra. To get the voices right with the 2 language subtitles and voices took some re-editing but eventually we hit on the right tone and legibility. The tearing mechanism was hand created with a sort of tear rig assembled that could travel from any A to any B on screen, with any width and have the same tears as the print campaign. This enabled me create all sorts of wipes and moves that fitted nicely with the look of individual players and work the pace of the film, gradually building up in momentum until the final crescendo… “Glory is Ours”

watch Nike : Glory is Ours :

Credits:
Agency: W+K London
Creative Directors: Darren Wright/Stuart Harkness
Designer: Guy Featherstone
Creative team: Darren Wright/Scott Dungate
Agency producer: Anna Smith
Strategists: Graeme Douglas and Oscar Powell
Account team: Ryan Fisher and Alex Rogers
Director: Anthony Dickenson
Producer: Mark Harbour
Production company: Pulse Films
Editing: Chris Roebuck @ Speade
Post: Motion Designer- Jess Gorick @ Graphic Onions
Post: Rushes – Martin Goodwin
Sound: Aaron @ Wave
Music: Hear No Evil

Another job for the heads at Warner Music Entertainment to create ten x 40sec track promo’s from The Wombats new album. The brief was a toughy, as I only had the artwork to work from (i.e. one photograph), and x10 animations to turn in.

It was obvious from the artwork that the imagery touched on subjects like psychology, the mind, the wilderness, friendship, loneliness. With much deliberation on how to approach the task in hand, I decided that creating additional assets, or new material might steer the vibe too much in the direction of my interpretation, and ultimately be wrong. So with this in mind I set up creating the Ecsher-esqe infinite mirror effect, programmed to cut with the BPM of the track. Another small but subtle addition was the 3d model / animation of a seagull used as a sprite in a particle setup to create a flock of seagulls. Maybe a little over egging the pudding.

watch 08 Walking Disasters :

Teachers TV approached me to get involved early on with launching a channel in the United States. They were halfway through a re-brand design journey with Method in San Fransisco, and needed some 2 idents to help promote themselves in the US.

We decided to realise 2 ideas from the branding process. Idea one was the culmination of the letters Tch from Teachers Channel prominent in the logo type. Idea two was based around the colour palette Method had produced to represent the different divisions of the channel. This was my favourite approach as it enabled to tell the story of learning through a book graphic, and expand on the speech bubble.

watch 5 sec Ident One :

watch 5 sec Ident Two :

Sound design was done by ‘Black Magic’ Steve and adds a surreal modern twist to the idents.

Another Youtube album promo for Warner Music. This time to promote Hugh Laurie’s  forthcoming album with a simple edit from a studio session in New Orleans. The rushes were pretty dark so I had to emphasize the personal nature of the sessions, and bluesy music. A bit of motion graphics and the jobs done.

Watch Album promo for You Don’t Know My Mind :

A Quick Ident for record Label One More Tune, part of Warner Music Entertainment.

As OMT are a dance label, I saw the perfect opportunity to get the glows and flares out. It’s not often I get the chance and had real fun getting this turned around so quickly.

Watch One More Tune ident :

YouTube Lyric musc video for Ceelo Green‘s latest release ‘It’s OK‘

Of the back of the sensational ‘Fuck You’ lyric video, Warner Music Entertainment commissioned me to produce a lyric video. The turn around was very very tight and I ended up doing a marathon 72 hour stint over a weekend. The first video was made by the mighty Terry Scruby, and the brief was an evolution of his. It’s full of mistakes and a few spelling errors (thanks to the comments on You Tube), but I’m really proud of the final piece, especially considering the time frame and quick turn around.

Watch It’s OK :