Sonic Animation

While the French New Wave introduced the animation format as an established genre in music-video making, many animated videos have recently been emerging from inside and outside the UK. A number of designers and film-makers are creating very interesting music videos by using digital technologies in a distinctive and innovative way. They successfully manage to break free of the bare fascination with digital technology and the tools they use, and shift their focus from technology to a more narrative interest. The result is a selection of charming and engaging animated music videos which do not neglect the fundamental prerequisites of conceptual structure, narrative play and dynamic progression. At the same time, they maintain the relationship between the music and the images at a very high level; the two elements, music and images, are kept in a perfect balance: neither of these two results to be predominant on the other; as in the case of Radiohead’s Pyramid Song animated by Shynola. From the collage-like style of veteran Run Wrake, Tim Hope and Jean-Luc Chansay, that make use of convergent media and technologies (analogue and digital), to the graphic/digital oriented one by young designers’ collective Shynola and Belzebu, and ultimately to the hybrid style used for Royksopp videos, this programme provides an insight into the wide variety of new opportunities offered by animation. Credits Director: artist, song, (supplied by) Run Wrake: Spacer, The Beamer (Bermuda Shorts),Stereo MC’s, We Belong to This World Together (Bermuda Shorts); Tim Hope: Coldplay, Don’t Panic (EMI/Parlophone), Coldplay, Trouble (EMI/Parlophone), King Biscuit Time, I Walk the Earth (EMI/Parlophone); Belzebu: Lowgold, Mercury (Bermuda Shorts) ,Gintare, Transnavigation (EMI/Parlophone); Jean-Luc Chansay: Plaid, Eyen (Warp Records); Shynola: Radiohead, Pyramid Song (EMI/Parlophone), Quannum, I Changed my Mind (Oil Factory), U.N.K.L.E., Gun’s Blazing (Oil Factory); Sam Arthur: Royksopp, Poor Leno (Labels/Virgin), Royksopp, Eple (Labels/Virgin), Divya Srinivasan, Everything Hits at Once ( ); Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Farris: KoRn, Freak on a Leash (Bob Industries, Epic); Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Farris: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Califirnication (Bob Industries, Epic); Richard Kenworthy (Shynola): The Littlest Robo (Oil Factory)