I was really lucky to get the chance to work with NZ musician Jackie Bristow again, developing a new music video for Jackie B and the Mini Band. Jackie works with young kiwi girls through Song Catcher, a program where Jackie and local young artists collaborate to write an album. The track I was asked to work on was a halloween themed song called Spooky Hollywood. Jackie gave me free rein to develop a story and characters that matched the mood and fun of the song.
I started with a simple story pitch where 6 young trick or treaters dress up and go door to door through Hollywood for halloween but it’s revealed that while they are all dressed up as monsters and ghouls one of them isn’t actually in costume. I did all of the storyboard work and after approval moved on to character design. I love halloween and dressing up all six characters was lots of fun. I also really enjoyed coming up with variations on the styles.
I taught myself some simple animation for this project, some frame animation was used to animate the ghost reveal at the end of the clip as well as for the mouths singing along to the music. I had fun using filmic techniques like playing with a lens focus or simple pans and zooms to help with the storytelling and editing to the beat of the song. Working as editor and illustrator I was able to animate on the fly, discovering as I went how to fill in little gaps that needed more movement or even extra shots.
Working in a moody blue palette and having some iconic Hollywood themes to work with, I really enjoyed creating all the backgrounds for Spooky Hollywood. Especially setting the scene with this long pan up Hollywood Boulevard.
The previous music video I made for Jackie B and the Mini Band won me a Stanley Award at the Australian Cartoonists Association annual dinner last year, for which I was very proud. Spooky Hollywood will be entered in the animation category among other works in 2024.
To see Spooky Hollywood and hear the Mini Band in full spooky chorus, click the link below. give us a like on Youtube as well why not.
EDMUND IFFLAND 