"Southern Futures"

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Two extremely talented friends of mine, Scott Standley and Danny Yirgou, introduced me to the concept album they're working on for their band - Jungles. While listening to the album on repeat, I closed my eyes and kept drifting off into one particular song.
The darkness dimly revealed a distorted saloon in a shady reality. A dreamy showdown? A lanky mechanical character?
Little did I know the song was appropriately titled “Southern Futures.” Ah ha! There was obviously a story begging to be illustrated by this song, and there was no better way to represent my dream-like vision than stop-motion.

A month prior to discovering the project, I was fortunate enough to catch Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas set at the McNay art gallery in San Antonio, Texas. I was fascinated at the tangibility of such a big screen story. While observing as much as I could about the materials and layout of Jack Skellington’s study, and the dolls firmly mounted, I couldn’t help but think about how easy it would be to make a similar set!

So, inspired by a bare-boned song and a dream to re-create and work with a professional set, I constructed the scene out of Styrofoam, popsicle sticks, balsa wood, plaster, and hot glue. Then, I had a blast airbrushing the black and white gradients to give it that eerie feel of blurred boundaries.

The characters were sculpted using China air-dry clay and wires. The lead character’s Clint Eastwood-ish pancho is made out of fine copper mesh.

I tried to push the medium every which way by adding little items I’ve collected and animating them in ways they wouldn’t normally be seen. A green screen was also added to give me flexibility during post production to add in more organic movements.

The idea and process, I’ve come to realize, has never been about illustrating this eerie song, but to re-create the initial feeling of chills and surrealism I experienced first listening to it while in a daze.
I like to think any deeper meanings weaved into the video are the product of my subconscious while animating this (as always, it seems) in a delirious state.

Hope you enjoy!