Base14

So last Tuesday night I suddenly realized I had two days left to produce my experimental “under the camera” assignment for ANIM 705 – Animation Aesthetics and Practice. When the project was assigned over a month ago, I knew I wanted my medium to be stop motion with Lego bricks, but procrastinated for weeks on just how I would apply it.

Finally, in a flurry of indecision, I settled on a narrative piece structured around one of my favorite songs from musician and good friend of Base14, Rick DeSutter. Rick has been a key player in all of our recent short films, providing original music for Ara, Brian Paulson and Duck ♥ Teslacoil. The song I chose was “Shasta Creme Song,” not only for its wit but also its extremely short run time – only a little more than a minute. I set up a rostrum camera and lighting system Tuesday night and started animating bright and early Wednesday morning. By 11:59pm Wednesday, I had finished all animation and had the whole video wrapped up before class Thursday morning. Not bad!

The video was uploaded to YouTube Friday and has already garnered an impressive number of hits. It may not be perfect, but it’s spontaneous and fun, which makes it charming in a crude sort of way. Anywho, have yourself a watch and enjoy!

This announcement is coming out a bit late, but we wanted to spotlight our good friends over at Deny Conformity and The Crazy Monkeys, who have been cooking up some interesting music lately. This “electro-house sensation,” credited to an alternate identity called “Smac,” comes in the form of a free-to-download LP that you can snag right here. I’m told that the sound clips in this music were originally recorded for the Peabo movie, and somehow drove the album’s creation. If you survive this record, you might also like Smac’s earlier EP. And if that’s still not enough, there might be more on the way.

Alysha here again, and today I’m showcasing a new, experimental accessories collection from Base14. It features deerskin lace with hand rustication combined with silk ribbon and sterling silver. It is a vintage inspired story of small treasures. My goal was to experiment with the play between the matte and shiny materials. As always, construction and finishing is done by hand. Ordering information available upon request, just send me an email.

It is the distant future. The year 2000… Things are very different since the robotic uprising of the mid-nineties…
– Flight of the Conchords

Halloween is almost here, folks. And here at Base14 we couldn’t help but salute the much-loved HBO comedy show, Flight of the Conchords. If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last two years, you’ll know that FotC made robots cool again with their aptly titled song and music video: Robots. So of course, just as many other FotC fans are doing this season, I had to make my own Robo-Boogie Costume. The best part is: I’ve documented the entire process below, so everyone at home can follow along!

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In celebration of the upcoming release of Ara on DVD and Blu-Ray, we present to you the Ara music video “This Thing Won’t Render – The Mercy Mix.” It’s a crazy techno mix of lines from the movie arranged by none other than our own producer Shauvon McGill, and “skillfully” edited by yours truly. I did the whole thing in about 24 hours, and just tried to be absolutely as wacky as I could. This time I’m trying the YouTube embed, but if I don’t like it, I’ll get back to my custom video embedding.

This video along with many more extra-special features will be on the upcoming Ara DVD!