Sour Skittles: Eyebrows

New spot up today!



This is a spec commercial for Sour Skittles directed by John Sumner. John's not only a director, but he's the talented puppet builder who's built some amazing stuff for my animated spots Heart Attack, Fridge Tales, Candy Box, and PB&J.


As an added bonus, here are John's storyboards in animatic form:


And here's a spontaneous behind-the-scenes video of John and me breaking down the set:



Here are the credits for the spot:

Director: John Sumner
Animator: Pete Levin
Written by: Neil Bruce
Puppet Fabricator: John Sumner
Set Construction: John Sumner, Pete Levin
Storyboard Artist: John Sumner
Director of Photography: John Harvatine IV
Editor: Pete Levin
Interns: Linnea Hoover, Kevin Lee, Kristina Mickahail, Kelsey Stillmaker
Visual Effects Artists: Brent Johnson, Takashi Takeoka
Announcer: Evan McNamara
Sound Recordist: Michael Stellman

Special thanks to Buddy System Studios for the use of their space, equipment, snacks, and general support!

Junko's Shamisen Trailer

Here is the trailer for Junko's Shamisen, a short film where I animated a little girl's spirit animal, a fox. (Not too much of my animation in the trailer, but it's not like they showed the shark in the Jaws trailer either.) The fox puppet was constructed by Greg Sesma from a real fox skin with a wire armature underneath. And yes, it was incredibly creepy to animate something that had once been naturally animated.

Keep an eye out for the eye-catching and innovative Junko's Shamisen at your local film festival! Congratulations to Sol Friedman who's been working on his labor of love for over a year now.