Channel Frederator Blog

If you haven’t flipped out over Greg Condon’s “Here Come The Guns” now’s a good time. Get it - “flipped out”? You’ve watched the vid right? So you get why that’s funny, right? Oh, read the interview already.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Greg Condon: I did major in animation at an art school and had a few great teachers, but my real education was making stop motion movies with my friend Lawrence in high school. Making those movies for fun, I developed working styles and routines I still use on projects today.

CF: How long did it take to film “Here Come the Guns”?

GC: It took between 2 and 3 months to finish. The band, Choo Choo La Rouge, was very active (and helpful) in the look of the video and there was a lot of back and forth till we got something we were all happy with. Of course we all [Read more…]

Michael Stevenson is a super talented award winning animator and pigeon expert. Half of that is a lie. Read his interview and figure out which half.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Michael Stevenson: I did a couple years of animation at San Francisco State University. When I was shopping for colleges I discovered that SF State contained this hidden gem, a two-year animation emphasis that could piggyback on a Cinema degree. Although it was a small and woefully neglected program, our teachers were phenomenal and we were given boatloads of freedom to experiment and learn. I spent one year taking 2D and computer animation classes, and another year teaching myself stop motion and making my film.

CF: What are your sources of inspiration?

MS: Real life events are by far the best source of inspiration. Most of my work reflects the structure of a fish story - it starts off as experientially genuine, and [Read more…]

Photographer and filmmaker Christophe Collette’s “Ce Soir” is a haunting stop motion music vid for the Montreal band Monogrenade.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation/film?

Christophe Collette: I did not study animation or film, I studied photography for a bit at Concordia University, in Montreal and at the National School of Photography in Arles, France.

CF: What are your sources of inspiration?

CC: Contemporary photography, films, books, the internet, travelling, friends.

CF: What was the most difficult part of making “Ce Soir”?

CC: Probably finding the right location… Our art budget was really limited, we really needed a fantastic location to make this work… I looked for this house for two weeks, driving the countryside endlessly…

CF: Are you working on anything new you can tell us about?

CC: I DPed a fantastic promo for Most Serene Republic with director and friend Ben Steiger Levine. You should keep an eye out for it, I think it will be amazing.

Thanks for the [Read more…]

This week’s episode is the best episode of all the episodes. I mean, I guess until the next episode, but for now, it’s probably the best. We’ve got three films that are stop-motionlicious (who isn’t a sucker for some super sweet stop-mo?) plus we want to hear about your favorite Hayao Miyazaki film, in honor of his new feature “Ponyo“.

Watch, love, and tell us what you think!

“Ce Soir” by Monogrenade, submitted by Sach Baylin-Stern - Director Christophe Collette’s creative stop motion music video.

“Pigeon Pilfer”, submitted by Michael Stevenson - Pigeons. They bug you for food, doodie on your car - now they want your money.

“Here Come the Guns” by Choo Choo La Rouge, submitted by Greg Condon - Cool stop motion music video by way of flip bookery. And also, there are guns.

WARNING: Channel Frederator is rated EXPLICIT. Man is it *bleepin’* hot out or what?! Oops. Sorry. Some content on CF is pretty [Read more…]