Cheatahs - Warrior

Directed by Alex Turvey
http://www.alexturvey.com
http://alexanderturvey.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/AlexTurvey

It was over mushrooms on toast that Nathan and I decided to recreate his childhood portfolio of animal illustrations on a mammoth scale. Originally rendered in pencil under the guidance of a trailer-park drawing class in Edmonton, Canada, when Nathan was just seven years old, the repertoire of very strange-looking owls, lions, lynxes, polar bears and monkeys were painstakingly copied from wildlife photographs. In honour of such young talent, we decided to create Nathan's Place, a huge 2D landscape of his childhood animals, and an homage to Canadian children's TV host, Fred Penner (who climbed through logs into magical worlds, and had an enviable collection of wooly jumpers).

The making process took two weeks of solid graft. We rigged up a projector so that Nathan could redraw his illustrations with paint marker and charcoal. Simultaneously, hugely-talented propmakers Mark Conell and Omar Lado of http://wearemade.org.uk moved their tools and materials into my flat where they worked day and night, sawing, sanding and drilling until the set was complete—resembling a pop-up book where each animal had a hand-operated, movable function, from bobbing heads to roving eyes.

After a sweltering two-day shoot smack bang in the middle of the July heat wave, followed by a week of solid animation, I then took the footage to Paris in order to grade the final edit with the wonderful people at La Pac. All in all, the project has been a labour of love for everyone involved, the only problem now being, what to do with the eight-foot owl in my living room and the lion at the end of my bed.

If your ears want more Cheatahs, vist here myspace.com/cheatahssuck

CREDITS

Director / Producer ♥ Alex Turvey
DOP ♥ Andrew Farrar
Set Design / Art Department ♥ MADE
Illustration ♥ Nathan Hewitt
Art Direction ♥ Alex Turvey
Edit / Animation ♥ Alex Turvey
Grade / Flame ♥ La Pac
Stylist ♥ Laura Clayton
Production Assistants ♥ Nathan Jenkins / Oliver Page
Puppeteers ♥ Lauren Mortimer / Mathy Tremewan / Elly Shepard / Nick Scott / Alex Lewis
Label ♥ Young & Lost Club

Category:

Music

Tags:

• cheatahs
• alex turvey
• young and lost club
• animals
• trees
• puppets
• owl polar bear
• lynx
• rabbit
• illustration
• fire
• animation
• made
• mark conell
• omar lado
• laura clayton
• forest
• bush
• log
• fred Penner
• fred penners place
• monkey
• jungle
• nathan ernest hewitt
• stop frame
• lions
• lion
• eyes
• eye
• magical
• dreamy
• shoe gaze
• wavves
• metallica
• little death
• warrior
• minotaur
• deer hunter
• atlas sound
• lo fi
• pixies
• jesus and mary chain

[steadycam1969]

Yes I'm impressed with this video. Great music and vocals. I love the theme and the video production. In the side notes it sounds like you bullt huge props for the background so I am not sure if you used a green screen FX also. At any rate very professional video. Cheers!

[AWJPT]

Thanks! Have you watched the making of? cetainly no green screen... blood sweat and tears!

Glad you like

x

[eilisp101]

still watching it whoooo!

[psgsummers]

This is such a sweet video. Love that jumper. I am making one for myself!

[LBlueUntitled]

J'aime!

Just wonderful.

[steadycam1969]

I just watched it. Did I tell you I love documentary video ( especially "behind the scenes" or "the making of...). Your making of was excellent. Speedy up the video makes it fit the music and keeps things moving. Like a music documentary. Awesome work. Cheers.

[codycrossman]

Definitely a cool video. Amazing job with the artwork. Great song, too.

[stripestwice]

Such a beautiful video, I adore your work x