Anthony Gaddis | News
Tough Times Call for Good Feels
November 05, 2021My long-time partner in all-things-animation, Jon Lutjens, was interviewed by Maxon, the parent company of 3D softwear maker Cinema 4D. He spoke with Meleah Maynard about our newest video series and creative endeavor, GOOD TRIP - and a bit about our creative process at large.
“Anthony and I have a process that we’ve developed over many years and, in many ways, it’s unspoken. Working with him entails doing tons of research and development until we see something that is delightful and original. It’s a much more experimental process than most of the collaborative work I do. It’s more akin to the process of painting than the traditionally mapped-out methodology of production.”
Photo from the article of my early sketch for the GOOD TRIP Ep. 1 video compositionSee the entire article here: https://mograph.com/2021/09/toughtimescallforgoodfeels/
© AnthonyGaddis.com
Mac Miller Good News Reaction Videos
Still from Jon Denton’s Good News Reaction videoOctober 09, 2021
The directing of Mac Miller’s Good News music & tribute video was a rollercoaster ride of emotion from concept to finish. Upon its release, simply reading the user comments beneath the video on YouTube was enough to get the waterworks flowing again. Then, over the course of the following weeks and months, numerous reaction videos were released, prompting even more emotion. If you are unfamiliar with reaction videos, they are typically recordings of fans and critics watching videos for the first time, while recording their initial reactions. I’ve counted over 60 of them for Good News to date, and am sure there are more out there. My co-director on the project, Eric Tilford at Language.la compiled this montage of moments from a number of them here.
See the full-length Good News video here.
© AnthonyGaddis.com
Mac Miller “Diver” Tattoos
March 12, 2021Sometime in 2018 I worked on a music video for Mac Miller’s Come Back to Earth. This was prior to his passing.
“What’s been most surprising about this entire experience is the numerous amount of fans that have tattood the character, in all sorts of manifestations, onto themselves”
The story for the video goes something like this: A creative partner of 20+ years, Eric Tilford (who I eventually co-directed the Good News music & tribute video with), showed Mac a video we made some years back. The video showcased a “diver” character falling/floating past all kinds of symbolic objects deep in the ocean. It was a reflective and medatative experience which we used to call an “ambient” video back in the mid 00’s. Mac was immediately drawn to the central character - a somewhat retro-future deep sea diver, in a stout, hard shell of a suit, with light emitting from its eyes. The character was designed by prolific designer/illustrator Todd Hippensteel, who was part of our group of creatives at the time and a good friend to this day. Eric redesigned and directed this completely new version of the experience for Mac. I offered art-direction and production support, and it was animated by Tim Clapham at Luxx, an animation studio based in Sydney, Australia. You can see the full-length music video on YouTube here.
Eventually Mac wanted a version of the character as his avatar, which is used across his social media to this day. I worked with Hippensteel to develop it into a one-color graphic. What’s been most surprising about this entire experience is the numerous amount of fans that have tattood the character, in all sorts of manifestations, onto themselves - a testimant to Mac’s seminal influence upon, and lasting importance to, his listeners. A small selection of them is laid out in the above collage.
© AnthonyGaddis.com
See Inside J-Pop Singer Hikaru Utada’s London Home in Intimate New ‘Time’ Video - Billboard
July 28, 2020
J-pop artist Hikaru Utada premiered her intimate new video for "Time" on her official YouTube channel Tuesday (July 28).
“The project took shape remotely on a global scale: shot in London and produced in Los Angeles for a label based in Japan.”
J-pop artist Hikaru Utada premiered her new video for “Time” on her official YouTube channel Tuesday (July 28). Anthony Gaddis and Eric Tilford — the team responsible for Mac Miller‘s “Good News” and “Everybody” videos, among others — shot “Time” in Utada’s London home during the COVID-19 lockdown with a selected crew, who all tested negative before the shoot with measures in place to ensure everyone’s safety. The project took shape remotely on a global scale: shot in London and produced in Los Angeles for a label based in Japan. -Billboard
See the music video here
© AnthonyGaddis.com
Anthony Gaddis x We Transfer x Adobe Stock
Illustration by Ariel Davis for the Adobe Stock Short Film FestJuly 22, 2020
“We spoke to 13 filmmakers from around the world who decided to take a moment of global disruption, turn it upside down, and shake it to see what might fall out of its pockets. Duly inspired, they each made a short film which speaks to the power of creativity to rewrite the narrative in the face of challenging times. As for the future of creativity? It will never be the same – and that has never seemed so exciting.”
Some months into the global Covid-19 pandemic, I was approached by Adobe to participate in their first-ever Adobe Stock Short Film Festival, which was put on in conjuction with the file-transfer service We Transfer. Adobe offered full and free access to their stock libraries, as well as sound effects and music from their partner company, Epidemic Sound. As I had a vision for, and always wanted to make an animated video using nothing but green-screened stock video elements, I jumped at the opportunity. At that time, being completely locked inside for a few months, I had been interested in the idea of whether it was possible to make a video experience that would induce a mellowing, trance-like state - via color, movement and sound. I was thankfully able to consign my long-time partner in animation, Jon Lutjens, to the project.
“It was also an exercise in flow state, Anthony says. In lockdown, he found he could experience whole days at a time without any “smash cuts,” or interruptions to the flow of his process.”
Wilding is a hypnotic, vivid whirlpool of a film. Check out Wilding, here.
© AnthonyGaddis.com