Synopsis

Set within the context of a glossy furniture catalog, a trio of musicians go on a bloody rampage. Guaranteed to discourage your next spending spree at the mall. Shot in our studios in Seattle, New York City, and Helsinki.

Background

At the time I was looking to really learn After Effects and improve my motion graphics skills - and decided to blend the films Buena Vista Social Club (the title, animated Cubans) with Fight Club (rampant consumerism, blood on lens, rip off Starbucks logo).

Production

Thanks to the beauty of the Internet, it was in fact shot in the aforementioned cities.

Jay - who plays the protagonist - had just left Seattle for Finland. Since we were filming this entirely with digital still cameras and compositing the results in Photoshop and After Effects, we arranged for Jay to simply email us dozens of photos of himself in various poses.

Lisa posed in her finished kitchen; Damien took some time out from building his kitchen for some posing amidst the particle board; Kirk and Jill took their clothes off; Christopher did too and posed with his table saw; Jason and Lisa kept theirs on from New York City; Patrick wrote the text.

These digital photos and verbiage were then assembled into a faux-Ikea-esque catalog that was created entirely within After Effects.

The font? Futura, of course.

The flick was actually finished on the last day of 1999 - about ten weeks after coming up with the concept, but rendering - and a small last-minute tweak - lasted overnight much to the delight of the Y2K bug.

I guess because of it's short-and-to-the-point concept, it's an easy, fun film to program into festivals and thanks to Joel has been in quite a few - including one at Copia for crying out loud.