Moi ft. K2 | Ar Don Go
Sierra Leonean technologist teams with an American sculptor to create Gif inspired stop-motion Afrobeat music video.
“I have loved this piece because of what it represents to how I imagine the world to be—a collaborative ecosystem with respect for everyone’s culture. It’s about youth, vibrant colours, taking action, online/digital culture, and inclusiveness.”
— Moinina David Sengeh
The video was produced and directed by Joey Foster Ellis (an American living in between Mexico, Qatar, India, Nepal, and China). Technical help in the post-editing process was provided by Aroon Prajapati and Dipesh Maharjan, two digital artists based in Kathmandu: Aroon is a founding member of CatManDew LABS.
The project was funded, in part, by grants from the Council for the Arts at MIT. An abridged 1-minute version was first premiered at the 2015 TED Fellows retreat in Monterrey, California.
“Ping pong balls adrift in a sea of pink kinetic sand, crumpled pages of Sanskrit, Jesus eating popcorn, and Hulk Hogan playing guitar. A laughing Ryan Gosling, a slice of pizza, and a grandmother grooving in her kitchen. This is the wild, dancing world of “Ar Don Go,” a music video crafted by Joey Foster Ellis for Sierra Leonean musician Moinina Sengeh. It’s a stop-motion extravaganza made over the course of three months in three different locations.”
— Adobe
Read “Around the World in a Music Video” by Dustin Driver on Adobe Creative Cloud
The article talks about how Ellis is a filmmaker who creates stop-motion films with a unique style and that this was CatManDew LABS's founding video. He uses handmade art, vintage photographs, and curios collected from around the world to create films that pulse with diverse cultural and artistic influences.
Ellis has a sculptural approach to his filmmaking, which involves creating each scene one at a time and layering multiple shots together. He uses traditional stop-motion techniques by snapping one shot at a time and employs natural light when possible. He imports photos from each day's shoot into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and labels them as he goes. Every frame in his films contains multiple shots layered together, so Ellis shoots several sets for each one.
In addition to stop-motion techniques, Ellis also incorporates animated Gifs into his films. He uses high-quality source material when possible and remakes the Gifs from high-definition video footage. He then uses Adobe Photoshop to erase distracting backgrounds from those Gifs, one frame at a time. Ellis merges everything - Gif frames, photos, and scans - into massive Photoshop files, many with hundreds of layers. He erases and adjusts layers before fusing them into the final frames. Those final frames for each scene are dumped into a document, put in order, timed using Photoshop's Timeline window, and exported as movie files.
"Ar Don Go" is a music video that highlights themes of progress, upward mobility, youthfulness, and global travel. Ellis created the video's storyboards while in Qatar, Turkey, Mexico, and India and spent a lot of time reflecting on the music's meaning to him. As a result, everything in the video has a personal and literal interpretation. He relates to these themes as a self-proclaimed "professional foreigner."
Ellis synced the footage with the music in After Effects and tried to stick to a standard 24 frames per second, but in some instances, he was forced to either stretch or compress the footage to match the music. This gives his videos a unique syncopated feel.
For Ellis, this work feels perfect as he can make it anywhere, and it takes everything he's learned. Whether it's sculpture, music, or acting, it all comes together in his stop-motion films.
Overall, Joey Foster Ellis is a talented filmmaker who uses a blend of traditional stop-motion techniques and new technologies to create visually stunning and unique films. His personal interpretation of themes and global influences make his films even more captivating.
In other news:
Agyeman-Fisher, Abena. "YACE Honoree David Sengeh Releases Music Video for ‘Ar Don Go’." Face2Face Africa, 25 Jan. 2016
Mufson, Beckett. "Watch a Surreal Rap Video from Sierra Leone: When two TED fellows get together, they can make something truly different." Vice, 22 Jan. 2016
Eng, Karen. "Listen to a new afrobeat anthem for the 21st-century nomad." TED Fellows Blog, 21 Jan. 2016
Artists who worked on this video:
Joey Foster Ellis
Dipesh Maharjan
If you want to follow more of my work check out my personal blog at www.thepurpledurian.com
