GEORGE MICHAEL: ‘DECEMBER SONG’

GEORGE MICHAEL
‘DECEMBER SONG’

ISLAND RECORDS

If someone had told us when we started, that our first major job would be commissioned by George Michael, we would have laughed in their faces!! Well, we were invited to pitch on a Christmas song for a “very big” “anonymous” artist – the brief was to create a timeless Christmas story like Raymond Briggs’s ‘Snowman’. After some tweaks to our original treatment and style frames, we were given the job. To present our work, we were invited round to George’s house, which was slightly surreal, to say the least. All George’s comments were really useful and overall he was thrilled with our work, a pleasant experience all round. A year later George came back and asked us to re-create the main characters in 3D, as originally they’d been 2d. You can see some character studies further down the page, which gives a sense of the progression…

CREDITS

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: M-I-E
3D ANIMATION: Matthew Gibson, Mak Knighton, Emanuele Bignone, Paul Kavanagh, John Keates
2D ANIMATION: Paul Simon, Connor Ryan, Sarah Gordon
COMPOSITING: Tom Geraedts, Eduarda Lima

AWARDS

NOMINATED BEST MUSIC VIDEO:
Annecy International Film Festival

OFFICIAL SELECTION 2010/2011:
British Animation Awards
Corfu Animation Festival
Supertoon Animation Festival

STYLEFRAMES

The original story was about a boy and his missing, solider father. George wanted us to make it more personal, about him and his mother. The boy entering the magical world was inspired by an autumnal evening walk in New York, from central park to Times Square – like moving from a dark forrest to an illuminated, world of light

PROCESS