June 2009
Innovative motion design and production company, Monkeyhead, has unveild ‘Monkey Island,’ an original animated short created specifically to introduce the company's Summer 2009 Reel.
In the humorous original ‘Monkey Island’ short, which was created entirely in-house at Monkeyhead under the guidance of founder and creative director Josh Sahley, a fire-dancing tribal monkey tries to impress his elders by lighting a beach fire. Music and sound design for the project are courtesy of Eric Stolz of LA-based Oddio.
"Normally we just put a montage together showing the work we've done and that's it," Sahley began.
"This year, we took some time to come up with a story and bookend our reel with a hilarious little character animation that really shows another side to us.
"I've always been a huge fan of animated movies and cartoons," Sahley continued, "and once we dove into producing 'Monkey Island,' we went back into the vaults and studied all the classics, really following their timing, expressions, storylines, etc. Overall, our biggest challenge was telling our strange little story without any words. Since the monkey's all wear masks, we had to rely heavily on body language and the lead monkey's eyes. You learn to appreciate two of my favorite characters, Wile E. Coyote from Looney Tunes and Scrat from 'Ice Age,' even more after working on something like this."
Monkeyhead's Summer 2009 Reel features highlights from an impressive, growing catalog of innovative motion design and production work for major entertainment brands, including key art and main titles for the Red Bull Big Tune live events, webisodic series and TV special, feature and TV main titles for Tanner Hall's ‘The Massive’ documentary project, visual effects and animation work for the feature film ‘Echelon Conspiracy,’ on-air contributions for Disney Channel, MTV, MTV2, VH1 and Versus. They have also done commercial spots for the U.S. Army, Bank of America, the Audobon Insectarium, Earthlink, Epson, Ghirardelli, and a series of video installations for Westin Hotels and Resorts.
The debut of ‘Monkey Island’ and Monkeyhead's Summer 2009 reel comes at a key time in the three-year-old company's growing success story. ‘Monkey Island’ was several months in the making, and its production benefitted from new investments into additional 8-core Mac Pro workstations. Among his other standard tools, Sahley favors Adobe After Effects and Cinema4D, and his unique approach of commissioning specific artistic teams for individual project assignments is helping to expand the company's arsenal, its style, and its reputation.
Most recently, Sahley signed a nationwide representation agreement with The Ashy Agency. "As soon as I started searching for representation, I was introduced to Brett Ashy, and signed with him immediately. We both see eye-to-eye on our business approach and are completely dedicated to our clients. It seems to be a perfect fit."
Continuing, Sahley added, "Even in the current down market, I'm happy to report that business is really growing. With our name getting out there and new opportunities shaping up every day, it's really an exciting time for us."
This news message is supported by The Bazaar, a marketplace to buy and sell creative objects. Earn more revenue by selling your prints, downloadable images, or custom products. Set up your store today and stand a chance to have your products featured on DesignTAXI, towards millions of lovers of creative content!
