Kris Moyes is an amazing director, working mainly with music video and commercials, he is the kind of person who can let his work do his talking. And while his talk at this year’s Semi-Permanent started out very shaky, nervous and read from his notes, it did not detract at all from the impact that his videos make.

moyes on the set of cut copy's going no where

Working with companies like Cadbury to create commercials that engage the viewer, and creating music videos for some of today’s most well respected artists, Moyes has really forged a name for himself as a director that loves a challenge, as well as creating something memorable.

Videos like My People, for The Presets really stand out. It was amazing to see the behind the scenes for this one. After speaking about a scene in the movie Gerry, where the actors are walking together and they keep oscillating in and out of synchronized steps, the idea developed. This is evident at the start of the video, where the band members do that same. Moyes continued to show his full working process, from storyboarding, to motion tests with old stock footage, pitching the idea to the label and the band. It was a great chance for us to see the inner workings of a music video.

While his commercial work what Moyes is best know for, some of his more subversive works mite be just as well known. A few years ago, there was a leaked Wolfmother video, which had live concert footage that had been defaced, with all sorts of imagery drawn over the top in a haphazard, amusing and almost childish way. This was part of his agreement to edit the original video. I honestly prefer the defaced version to the original, and Moyes does too.

Moyes has a curiosity in making videos that show a visual representation of the music, from My People to a video for Softlights, where the inspiration was taken from Disney’s Fantasia, Guitar Hero, and Stefan Sagmeister. It is interesting to note that Moyes reminisced about this scene from Fantasia, saying “…Ever since I was a kid I have loved this moment, and it was awesome when I got a chance to rip it off!” It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. After showing the Fantasia scene, he showed the full video, speaking over it to explain how various aspects of the stop-motion animation were created.

By the end of his talk, Moyes had really warmed up and got into it. In the past I haven’t had much interest in working with video, but after seeing the way in which these works were created, it has really sparked my interest in motion imagery.

For more information on Kris Moyes, follow these links:

Kris Moyes – www.kmoyes.com (very info skint, but great video collection)

Directors Bureau Profile – www.thedirectorsbureau.com

and an interesting interview from Alex Young – www.milieu.alexyoung.org

below are some stills from Moyes’ work, as well as my notes taken during his Semi-Permanent presentation.

semipermanent logo

Well, how do you wrap up an awesome couple of days at the Semipermanent Design Conference? By going home, cooking some dimsims and writing about it! yay!

First up, the announcments!

semipermanent WILL be in melbourne this year, oct 16 and 17, and i was the second person to get tickets! there will be 12 new speakers, but no announcements as to who they will be yet.

here is what the sydney sp09 program says:

For years now the lovely people of Melbourne have been pleading with us to host a Semi-Permanent even in their sexy city. We finally cracked and are pleased to announce the Semi-Permanent 2009 Melbourne event.

We’ll see you down there

Melbourne Semi-Permanent 2009 – 16 & 17 October 2009

melbourne convention and exhibition centre (southbank, melbourne)

speakers TBC (12 different speakers to sydney event)

so there you have it, i havent seen anything on the net about this yet, so i consider this to be an if forever exists exclusive!!! nothing is even on the semipermanent site as yet, but i would be staying tuned to get tickets before they sell out, cos if you guys wanted it that bad down there, its sure to sell out! (plus, you wanna sit next to me dont you? considering i already have tickets)

so thats the exciting announcement! now i just want to tell you, that starting monday we are going to be having profiles on each of the 13 people who spoke at this years sydney semipermanent, featuring works, information and exclusive parts of their presentations. as a bonus, i will include a scan of my raw notes for each presenter, so you can extract your own information if you want. that’s 13 amazingly talented people to be profiled over the coming weeks.

the lineup is as follows:

1. Timba Smits, of wooden toy magazine
2. Kris Moyes, film production
3. Ian Francins, mixed media artist
4. Tamara Dean, photographer
5. Dean Sewell, photographer
6. Danny Yount, film production/direction
7. Droga 5 (Ben Nott), creative advertising agency
8. XYZ Studios (Tim Kentley), animation studio
9. Kate Gibb, screenprinter/illustrator
10. Wired Magazine (Scott Dadich), technology/innovation publication
11. Daniela Federici, photographer
12. Ron English, billboard liberator
13. Digital Domain (Vernon Wilbert), digital production

it’s a massive lineup of some of the most creative people in the business, all of the wowed me at the event, and i hope they inspire you as well! This starts on monday!

I would like to take this opportunity to say thankyouthankyouthankyou to the event organisers – Andrew Johnstone and Murray Bell! without you guys, this wouldnt have happened! keep up the awesome work, and see you at the melbourne show!

dont forget, subscribe to the right to stay up to date with all the awesome on if forever exists.

and dont forget to check the semipermanent website for info on the brisbane, perth and auckland shows, as well as the freshly announced melbourne show!

www.semipermanent.com

peace

qwux

session 1 or semipermanent. what an exciting day. mmuggy weather and early rain didn’t stop the crowds tom coming out today! session 1 has talks by timba smits, and kris moyes. and I am writing this as it happens. if forever exists bringing it to you as it happens!

timba smits put on a great talk about his magazine- wooden toy. lots on info, fun stories from his studio and plenty of work to be shown. even a sneak peak of issue 6 coming out next week!! very exiting

kris moyes also showed a of of great work, includin behid the scenes info on his presets work for my people, but ended up speaking way too long

this is just a quick wrap up. full day 1 story web I get home tonite. now for lunch and back in for session 2