Before the official AICP winners were even announced, The Colonie won a major honor. For the first time in its history, the Chicago based post-production company was selected to create the Sponsor Reel for the National AICP awards show.
The Colonie’s reel played across all three AICP shows during their virtual premieres; the AICP Show, the AICP Next Awards, and the AICP Post Show. Each awards competition honors the best of marketing in the motion image, and the artists who create that work. The Reel highlighted all the companies sponsoring the awards show in a personal, innovative, and unique way.
“After previously working with the Midwest Chapter of AICP and the AICP Post Awards, we were delighted to be invited onto the national stage”, says Mary Caddy, Partner/Executive Producer and AICP Midwest Board Member, “not only was this piece shown at the premier, but it will continue to be featured during the AICP Road Show in local markets across the country through out the year.”
ALSO READ: Coloring the world with The Colonie’s Jennifer Gaida
Creative Director, Jennifer Moody led the project for The Colonie which initially involved six concepts. The team was entrusted by AICP to select their favorite concept to be used for the awards show. “It was a delight to be able to chose our favorite concept, that never happens”, says Moody. “The concept we chose has a low tech, stop motion, hand cut out, animated feel to it. It allowed us to take a lot of liberties and create some really interesting environments”.
The video begins with the AICP logo formed from bicycle wheels. The bicycle leads viewers through a stylized, collage-based world that is constantly changing and evolving, bringing in and out new scenery and logos. Throughout the piece, the bicycle spins steadily as the world around it changes. The look is mostly black and white with the bicycle adding a pop of color and changes as the world it exists in does. Torn paper edges, halftone patterns, and cutout materials that seemingly don’t go together are all grounded to create different environments that move through stop motion.
The production process began with Colonie Partner/Editor Bob Ackerman selecting a music track and creating timings to the rough sketches. He then began roughing in sponsor logos which were being changed until the last minute. The design team was simultaneously working to create each scene to tie the piece together and plugging them into the edit as each designer completed animation sections.
“This was a true team effort”, says Moody (who is also an Avid cyclist) “Between myself, Bob, designers Jeff Borowiak and Lindsey Fischer, we poured our hearts into this and the team went above and beyond. The paper textures used throughout were shot by Jeff Borowiak and the team added Easter eggs featuring members of the Colonie as well as some of their pets throughout the piece. It added a personal touch and a bit of humor to it as people tried to find the things we hid”.
“What I love most about the piece”, adds Ackerman, “is that each time you watch it, you find a new detail that you didn’t notice on the previous viewing. To me, that’s the mark of a great piece of animation.”
Credits
For The Colonie:
Jennifer Moody – Creative Director
Jeff Borowiak – Motion Graphics Designer
Lindsey Fisher – Motion Graphics Designer
Bob Ackerman – Editor
Mary Caddy – Executive Producer
For NoiseFloor:
Sound Design & Mix – Victoria Salazar
Original Music Composition – Devin Delaney
