Electro Dude

Electrodude is a piece all set in the bleary-eyed, early morn haze of the city. The secret pre-dawn club of workers up before the commuters come. The transient city, taking inspiration from London, Tokyo, Cardiff, Berlin, Chicago and more besides. There's a camaraderie between the dawn wakers, but also the isolation of urban loneliness.

Electrodude is wrapped up in his music, deaf to the world around him. Taking this thread, the characters that follow do so out of a connection or inspiration to his music, and a curiosity. They're broken from their reverie and, in-turn, help Electrodude himself when he's put in danger.

Morgan's work is heavily inspired by cinematic film scores and concept albums, with strong visual cues being inspiration for the tracks themselves. The image of Electro Dude grew alongside the creation of the track, a young character focussed solely on his music, lost in the composition process.

Although it began life as a vocal track, Electro Dude quickly grew it's own life as an instrumental piece, focussing on the momentum and driving rhythm, wandering modulation and ethereal layered melody. It is both quiet, subdued and sleepy in nature, but with a rising tension and pushing drive forward, like the sun rising. This nature of the piece, the reflection of quiet yet urgent, informed the early morning visuals of the video, the unease of the characters not yet awake being broken from their reverie.

As one of the standout tracks in the album Between the Stars and Home, Electro Dude was paired with Henry's punchy hybrid visual style of urban landscapes, mixing muted colour palettes with bright spots of colour, pen and ink with digital painting.

  • Morgan Bryan
    Composer
    Between the Stars and Home, In This Moment, Under Every Sky, Asleep While The Rain Falls, Thorn
  • Henry Fothergill
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Music Video
  • Genres:
    Magical realism, music video, animation, slice of life, LGBTQIA+
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 3 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 12, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    2D animation, pen & ink
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Henry Fothergill

henry Fothergill is an animator based in the Uk. They have a bold vivid style, informed by their illustration work, bringing together mediums of hand-drawn animation and stop motion to breathe life into the characters. Their first completed commission was the 'Story of Babushka', an 11 minute stop motion animation. Henry has since directed works for the 48hr scifi project, Straight8 and LaCie competitions, as well as commissioned work.

henry draws on over 7 years experience working in the Uk Film and Tv industry as a grip. Trainied in equipment houses, they worked through traineeships, assistant and key grip roles before returning to their first loves; directing and animating. They trained at Bournemouth University; Henry's work designing, making and puppeteering the frog and onion hand-puppets for the graduate film 'Beauty in the Beast' netted them an Outstanding Puppetry award at Zedfest, CA.

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Director Statement

I chose to direct this film because I've always loved animated music videos. So when Morgan approached me with the track I jumped at the chance.

While watching this film, I wanted the viewer to experience Joy. It's really about finding the little wonderful things in the bleary, hazy. early morning light of the commuters grind.

Some of the challenges making this film included working with new software, Callipeg, was a real challenge. Not least because it's an early app there were days where I couldn't work because an update had bugged a feature. I'd either hop to procreate to work, albeit slower, on the cell animation or I'd do some pen and ink work on the backgrounds until I could get back into callipeg to bring it all together.

This film will always be special to me because It's my first animated music video!

The experience working on this film will help me with future projects because I was given a lot of creative control over the visuals, we really collaborated on the atmosphere and feel of the piece, but that story of the characters with Electro Dude was really left in my hands.