JOSH FUNK WINS BEST BRIEF FILM: JUDGES CHOICE AT SHORTZ! FILM FESTIVAL WITH ‘DIGGIN’ ON’

On September 18th, Film Director and Animator Josh Funk won Best Brief Film: Judges Choice at Shortz! Film Festival. The award was given for Funk’s vibrant stop-motion music video ‘Diggin’ On’ created for the band Michelin Embers. 

‘Diggin’ On’ features stop-motion puppets, 3D printed and found objects, as well as live-footage of the band playing on a miniature drive-in movie screen. The music video was a collaboration between Funk, the band, and inspired by the album artwork of artist Rickie Barnett.

“This award was very unexpected and I’m thrilled to be a part of this years Shortz! Film Festival. I’m even more excited for the opportunity to share the music of Michelin Embers,” said Funk.

The Shortz! Film Festival is an annual international short film festival, which showcases the best and brightest short films from around the globe, with many traveling to see their films at the historic El Rey Theatre in downtown Chico each year. 

Watch the video now!

Michelin Embers
The Making of the Diggin' On video and Plans for the Future

Link to "Diggin' On" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTHxxolsgxc

Artist Josh Funk: https://www.facebook.com/joshfunkartist/?fref=ts

The Michelin Embers have long been one of my favorite local acts. Their combination of quality song-crafting and unique instrumentation makes them eminently interesting to listen to and watch. Calling themselves “Western Skiffle,” they are a tough band to peg into a category. Not quite bluegrass, not quite rock and roll, the group draws upon elements from a variety of different musical genres including country, swing, rock, and even the soundtracks of the old spaghetti westerns, to comprise their overall sound.

Johnny Meehan started an early version of the band several years ago with the concept of “playing songs under a trestle,” and my understanding is that the band did indeed meet and play underneath a train trestle. The instrumentation is primarily acoustic, and while the band has undergone a few different line-ups, the current configuration seems to have stuck. Right now it's Johnny on acoustic guitar and doing most of the singing, Ken Smith on ukulele, Steve Bragg thumping a home-made wash-tub bass, and the newest member of the band, Scott Pressman on slide guitar.

The band has released a couple of albums, their first is a full-length collection entitled “Telapachie” that garnered the CAMMIE's award for best local album. The second is a 6-song ep called “Looking for a Hole.” From the ep, the band decided to make a music video for the song “Diggin' On,” and enlisted the help of video artist and animator extraordinaire Josh Funk. The amazing piece of stop-frame animation debuted in December at the International Animation Festival held at the El Rey Theater. It is an incredibly lush, surreal, vibrant and wondrous creation.

I sat down with thee of the four band members recently - Ken Smith was out of town - to talk about the making of the video. Meehan expressed excitement about the idea of collaborating with Funk.

“It presented itself as a cool opportunity. Josh Funk is a badass.”

The band members unanimously point to the video “Wormholes” as an example of Funk's stunning visual artistry.

It turns out the video for "Diggin' On" was itself a sort of collaboration between Funk and Ricky Barnett, the illustrator who came up with the album artwork for the band's two releases. It was Barnett who originally came up with the bird-man figure on the “Looking for a Hole” ep, and Funk got in touch with Barnett to co-create the female bird character featured in the video.

“He captured something in that bird person,” Pressman opines. “He's helped to shape the Michelin Embers' personae and mystique.”

The Diggin' On video serves to extend that mystique. In the video the male bird-person is driving a wood-burning stove fueled cart towards a drive-in movie theater, where he eventually meets a female bird person, and we can assume they may be embarking on a new romance. During an earlier meeting Funk explained to me some of the process. He hand-crafts much of the equipment used in the creation of the video, and for whatever parts or pieces he can't fabricate by hand he utilizes a 3-D printer. Funk will also incorporate found objects where appropriate. One example of this is the autonomous drill that bores a hole in the video's closing scenes. The drill is actually an animated “steam-punk style eye-piece” Funk had collected prior to the inception of the video. As he was trying to decide how to create the sequence that would lead to the hole boring, Funk realized the eyepiece could serve as the drill bit.

The video made its debut at the International Animation Festival here in Chico, and the band members assume Funk has plans to show it in other festivals. In a classic symbiotic relationship, the band sees the video both as a means to display Funk's incredible talents as an artist, and to help get the Michelin Ember's music out to a population that they otherwise couldn't reach by playing local and regional gigs.

“We've all played in bands and played shows,” says Meehan. “Fridays, Saturday nights, and also the Monday and Tuesday night shows. So it seems like, let's expand what we can do.”

“YouTube,” Bragg suggests. “Everybody at work watches YouTube, checks shit out on YouTube.” The video is a great way to expand the band's on-line footprint, and to get them in front of audiences they would otherwise not be able to reach.

“I've always thought the Michelin Embers would do really well in Australia.” Meehan explains. “I can imagine there's going to be some kind of world premier in Australia.”

The animated video is extraordinary, but the underlying song is also a gem. I ask Meehan what the song “Diggin' On” is all about. His answer:

“It's about, I'm pretty sure it's about – they say that love takes work. Being in a relationship takes work. The whole idea of devotion, and then questioning that devotion. I'm pretty sure that's what the song is about. Like, how deep are we going? Where is this devotion? The idea of hard work – where does that end up? Sometimes it feels like it ends up in a hole.”

There is some laughter at this explanation – resigned laughter.

As for future plans Meehan informs me the band is currently working on a new album.

“We're working on an album with the whole idea of road themes,” he informs. “The whole idea is songs about the road. Specifically I wrote this song recently about, do you know, the dude who had the mules? I wrote a song about him. I'm really looking forward to showing you guys the song – I'll pack my Mules.”

Something to look forward to in 2016 – my ear's taste-buds are tingling already.

-NSM

Diggin' On video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTHxxolsgxc

Band's website: http://www.michelinembers.com/music.html

Michelin Embers on BandCamp: http://michelinembers.bandcamp.com/

Get Animated →

Two local filmmakers launch animation fest

By —Esmeralda Ramirez

This article was published on 12.10.15.

For artists, theater actors and musicians, Chico is a pretty wide open art town, with fun venues and an established support network in place. But for filmmakers—an arts niche that has been growing steadily locally over the past decade or so—there have been very few outlets. Other than the annual Shortz! Film Festival—which celebrated its fifth year of showcasing short films this past September—and the occasional screening at the Pageant Theatre, there are only sporadic opportunities for showing off locally made films.

This Saturday, Dec. 12, at the El Rey Theatre, Chico will take at least one more step toward building up the film scene with the debut of Animation Chico, an international animated short-film festival created by two local filmmakers, Shawn Dyer and Josh Funk.

“There are a lot of filmmakers around here and they’re all looking for a place to show their work and most of them go to either Redding or Sacramento because there’s nothing in their town to support them,” said Dyer.

The two grew up in Chico and have been friends since high school. Dyer, a co-founder of the Shortz! festival and creator of last spring’s Ha! Fest comedy film festival at the El Rey, has been making and showing his original full-length and short films for nearly a decade. Funk, on the other hand, is a relative newcomer to the scene, having moved from making music in local bands to creating his own stop-motion animated films since 2012.

“The main reason behind [Animation Chico] is actually to bring more people from other markets to Chico,” Dyer said.

The duo started accepting festival entries mid-summer, and received 71 submissions from around the world over the course of three months. They settled on 36 shorts in a variety of animation styles—traditional, computer-animated, stop-motion, even 3-D—that will be spread among four roughly one-hour blocks during the festival.

Naturally, especially for Funk, another goal of Animation Chico is to shed light on the art of animation.

“I think a lot of people don’t understand all of the different forms of animation that are out there and also don’t understand the amount of time that goes into making these,” he said.

Chico State has a large and celebrated animation program, and Funk pointed out that a lot of those students go on to work on big blockbuster movies, but many locals aren’t aware of all that talent. And though they didn’t get any entries from the university this year, the hope is that Animation Chico can be a showcase for student works in the future.

For the inaugural event, viewers can expect a wide variety of films from many different countries, Funk said, including a six-minute piece directed by French animator Gilles-Alexandre Deschaud titled “Chase Me,” which was produced using 2,500 pieces created on a 3-D printer. Other countries represented include China, Brazil, Thailand, Canada, Hungary and Israel.

“A lot of the content that we’ve received is wonderful, from perspectives other than the average American perspective and you’d be surprised what people come up with outside the U.S.,” Dyer said.

“A lot of times with animation, there are no words, which is kind of nice that it translates all over the world,” Funk added. “You can say a lot with just body movements of a character.”

For its awards, the festival is divided into three categories of animated films: student, international and stop-motion, and a $150 prize will go to the winner in each category. For the jury, Funk and Dyer brought in three artists: animator and Chico State instructor Mark Pullyblank, local graphic designer/comic artist Aye Jay Morano and animator Clayt Ratzlaff.

Also on the program (but not eligible for the competition) is the world premiere of Funk’s stop-motion music video for local band the Michelin Embers’ song “Diggin’ On,” which will be followed by a three-song performance by the band.