When legendary guitarist Jimmy Page met the Fender Telecaster guitar, rock history was made. As part of Led Zeppelin’s 50th anniversary celebrations, directorial team Smith & Foulkes of Nexus Studios connected with Fender Musical Instruments Corp. to create the animated short titled “The Mystical Journey of Jimmy Page’s ‘59 Telecaster.”

Taking viewers on a psychedelic tour through a pivotal time in music, the film is shaped around Page’s own words about his relationship with the iconic guitar. Smith & Foulkes creatively expanded around Page’s narrative to focus on what happened when these two creative energies collided. 

A team of animators at Nexus Studios worked to visually convey the atmosphere and energy of this time and to illustrate key moments in the development of Led Zeppelin. The film shows how Page’s personalization of the Telecaster (into the famed Dragon and Mirror versions) takes the band to previously uncharted sonic horizons.

A joint statement from Smith & Foulkes read, “It goes without saying that everybody loves a dragon. And we made full use out of that. But it was much trickier to visually illustrate the mirror guitar which was more about the optical sensation of prismatic light patterns. So we hit upon this idea of how images are bent and twisted in a Hall of Mirrors, which seemed to fit the idea of new sounds being distorted as Jimmy experimented with the Telecaster.”

Credits

Client Fender Musical Instruments Corp. Jeremy Taylor, executive producer; Neil Whitcher, Matt Watts, Keith Legro, producers. Creative Story & Narration by Jimmy Page Production Nexus Studios Smith & Foulkes, directors Tracey Cooper, producer; Chris O’Reilly, Charlotte Bavasso, exec producers; Rebecca Archer, production manager; Michal Firkowski, previs & project supervisor; Melanie Climent, art director; Bishoy Gendi, lead animator; Marlene Beaube, Giacomo Autill, Hozen Britto, Peter Lowey, Arina Shabanova, 2D animators; Jesse Richards, lead compositor; Chris Gavin, Victoria Jardine, Dave Hunt, compositing; Sebastien De Oliveira Bispo, Pierre Clenet, 3D generalists. Dave Slade, editor. Audio Post Factory London Josh Campbell, Anthony Moore, sound design & mix; Lou Allen, producer. Music “Dazed and Confused” by Jimmy Page (inspired by Jake Holmes), performed by The Yardbirds, taken from the album “Yardbirds ‘68” recorded live in NYC. Flames of Albion Music, Inc. (ASCAP), all rights administered by WB Muisic Corp., licensed courtesy of Jimmy Page

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