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
Dancer turned director Ezra Hurwitz collaborates with Ailey II artistic director Francesca Harper, featuring movement as museum pieces against the Whitney Museum of American Art’s striking architecture for this short film titled Echoes of Ailey. Commissioned to celebrate “Edges of Ailey” at the Whitney Museum, the film accompanies the first large-scale exhibition on the life and enduring legacy of visionary artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey. “Edges of Ailey” is currently on view at the Whitney until February 9.
Animating iconic images from Alvin Ailey’s 20th-century repertory, the film expands on the exhibition by constructing a visual narrative around his storytelling and influences. Set to Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place,” dancers from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and The Ailey School capture the emotional core of the company’s history--physically situating Ailey’s masterworks amongst the Whitney’s collection.
“As a child, my grandmother took me to Ailey’s Revelations once a year,” said Hurwitz. “No matter how often I saw it, the work captivated me. There isn’t one specific thing I hope viewers take away from the film--or one way to interpret its images. It’s meant to be an abstract work, like Ailey’s creations.”
Turning to his archive, Hurwitz and Harper illuminate key sequences symbolic of Ailey’s profound legacy, closing on an uninterrupted sequence from "I’ve Been Buked," the opening movement of Ailey’s legendary "Revelations." Carrying a watershed moment back to its own medium, Echoes of Ailey captures the multigenerational impact of Ailey’s work, continued by his organization. The short film first premiered on Nowness.
