Underdog Entertainment, a New York-based production company, announced today that "Mass Extinction No. 6," the stop-motion music video produced for the roots-rock band Whisperado and directed by award-winning director Daniel Azarian, is an official selection and will screen at the 2017 American Conservation Film Festival.
“Mass Extinction No. 6” is an angry lament for the massive die-off of animal and plant species caused by the spread of human populations and industries. The video dramatizes the collapse of wildlife on our planet, with our species' industrialization a major cause. It tackles such issues as shark finning, elephant and rhino poaching, industrial greenhouse gas emissions, and the plight of several species on the brink of extinction, such as the vaquita dolphin and the mountain gorilla.
Lead singer Jon Sobel took his one-man version of Whisperado into the studio with Grammy-winning engineer Ted Young and cranked out an acoustic version of the environmentally-inspired song. A playful take seemed the right way to give the message the needed visual kick.
"Taking a cue from the lo-fi sound of Whisperado's witty track, I wanted to create a complementary lo-fi video," Azarian says. "Intentionally unpolished stop-motion animation using real plastic animal toys were the subjects. My inspirations were the wildlife diorama science projects I'm sure most of us created in grade school.”
Armed with construction paper, corrugated cardboard and tin foil, he created and animated replicas of the BP oil spill, the torching a natural rain forest for conflict palm oil, and a robust octopus being enveloped by single-use plastic trash.
These effects depict the mass species extinction now underway. Such extinction events have occurred five times before, say scientists, the last one about 65 million years ago when a large asteroid struck the Earth, killing off the dinosaurs and allowing mammals to diversify and evolve.
"Whisperado isn’t a political band," explains Sobel. "But I don't see a new mass extinction caused by human activity as a political issue. It's about the fate of the planet as we know it. And if we can't sing about this stuff – and play with plastic animals while we're doing it – then we'll just get too cynical or depressed to do anything about it."
See the video trailer below.
Listen to “Mass Extinction No. 6” at ReverbNation and see a full set of publicity stills from the video here.
The American Conservation Film Festival (ACFF) is dedicated to promoting outstanding films and the arts to educate and inspire people to become engaged in conservation. The motivating force behind ACFF is the power of imagery to inform and inspire. Celebrating its 15th year, the festival runs October 13 -15, 2017, with an encore weekend Oct 20-22 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, a vibrant arts community 70 miles west of the nation’s capital. For more information visit www.conservationfilm.org.
“Mass Extinction No. 6” will screen at the festival on Sunday, October 15 in Block 13, which begins at 5:00pm at the National Conservation Training Center. Visit here tickets and more information.
Whisperado is currently in the studio recording its second full-length album, which will include a full-band version of “Mass Extinction No. 6.” For more information on Whisperado visit whisperado.com, facebook.com/whisperado, or follow the band on Twitter at @whisperado.
Azarian, an established director of video content, television commercials and branded entertainment, has directed and produced national spots and video content for such brands as 3M's Scotch-Brite, Horizon Organic, The Anti-Violence Project, Silverstein Properties and Sony Music Entertainment. He recently produced the viral hit #UnitedJoan, a news parody video that lampooned United Airlines' recent public relations debacle, featuring Hollywood icon Joan Crawford. For more information on Azarian and his work, please visit danielazarian.com or follow him on Twitter at @danielazarian.
Underdog Entertainment (www.UnderdogEntertainment.com) is a New York-based production company active in producing video content, commercial spots, and branded and traditional entertainment.
