Michael Gareth Robertson (Toon53 Productions) met Sean Braam (The First Order, ex-Made For Broadway) when he produced and animated MFB’s video for “Together (Parallel Universe)”.
And after Robertson entered the video into a few global competitions and did the band more than proud picking up several official selections and a couple of wins, Braam approached him to potentially collaborate on future projects.
Little did they both know that things were about to completely blow up after creating a string of lyric videos for Anne-Marie, Aloe Blacc and most recently David Guetta.
Their most successful lyric video for Marshmello’s “Friends” is currently sitting on over 280 million views on Youtube, so it was inevitable that I track them both down to find out whether or not all this success had gone straight to their heads.
Tecla Ciolfi: How do you even begin to wrap your mind around ‘Friends’ sitting on 287 million views on Youtube?
Sean Braam: I actually hadn’t realised it had got up to 287 Million [laughs]. That’s just crazy! I’m not even sure how to even contemplate that many views or even think of how one would even attempt to get there. I guess I actually don’t have any words? Just happy to be apart of it.
TC: Sean, what’s your background in animation – where did you study and what did you work on before collaborating with Michael?
SB: So I’ve been animating for about 7 years now. Feels a hell of a lot longer though. I actually started out in advertising studying at Vega and then furthered my studies in 3D animation afterwards at Learn 3D. I had a brief stint forming my own company with some friends after college, but then felt it was important to get some industry experience and moved to a small production company animating mainly retail ads.
Since then, together with the same friends from before and some new ones we formed a new company named The First Order. Together we have done more than I could have hoped for creating content in all forms from music videos, reality TV shows, TV ads to full feature films. Our last film “House on Willow Street” recently won two SAFTAs this year and released globally, premiering in LA and New York. Being able to work on different forms of content has it’s benefits where I’ve been fortunate to work on special effects and other interests while still focusing on animation.
TC: How do you plot your animation? Do you storyboard it and present to the label / artist for approval or do you have free reign?
SB: So it’s a bit of both, the label pretty much gives us free reign to do what we want creatively which has been really awesome. It’s not often clients put the ball in your court to just go for it. The artists may have an idea of what they want and we’ll frame our headspace along those lines. Michael has also been great with conceptualising narratives and capturing the artists likeness in the videos we create. A lot of the time our deadlines dictate how structured our process is. If time is on our side, we’ll send artwork and storyboards with our font and colour choices otherwise we’ll just go for and do what we do. All the artists have been pretty easy to work with so far.
Michael Garth Robertson: Think of a crazy idea, then make it move. When time allows we present boards but most of the time thanks to our track record, the labels trust us to just do our thing.
TC: Does your animation normally feed closely off the lyrics or are your videos a bit more abstract at times?
SB: We try to let the lyrics feed our animation as much as we can to make it as interesting for the viewer as possible. Songs have a lot of meaning to people, so it’s fun to try capture their essence through animation.
MGR: The lyrics are usually a big part of the creative approach.
TC: Toon53 has racked up an impressive list of clientele over its 10 years of business, but what would be your choice for the ultimate song to create a lyric video for?
SB: Maybe it’s because of all the hype around the upcoming Queen movie, but it would be amazing to do a lyric video for “Bohemian Rhapsody”, think we could go on a journey doing that. Alas, with the lack of a time machine I’d have to go with Lil Dicky and make something fun and comical.
MGR: There can’t be one, because if we get the production and complete it, what then? Every production is what you make it. Life is about having fun, and being able to make a living off of your passion and hobby makes us two of the luckiest guys I know.
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