Orange County, CA-based Director/Animator Gabe Askew’s (NOT OFFICIAL!!!!) video for Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks” went viral last week…and if you haven’t seen it - WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!!!!
The video’s amazing, addictive, inventive, original…and was done for free!!! And if MTV were still around, this video would be in constant rotation no doubt (if it were, uhm, the official video for the song, I guess)…
Mr. Askew was kind enough to answer a few questions…
How long did this take?
ASKEW: It took about four months of weekends and after-work time. If I were working on it professionally, I think it would have taken me four weeks.
Was the concept/style/animation conceived specifically because of the song?
ASKEW: Yes. I really connected with the lyrics when I first heard the song. To me the song was about two people in love and one isn’t sure of the others commitment. Insecurities pull them apart and it is up to one of them to suck up his pride and tell the other that they are here to stay. Just as in the chorus line “I told you I would stay.” Even though I ended up making the characters two men, I had connected the lyrics and visual metaphors to my relationship with my wife. And each vignette in the animation is tied to the words being said at the time. Take for instance the stanza, “Save up all the days, a routine relays, just like yesterday, I told you I would stay.” I presented that visually as a guy shaving, being on the freeway to work, and sharing a boring meal. Images of the day-to-day routine.
Heard anything from the band about it?
ASKEW: One of the band’s singers Ed Droste twittered about it positively and posted a link to the video. That is when the views started going up.
What are you working on now?
ASKEW: I’m working on a pro-bono project for a documentary director. He is making a film about a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon that got destroyed a couple years ago. I’m making an animation to a piece of music for the film. After that I’m somewhat set to start work on a commercial, but it’s not assured.
