-Tell us about your creative approach through your music videos.

In creation, the word videoclip has a bit light aspect, it’s often related to a marketing product. Our approach is completely different from the conventional making of the music video with its recurrent ingredients, the rock band’s old hangar, and the nude bimbos on rapper’s racing cars. We develop our work as animated short musical movies, where artistic freedom prevails over the marketing target. As for the word clip, it’s purely and simply a word used by french-speakers.

-Yet the music video is a marketing product...

-That’s why we work with artists who don’t need any advertising and who have some artistic ethic.This gives us a creative freedom and allows us to skip guidelines of some record label’s actors, or what’s left of them...

-So a young artist who would like Callicore to produce his music video is not possible?

-But of course yes. As long as we are given the possibility to work freely and we like the music.It’s not being snobbery, but we are lucky to choose the artists we wish to work with, so why do without. We are in a logic editorial too, almost activist. Some of the people who would like to work with us do not understand that Callicore is not a pictures’ factory, there’s certainly a confusion due to the fact that we produce and direct as well, and that in animation. We don’t act as ordinary provider or performer. Even if our means of expression is animation and for a little while now edition, we really care that our work has a meaning. That can summarize our creative approach...keeping in mind that we need to be close to the artists, communicate with them is essential to be in harmony and evolve in their artistic univers. We can say it’s a fusion, almost spiritual!

-At present you are in the middle of a production for the band Arrested Development, how is the collaboration going on ?

-Very well, the band and the management are very professional. Speech is always available and very attentive upon everything we can do. We have worked together on the main ideas and the scenario, as we did it with John Lee Hooker, Jr. Arrested development is the most African of rap bands, with real, strong musicality, and a true commitment, which is rather rare in this domain. The title we’re illustrating “Bloody”shows it. Their rap puts forward violence and real problems related to race struggle.

-Are you sensitive to this problem ?

-Yes, most artists whom we’ve worked with talk and act in this direction. Mathias from Washington Dead Cats struggles since always against the extreme right political party in France, Mick Jones who during all his period with the Clash played for the minorities, John Lee Hooker, Jr. who puts forward Darfour’s problems and problems related to racial struggle. Sometimes it happened that I was victim of racism for being a white man. This humiliation, much more frequent and present among black people, is intolerable. When you’re white it’s something you don’t understand. It’s impossible to understand or to feel what some peoples have to put up with daily.

-What’s with your collaboration with John Lee Hooker, Jr. ?

-Soon a live of his last tour must be released with the video of Extramarital Affair. We’ll be able to follow a new episode of the adventures of Bluesman !

-What advice can you give to a young 3D computer graphics designer ?

-What we repeat regularly to the young people that we form through our 3D school Studio Mercier, that there’s no magic recipe, constantly work, set up a gaol to reach and never give up...

-And to those how would like to be part of Callicore ?

-That is a bit more complicated, Callicore is above all a familly. It’s not obvious to be adopted there ! Within Callicore there are my partners, Linda my wife and Xavier my alter ego, which both of them can break down, only by their skills, about ten people. Better not be in the way when they give it all !

-Will we see soon a french-speaker group’s animation released from Callicore’s studio ?

-Why not ! The magic word : it must groove ! ! !

- Callicore is a studio that produces everything in house. How your prod pipeline is put together?

- It’s very classical: several servers where our datas are archived plus one server for each project with back up solutions, an editing and post production station and computers.

- What equipment do you use?

- For a while now, we’ve been working on HP computers, quad core with 4 gigabite plus 1 gigabite for the video card. That’s more than enough forour applications.

- Why the choice of 3d Studio max instead of Maya or Xsi?

- It was done naturally. We worked on Lightwave a long time ago then we switched to 3ds because it matched what we were looking for. Since, the software kept on developping in the way we hopped.The day it wont correspond to our expectations we’ll change.

- How do you organize a production at Callicore?

- We pay a very particular attention to layer’s cut-out by trying to be very precise. It’s put on the assembling software timeline. Then we superimpose the first 3d proxys with the music. We verify if the rhythm is good; if everything is ok we replace the proxys, as one goes along, with the final results.

- There isn’t any story-board?

- no, everything is specified in the cut-out. The story-board is done through the 3d proxy. This allows us to gain a stage, so time.

- How are the characters created?

- They are submitted to validation at the same time as the synopsis. They are graphic studies. Afterwards, they are designed and assigned according to their role.

- What are your relationships with the artists you work with particularly with John Lee Hooker Jr.?

- Excellent. With John it’s different, he’s above all a brother before being a partner. We have the same eagerness when it comes to starting a project and that’s what allows us to be quick to react. John is completely invested in what he does and we learn a lot by his side. He’s a great pro, I’m proud to be included among his close friends.

- Are there any artists you would like to work with?

- Yes, Elvis and Jimmy Hendrix. They are on tour currently. And their cell phones are switched on answering machine. As for the Rolling Stones they had the choice between Scorsese and us, they chose Scorsese!

- What’s the experience you draw from the Jules Verne’s project?

- Adapt Jules Verne’s novel “from earth to the moon” in animation was great. The script required a long work. We worked for 7 months on the pre-prod. Axel Hodin and Julien Roussel, Studio Mercier graduates, joined us. It was exhausting but we had a good time.

- Why did the project failed?

- In fact at the time of the pre-purchase we had to fulfill one condition that was to make a cinema release. We were focused on a TV special. We had just missed the Jules Verne’s year so we were aiming on the anniversary of the first steps of man on the moon . Our problem was of qualitative nature. All the production was made for TV. We didn’t have the means to compete with projects more ambitious. So we prefered to stop everything rather than to get a big slap on the face.

- What’s with that project now?

- We’ve met someone crazier than us who bought it from us.

- Does the adventure of a feature film tempt you?

- All adventures tempt us. Callicore can do a lot of things. But distributors must follow behind...and for the moment they are a bit feebleness...

NEXT PAGE