VFX/PDX: Recently you had a child and decided to shift gears yet again and change up your approach to the day job (I love my quirky socks by the way). Yet you seem to return to animation and VFX occasionally on your own terms. What prompted the decision to switch things up?
Well, production schedules aren’t always easy on families and relationships. My wife showed an enormous amount of patience for my first 6 years at Bent with all the nights and weekend work that was required.
Randy & Sage w/Spock at Trek in the Park
Once my daughter Sage was born my focus shifted, and even though everyone at Bent was being very generous in scheduling me reasonably, I found myself struggling to make everybody happy. It wasn’t only family that inspired the change of pace, I was becoming a bit cynical about advertising in general and found it difficult to invest creative energy to sell products I didn’t always agree with. The game started to get to me, I was no longer invested and it was time to step away.
Fortunately, I had an opportunity to contribute to a mismatched sock company my Mom started about 12 years ago called Solmate Socks. I had been involved for years going to trade shows and managing all the photography so it wasn’t an unfamiliar venture. My wife is also the Marketing Director for Solmate so now it’s all about the socks in our family. The nice part is the work is seasonal, and the late spring and early summer provide ample opportunity to get back to animation and compositing as a freelancer. I feel very fortunate that the fine people at Bent and HiveFX are willing to work with my limited availability and give me work on some amazing projects. It’s really wonderful to have these relationships.
VFX/PDX: Something I often wonder myself is how sustainable our industry is, and if it will all come crashing down on me once I’m old and gray. Philosophically, do you think this is a business that will support old and experienced as well as young and the restless? (or maybe young and the sleepless is more accurate)
All my experience has been focused on a couple studios, so I can’t speak for a whole industry. I have observed that the difference between a young VFX artist vs. a more experienced person is paralleled in most technical industries. The younger artist brings passion, energy, a hunger for learning and a desire to work on high profile projects. The older artist brings a well trained eye, years of experience solving problems using legacy methods, but they might not be as eager to pull multiple all-nighters if they have their child’s high school graduation the next day. They have lives outside of the work, which I think makes them less desirable for some jobs because there are more scheduling conflicts during crunch time. That said, I know plenty of people who have been around for years and still work in this industry. They have families and hobbies and seem to have found a balance. I have to admit having a child totally changed the way I schedule time and quickly put me on the path of the old artist who’s sleepless for reasons other than work.
VFX/PDX: Ha! Different incarnations of sleeplessness. Well said. So hey – what’s the story behind your domain name – “Secondaday?” Does that have anything to do with how much sleep you’re getting?
My undergrad thesis film was 365 seconds long and took a year to make. I didn’t plan it that way, but I liked the idea that creating a second of animation every day could really add up.
VFX/PDX: Wow. That’s patience & perserverence!
One of the essential ingredients to these interviews is going to be viewing each artist’s demo reel. I’m really excited about yours! Without further adieu:
Such a unique style! Very firmly rooted in 2D and has some nice analog warmth. So I have to ask – what’s the story with the shot at the end? I see several different locations and even hairstyles in there. Seasons pass by in a blink. How long did that guy take to put together?
That’s a segment of a film called “Twenty-Six.” I took a self portrait every day for that year, each day represented 1/10 of a second, and there is lip-synch throughout. The final product won awards in various festivals and was selected to travel with the 59 Second Film Festival to be screened on every continent in the world, including Antarctica.
VFX/PDX: Amazing. Any personal projects in the queue right now? Anything long term you’re chipping away at?
I’m working on a sequel to “Twenty-Six.” There is more lip-synch like the first one, but I added choreography and pregnancy timelapse and an introduction to my daughter. (VFX/PDX: Whoa!!) I’m excited to finish it, but it’s hard to know when it should end because my daughter keeps growing and I keep taking tons of photos of her.
I’m also wrapping up a promotional short for the Filmed By Bike Festival that takes place every spring. It was a fun project that involved pixilation, street photography, and a fair amount of compositing to make it look like I spray painted stencils all over the city.
VFX/PDX: I’ll splice in an update when it’s up. Thanks for taking the time for this, Randy – you’ve had quite a “ride” so far and have your hands in some very interesting, creative projects and the width of it when viewed together is impressive. Dare I say “only in Portland?” Can’t say thanks enough.
Beyond his showreel, you can view more of Randy’s work (with full versions of several pieces mentioned in the interview) on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/user9024074/
Randy & his trusty steed up around Crater Lake
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