Marc Forster and MK12 teamed up once again to create this meditative animation for Swiss International Air. I was able to chat with creative director and co-founder of MK12, Tim Fisher, and ask him a few questions:
From looking at this piece it seems like it was a pretty open brief. Could you describe the origins of the project?
Marc called up to the studio one day and asked if we wanted to collaborate on a short film with him that was being commissioned by SWISS.
Many of the key concepts came from Marc’s original writing for the project, which had a very personal and introspective tone to it. We started to work within a montage-based anti-aesthetic, which we felt was an appropriate metaphor for memory and thinking
processes.It’s like a literal stream of consciousness. Or the visual equivalent of a lyric essay.
If I’m counting correctly, this is the 4th project that you have worked on with director Marc Forster. Being a company that is known for its collective mentality, how has it been working with an outside director?
Yeah, this is our fourth project with Marc. He’s really fantastic to work with. He’s got a brilliant mind and he’s really supportive of the people around him. He’s very family-oriented, in that he continues to work with the same group of folks on every film. They are an amazing and smart bunch.
We think we’ve created some of our best work with Marc and the gang- and we hope to continue to do so.
Something that I like about this animation is that one can see it’s roots in old MK12 work, yet it is a clear jump in the collective’s growth in production quality and aesthetic refinement. Do you find this to be true? What do you think is the next step for MK12?
We hope that every project reflects some level of growth from our studio. We’re pretty happy with this film and it’s creative production.
We keep on keeping on. We’ve got a couple of things coming up. We’ve got two in-house short film projects moving along at a glacial pace; both are somewhere in their own respective pre-production. We created some work for the The Beatles: Rock Band game that’ll be out in September. Otherwise, it’s summer road trips, BBQs, red beers and fun in the midwest heat.
Thank you, Tim, for taking the time to talk to us. I think I speak for a lot of people when saying that we can’t wait to see those future MK12 projects.
Brand: Swiss Airlines
Agency: Publicis
Creative: Martin Deneke
Director: Marc Forster
Production: Ping Pong Film
Producer: Peter Lehner
Director of Photography: Roberto Schaefer
Editor: Jay Nelson
Animation: MK12
Animation Production: The Ebeling Group