In 2007 I conceptualized, directed, and animated this music video for SONTIZON, a salsa band from Caracas.
They were great live, and very connected to social issues, so they came to me with this song about the arson attack on La Planta, a prison in west Caracas. They had a lot of footage of their visits to the prison, but I didn’t want to use that as it was just random takes, and very bad quality. So I proposed an animated video with the typical prisoner artwork aesthetics. They liked the idea and I set to create the stories.
The approach made me sleep very badly for a couple of months, by thinking too much in the prisoners lives, focusing in their own views of life and thoughts, and how to represent that through these rudimentary scenes. All while keeping in sync with the lyrics.
I reached out to a few illustrator pals; Juan Medina, Flavio Herrera, and my usual partners in graphs, Carlos Crinigan and Octavio Villegas. I love working with these guys, so this opportunity was appreciated.
Maybe I will render this one in HD some day.
