Sturgill Simpson: Sound & Fury

Video Production Team

Content Producer, Post-Production, Coordination & Marketing

September 2019

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The Challenge:

Sturgill Simpson, a long-time lover of Japanese culture and animation approached us to create a new animation for his album with the structure of Animatrix, the style of Akira and Batman Ninja and the world aesthetic of Mad Max.

How:

Lead by /stu’s chief animation producer, Hiroaki Takeuchi worked with studio assistant producer Dominic Stewart to produce the entire production of this $1.5 million budget anthology 42-minute music video. /stu were responsible for handling all five studios production, marketing, coordination and post-production in Hollywood. Thanks to Hiroaki Takeuchi's vast experience in the Japanese entertainment industry we were able to work with some of Japan's top animation talent.The hugely successful movie was sold to Netflix and is pioneering the way for new media music videos and Netflix's ongoing Japanese Animation promotion strategy.

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Kamikaze Douga

Our main animation partner, Kamikaze Douga (Batman Ninja) and their founder and movie director, Jumpei Mizusaki immediately identified with the topics covered in the animation and vowed to work on the project. Jumpei Mizusaki, along with character designer Takeshi Okazaki (Afro Samurai) worked together to create the world design and main characters. Jumpei Mizusaki fleshed out the story and added his own unique taste to the story and together they created over 4 episodes for our high concept anthology.

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Michael Arias

Next to join the project was Michael Arias, famous for directing "Tekkonkinkreet" and an episode of the "Animatrix", he worked to direct Episode #05, our live-action section of the anthology.

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Koji Morimoto

Akira animator and Animatrix director, Koji Morimoto and his studio Phy / Griot Groove directed Episode #09, working in conjunction with costume designer Hidenori Nishimura, created a high concept live-action / animated episode that features amazing cinematography, high-quality costume, and hair design never before seen in an music video.

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GrayScaleArts

Production Studio "GrayScaleArts" and director Masaru Matsumoto ("Starship Troopers: Traitors of Mars") joined to create Episode #01 and the first half of Episode #10.

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D'Art Shtajio

D'Art Shtajio directed and created Episodes #07 and #08, adding their own animation influence and inspiration to the project.

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