On The Outside is an animated music video for a local band called Rest Easy. It was a commissioned work to make this experimental animated work after years of the band hoping to work with us after seeing Phoebe’s previous work (Terror Fervor, which has displayed on the MPCAS in the past). The song and therefore video is loosely based on concepts of getting away from abuse, specifically the song refers to a friend dealing with domestic abuse, the idea that the concept of home and safety do not always interlock. The band leader was set on not just showing straight forward imagery which speaks directly to that, and of course would set the possibility of triggering viewers who personally or by second hand nature have had the experience. Instead the video follows the bands mascot, a rat, on their journey through the forest of symbols, into a portal of unveiling, and eventually through peer support, getting out. As the song preaches “getting out is what you have to do”. Though the music would not be a component of this particular project I do think it would be really interesting to experience the video alone with these concepts.
Artist Bios
Phoebe Parsons is a director and animator from so called Vancouver B.C. With a BMA from Emily Carr circa 2010 she has been through the ringer working in costumes in the local and International film industry. After years moonlighting on her own experimental film work Terror Fervor, and winning international acclaim for the work, she decided to go full steam into the animation/ experimental film world. Receiving grants from Canada Art Council and BC Art Council for her upcoming short film (live action/ animation hybrid), and ripping through commissioned animation works for music videos and animated segments for Adult Swim, there’s no end in sight to the weirdness and imaginative animated worlds coming from this brain.
Neal Moignard is an artist and educator of European descent who was raised in Moh-kíns-tsis or Calgary, AB. He works with computer graphics and drawing to create immersive, expanded cinema, using traditional and modern animation and motion graphics techniques to create narrative, abstract, and interactive animation experiences. He has shown collaborative interactive artworks at Nuit Blanche Toronto, and the Alberta Biennial in 2018. He has directed animation for the National Film Board of Canada, and shown his video work at venues as diverse as the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, PA, and the Beginning Festival in St. Petersburg, RUS. He holds a degree in Intermedia with a minor in Film Animation from Concordia University in Montreal, QC and a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Oregon.