jotta Interview: Desert Island Dreams

Our friends Millie and Ben at jotta made us spill the beans on some of Watergun’s creative secrets in this interview (original here).

jotta are big fans of Watergun Studio’s light-fantastic live action and animation, and their infectious humour. This week they were shortlisted for both the Future 100 and Creative Enterprise Awards, plus the animation they created for jotta’s Intel Remastered project screens at onedotzero all this weekend, all achievements worthy of some love.

Spanish born Rafael Pavon and Luxemburger Eric Schockmel formed Watergun with creative partners in Madrid and Los Angeles, right after graduating from Communication Design at Central Saint Martins in 2008. Their international Watergun web has collectively developed a diverse range of audiovisual media, from music videos to advertising to create projects like they ones they work on with us (see Latitude water projections above)!

Why did you decide to set up Watergun?
The apocalyptic future we had in front of us after graduating made it the least worst of all the options and the more exciting so it was a win-win situation for us. During college, we worked together on some projects and also with a friend in New York, so we naturally kept on working together and decided to give it a name, an identity and a structure.

How does Watergun operate with international locations – do the separate Watergun offices ever work collaboratively?
We are very aware that is probably one of our main strengths and, if we don’t use it wisely, it could turn up being our weakness so we try to collaborate all the time, be in touch every day (thanks Skype!) and feed every single project with ideas, feedback and points of view from our 3 locations and all the different people and backgrounds. This is a crucial part of our creative process and we try to nurture it.

What is the usual process the Watergun team uses when producing a project?
We usually gather on a secret desert island we own in the Caribbean where we drink mojitos and swim naked while waiting for the inspiration to come. Then we realise we’re not in the 90s so we come back to our studio and work really hard. Seriously, since we started we’ve been constantly developing a procedure where we work closely with the client/brand/band, involving them in the creative process through exercises, experiences and even games to be sure we understand exactly what they want. At the same time, we make sure that all locations of Watergun are involved in every project, making sure that the standard is always high and giving us interesting points of view, ideas and opening up new unexpected possibilities.

What is the one piece that quintessentially represents the Watergun aesthetic?
Due to the versatile nature of our work, it’s really difficult to choose only one but, if you put a Watergun to my head and make me answer, I’d have to say “Buscando el Sol” because we had the chance to be playful with the technique and create a very intricate narrative that ended up being one of our biggest projects in Spain, with thousands of people imitating it on Youtube, bars, clubs, parties and weddings, which is amazing!

How did you get your first commissions? What kind of work did you start out doing and have you become more selective since?
In the beginning, we started making music videos for friends and bands just to learn the process and develop our style and skills. We knew that no one would hire us without seeing what we can do first so we invested a lot in that process. The video that started it all, Idealistic by Digitalism, was made for a competition, but we didn’t think of it in those terms. Instead, we decided to put all our effort and resources in it, as if it was a real commission, and convince everyone around us to help, including some really high qualified professionals. We got a lot of attention and it opened a lot of doors.

How did you decide what equipment to buy and when at Watergun?
Since setting up Watergun involved a lot of bootstrapping, the first pieces of equipment we had were basically the things all of us brought to the company. Whatever we bought had to be relatively cheap and as versatile as possible. Hence using the 7D a lot, and mixing Apple and PC gear to best effect.

What would be the ultimate piece of animation equipment or software you’d like to get your hands on?
We’re really looking forward to trying the new HDSLR cameras that will be coming out next year: the Canon C300 and the Red Scarlet. Also, we’re about to start exploring live visuals and projections, which involve a lot of equipment such as projectors, live software and cool gadgets but we believe that the quintessential ultimate tool for that is going to be the iPad.

I know you chaps don’t use flash very much but any thoughts on adobe saying they won’t support flash on mobile devices (mobiles or tablets). is it the death of flash – should we care?
The whole Flash vs. HTML5 discussion, ultimately, is as relevant to us as the brand of car you’re using if you need to drive from Bristol to London. It’s getting there that matters, and we prefer to focus on the content.

You came in second place in Vimeo and Saatchi & Saatchi’s ‘Hello Future, A Music Video Challenge’ with your video receiving a whopping 89,300 views. Was there any sort of campaigning that you did that you feel made you particularly successful?

That was actually a big surprise for us since we didn’t actually do anything to spread it apart from our social channels. We were really lucky that a really big French blog thought it was the official one and everything went crazy after that. We understood how important is having a PR strategy and what we were missing without one but, in the end, the most important thing is to create quality content that people feel it’s worth sharing.

Who are your animation heroes?
David O’Reilly and Max Hattler

Can you tell us a time you’ve had to do something a bit stupid / weird to achieve a certain effect? or a shot you were really proud of that you achieved by doing something in a different way?
When we shot Spanish singer El Pescao for the Castillo de Arena video, he complained about having to sing his song at double the speed to achieve the slow-motion effects. So for the next video, Buscando El Sol, we made him sing 4 times slower… *chuckle*

Watch Eric Schockmel’s animation for the Intel Remastered project, a spin on Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway. See it at onedotzero festival at the BFI this weekend.