Animator

Lawrence Wheeler

Luke McDonnell directs an marvellous animated promo for rock legends Deep Purple's cover of an&nbsp;early rock 'n roll track, Rockin' Pneumonia &amp; The Boogie Woogie Flu. It's sick.&nbsp;Following the trials and tribulations of a self-playing Steinway piano, the video follows the piano's path to rockstar fame, fortune and everything else, spanning a multitude of different locations and vignettes, and building to a sensory extravaganza.&nbsp;Purple's cover of the 1950's song&nbsp;is full of bluesy vigour, and McDonnell and his team have captured this energy in every frame of the visual. McDonnell's lovely, characterful&nbsp;illustrations are beautifully animated by Simon Jeffery and his fellow animators, and the breakneck momentum of the narrative continues from first to last. A brilliant job.[imgtoken data:1]"On hearing the piano-led track - originally written by Huey Smith back in 1950 - it's [Purple keyboardist]&nbsp;Don Airey’s performance&nbsp;which made for an obvious focal point for our animation," explains McDonnell. "Rather than watch Huey go on a journey with said Steinway, why not allow the piano to develop into its own character and lead us through the trial and tribulations, highs and lows of stardom?"&nbsp;McDonnell says that his initial inspiration came from the work of&nbsp;director/artist/animator Robert Valley.&nbsp;"I've always found his distorted Aeon Flux-stylised drawings delicious. He leans towards the dark side of storytelling which in turn lends itself to a rock band of this calibre. Married with some humour I think we found the right balance for Rockin’ Pneumonia."McDonnell drew the artwork in Photoshop,&nbsp;with a Cintiq tablet and sent it on to Jeffery. "Simon&nbsp;worked tirelessly to make each image come to life," says McDonnell. "With a tight deadline it was a run and gun production. Unlike anything I’ve created before, the story developed organically while the artwork was produced.&nbsp;"Friday was always a very exciting end to the week as a new ten seconds or so would be tagged onto our ever-growing video. I&nbsp;loved seeing it come to life."

United Kingdom

Luke Mcdonnell

Skyfire 76

Chiba Film

Matt Clark

Max Vaccaro

Simon Jeffery

Rich Leshone

Dan Gibling

Rock

Deep Purple 'Rockin' Pneumonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu' by Luke McDonnell

Deep Purple "Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu" - New album "Turning To Crime" out Nov 26

Lawrence Wheeler

Animator

Videos featuring Lawrence Wheeler

2021 (1)

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