VIEW: Hgun Animation Montage
CONTACT ERIC KOZIOL: eric_koziol@yahoo.com
CONTACT BEN STOKES: tinocorp.com
CONTACT PATRICK SEIMER: tapeandglue.com
The Beginning:
H-Gun was founded in 1988 by Eric Zimmermann and Benjamin Stokes while attending The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Soon, two other founders joined in, Eric Koziol, another SAIC student, and Jim Deloye, a freelance producer in Chicago's TV and motion picture production scene. Other key ingredients at the time were Columbia College students, Eric Matthies and Wing Ko. The overall work ethic was built around run and gun methodologies...get it done...adrenaline. The credo was to use the stuff in the videos that others would specifically edit out. It was all for one-one for all...Everybody knew how to shoot with cameras. The group process created a new media aesthetic by meshing radical attitude with new technolgy. This led to a kind of demented "Mr. Potato Head" production – as in, let's put the foot in the eye socket, and the ear in the mouth socket, to see what it makes. Of course the result was much more interesting than the standard arrangement of parts. What made H-Gun unique was its gritty style of filmmaking, which coincided with the emergence and popularity of Wax Trax Records and the Industrial music impetus.
The first H-Gun video was produced for Ungh!, the band which was formed by then SAIC students, Ben Stokes, Eric Zimmermann, Carl Maysack and Stevie Snyder. When releasing their first record (production was assisted by Ministry's Al Jourgenson and Paul Barker), they created a label called H-Gun. The letters of Ungh! were simply rearranged. That's the true story of where H-Gun got its name. Had UNGH! been signed to Geffen Records, there might never have been an H-Gun Labs. Putting H-Gun on the map were the first videos produced for Ministry, "Stigmata" and "Flashback" and Revolting Cocks, "Stainless Steel Providers." The company went on to create over 120 music videos and had filmed in several countries and cities in North America.
MTV and clubs around the world were exhibiting this new and exciting work.
H-Gun's work received high acclaim from artists, labels and managers of nearly every musical genre, including Industrial, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop, R&B, Techno, Pop and Grunge. In the ensuing years, TV commercials and other music videos began to emulate what H-Gun had set out to do with its aggressive editing styles and irreverent use of digital media. Still, other people in the biz remained cautious about embracing the New Wave in the Digital Arts, and H-Gun's "bad boy" image continued to repel as well as attract.
Artists who actually hired us. Sometimes over and over and over...
Nine Inch Nails, 24-7 Spyz, SoundGarden, Mr Lee, Meat Beat Manifesto, The Orb, Josh Wink, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Anthrax, Skid Row, Son of Bazerk, Crystal Waters, Screaming Trees, Smashing Pumpkins, KMFDM, Young Black Teenagers, Ministry, Wax, Iron Maiden, Killing Joke, Pigface, Prong, I Mother Earth, SNFU, The Offspring, Mint Condition, Melvins, Treponen Pal, Def FX, Varga, New Order, Nude Swirl, Megadeth, Dink, Next School, Low Pop Suicide, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, K Solo, Suicidal Tendencies, The Infectious Grooves (with Ozzy Osborne), Brian May, Marylin Manson, Fred Schneider, Poe, Fear of God, Supersuckers, Lead into Gold, Living Color, RuPaul & Martha Wash, Sincola, Course of Empire, DHS, TinoCorp., The Hunger, Holly Palmer, Mind Funk, Teenage Fan Club, Manic Street Preachers, 808 State, Corrosion of Conformity, Therapy?, Front Line Assembly, LaTour ....( I can't remember them all!)
Macintosh Computers and H-Gun:
Since the beginning, H-Gun used the Macintosh computer as a platform for creating animation and graphics. When CoSa (now Adobe After Effects) was released, H-Gun purchased its first copy and the company slowly evolved into a cutting edge experimental live action + visual effects + animation studio. With such slow computers at the time, H-Gun was often open for business 24 hours a day for years! Through personal challenge and internal developments by one another, each film director became an animator/designer of some sort. And as time went on, naturally, each person developed his own aesthetic. While all of this was happening, H-Gun continued to work on projects as a group with everybody contributing to the whole of the project. Other animators were brought into the fold when needed. At one time, there was no other company quite like H-Gun; a studio that shot its own videos and did its own corresponding animation design, graphics and with Media 100 tools, post production. The style of H-Gun continued to "push the envelope" and attracted even more fans and clients. By the time the company had closed its operation, it was involved with intricate animation and design for huge clients and was competing with mega CGI studios on both coasts. Today, Patrick Siemer is a top Adobe After Effects artist and is regularly asked by Adobe to demonstrate the newest versions at major industry trade shows and seminars.
Broadcast Design & Further Artistic Growth:
In 1993 H-Gun began to create what is now referred to as "broadcast design." MTV had called H-Gun to create show packaging for a PBS/MTV documentary called "7 Deadly Sins." The packaging won a Gold Broadcast Design Award (BDA) although no one at MTV told us. We happened to see the trophy in the glass case at MTV's lobby!). Later that year, H-Gun was called upon to create the show packaging for the 1993 MTV Music Video Awards. Shortly thereafter, Fox TV Network engaged H-Gun in show packaging and intersticial bumpers for an off the wall sketch comedy show, "The Edge." When Cartoon Network launched in 1994, H-Gun was contracted for work, by Betty Cohen, a founder of Cartoon Network, and still today, it's President. H-Gun continued to evolve and build its clientel, and eventually helped launch networks such at MTV2, and ZDTV (now TechTV). H-Gun was also hired to re-design Comedy Central's on-air presence. Many other projects for many other networks soon followed.
By the time the company closed, H-Gun had worked for these broadcast clients:
Fox Networks, The Edge, launch, Roseanne's Saturday Night Special, launch, Bravo/United Broadcasting, Michael Moore's The Awful Truth, E! Entertainment (Howard Stern),Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network Latin America, TBS Superstation, TNT, TNT Latin America, TCM Turner Classic Movies, HBO, MTV, MTV Latin America, MTV2, Locomotion, She TV (Tokyo), SCI FI Channel, SF (Tokyo), ZDTV/Tech TV, Animal Planet, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, 10th Planet Productions
H-Gun eventually went on to earn many more international design awards via the International Monitor Awards, and Broadcast Design Association (BDA).
Ch-ch-ch-changes:
In 1993, co-founder Eric Zimmermann left the company to pursue his solo career in LA. Eric Matthies and Wing Ko also moved to LA to pursue the film scene that Chicago was not providing for them. Patrick Siemer was promoted from within the company as a key designer and eventually director and directing animator. In 1996-97, Patrick became a minority shareholder. Also, during those years, each H-Gun artist was called upon to take leadership as director, key designer, and editor for many projects.
Many employees stayed with the company for several years. Deep friendships within the company and in the local film/video communities, contributed to this longevity. Most former H-Gun interns and employees have become successful in their creative fields and H-Gun is proud to have helped launch their careers. H-Gun also helped initiate the careers of several other directors who have gone on to other companies and pursuits, such as Spike Jonze, Paul Andresen, Nancy Bardawil, and Frank Kozik. Eric Matthies went on to produce many videos for Satellite/Propaganda and Wing Ko is now involved with On Video, a skateboard video producer and syndicator.
Other notable H-Gunners and what they're doing now:
Robert Bial is a design leader at Somersault in Chicago.
Adrian Dimond is a leading CGI/3D animator living in Los Angeles.
Doug Carney-lives in San Francisco and works as a freelance animator, designer, illustrator.
Chris O'Dowd-lives in San Francisco and works as a freelance animator, designer and is involved with writing software for live tour films.
Tau Gerber-lives in San Francisco and works as a freelance animator, designer, and is involved with the DJ and VJ scene.
Lisa Rubinelli - freelance design director in motion graphics, lives in LA.
Dawn Rubin-lives in Vancouver, BC and is executive producer at Global Mechanic, an animation studio.
Dawn Smallman - living in Portland, making documentarys, freelancing in production and tending to her garden.
Barbara Schwarz-lives in LA with her husband Andrew, a freelance FIRE artist. She is a producer.
Jared Plummer is a partner with Damon Meena at Transistor Studios.
Mak Knighton lives in London, England. He is married to an English las, and he works for a top shelf documentary production studio.
Sara Kraft- is living in San Francisco and involved with the performing arts as a performer, writer and free spirit.
Jason Novak a former intern went on to evolve his band to become a nationally recognized band, Acumen Nation. His inspiration was Ministry and he was a dedicated H-Gun intern.
Christian Matts was an intern who is now a leading graphic designer at The White House, an editorial shop in Chicago.
Trish Hoskins a short-term H-Gun producer now works in the broadcast department at Publicis-Mid America.
Roxanna Markewicz-is raising her daughter with her husband Craig (an H-Gun set and prop builder) and working freelance with Angle Park Productions.
Lisa Formissano- Lab Manager, left H-Gun to be an associate producer at documentary production company, Towers Productions.
Jason Voke - Creative Artist/Designer at Digital Kitchen.
Laura Dame-lives in San Francisco. She is involved with costume design and occasionally does acting or performance engagements..
TV Advertising
In 1994 H-Gun began to create left of center TV Commercials for the more daring ad agencies. Often, agencies would send "blank" storyboards and just ask H-Gun to create something that would fit the overall scenario or verbal requests. In other cases, H-Gun was given creative control to finesse the storyboards and take the work on its own course. It was an exciting time. While some Chicago agencies wanted to keep H-Gun as their own secret weapon, years later, the local industry press would deem H-Gun too popular and opt to disregard the 11 BDA International Design Awards it had received in one year.
California Dreaming:
In 1995, H-Gun opened an office in Hollywood on the WKTLA studio lot at Sunset and Gower. It was a converted cantina. Admittedly, the office was not run very well, though it was fun while it lasted. The company closed the studio there after one year. In 1997 H-Gun made a new initiative to California and set up its first SF studio in Hayes Valley, 149 Fell Street the home of Snazelle Productions. San Francisco was a Mecca for animation and that was the "chosen" city for H-Gun to expand and to eventually re-locate to. In 1998, H-Gun found a larger more versatile studio in the Mission District at 587 Shotwell Street. More people from Chicago moved to San Francisco in a slow exodus. Finally in November of 1999, H-Gun closed its Chicago studios and the whole company minus Jim Deloye who remained in Chicago with his family. Jim commuted and did a lot of phone work between Chicago and San Francisco. Several people who made the move to San Francisco remain there as well as the studio for their use.
Music and Sound Design:
Much of the visual work that H-Gun did was accompanied by it's in-house music and sound design. With 2 H-Gun associates having music tracks that were charting on the underground and indie playlists, H-Gun developed a reputation for its edgy brand of music and sound design. Years before "techno" became a buzz word at agencies, H-Gun composers were knocking out hard, youth-driven music for clients like Hyundai, Levi Strauss, MTV, Cartoon Network, and Comedy Central. In 1998, a spin-off of H-Gun was created called Plug'd Music & Sound Design. Jim Colao, a long time audio contributor to H-Gun, is Executive Producer/Composer. Studios are in Chicago and San Francisco.
www.plugdmusic.com
Tidbits:
(Not a complete list...)
•Until the end in 2001 and from various stages of its inception, H-Gun had created a vast body of work.
•Four Star review by Rolling Stone for its long form Ministry home video "In Case You Didn't Show Up Live."
•Several works featured in film festivals around the world
•Work was curated by museums
•Created TV Spots
•Helped launch, re-design or re-brand TV Networks
•Achieved Buzz Bin status for videos on MTV
•Had scenes of its videos included in TV series and theatrical releases, documentaries
•Investigated by the FBI and various police forces
•Featured on Hard Copy and A Current Affair for allegedly documenting the death of Nine Inch Nails lead singer, Trent Reznor
•Made a rare video bringing heavy metal and rap together where Public Enemy and Anthrax collaborated on PE's "Bring Tha Noize."
•Filmed several multi-camera live concerts
•Filmed abroad in Sydney, London, Mexico City, Toronto, Vancouver, Paris
Over the years, the company had experienced acclaim, notoriety, triumphs, shareholder hassles, growth, and maturity. H-Gun became known around the world and even developed a fan base among digital artists, filmmakers and music enthusiasts. But the cult-like status meant that many others knew nothing about H-Gun.
And in the end:
In July of 2000, the partners Eric Koziol, Patrick Siemer, Jim Deloye and Benjamin Stokes decided that they would close the company. Each partner felt it was desirable to discover new opportunities in the creative arts and to remain friends, the way the company was formed. The company had run its course and the partners were zapped of their H-Gun energies. And so, in January of 2001, the company finished with its commitments to clients and the company ceased to operate.
Today:
Now, each former partner is pursuing new frontiers. Jim Deloye has launched The Candy Store. Benjamin Stokes is pursuing his music label and lust for recording with his company, Tinocorp. Patrick Siemer is freelancing as a director/designer and operates his own design boutique, Tape And Glue. Eric Koziol is pursuing photography, teaching applied multi media in Europe and consulting Res Media in its various promotions with sponsors for digital filmmakers. In many cases, the friendships remain in tact.
(LAST UPDATED SPRING 2004)
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