A mysterious animated journey unfolds in Balloonerism, a new 22-minute short inspired by the second posthumous album from Mac Miller (1992-2018). Produced by Hornet and directed by Samuel Jerome Mason — who also created the SXSW selected music video for “Colors and Shapes” by the late hip hop artist — the film about confronting your fears is now available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.
The short follows a group of school friends who are transfigured by the music of a chord organ and launched into a shadow world. Swallowed by the ‘turtle of time,’ they must plod through the underbelly of adulthood.
Created in texturally realistic 3D CG, Balloonerism‘s story’s concept was anchored by the lyric, “But do you feel as big as your shadow?” According to Mason, the five central characters were conjured from lines from the song “Excelsior,” which inspired the director to explore the messiness of growing up and how time impacts our evolution into adulthood.
Balloonerism is directed by Mason with animation direction by Daniel Callaby, who was a lead aniamtor and layout artist on Arcane Season 1. Heather Hardin produced the project for Hornet. Wobbly Way Productions assisted with animation production and modeling under producer Stephanie Demeautis; Stim supported look and development.
Exec producers were Greg Bedard, Michael Feder, Hana Shimizu and Miller McCormick for Hornet; Remember Music, Warner Records and 4 Strikes.
[H/T Motionographer]
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