We all know (or at least any self-respecting creative aficionado should) that the Black Heart Gang have been doing great things. From the ‘Tale Of How’ to the amazing aural and cinematic splendor that was their United Airlines advert [click to view the work] the BHG have been solidly providing us with sound cinematic masterpieces.

On a recent chat with my friend Markus Wormstorm I was privy to the information that the Black Heart Gang were working for EA Games on a few shorts for the game The Return Of Alice; the sequel to the original Alice game.

This project was too good to pass undocumented, so I sat down with Markus for a short Q&A to gain some insight into the project:

Well firstly, how did The Black Heart Gang get involved with this project?

We were asked to pitch on it by our American/European Agents, Passion Pictures. It was us, Pete Candeland (the music video director for the Gorillaz) and some other company all competing against each other. Am I Collective [click] helped us with some style frames during the pitch, Ree and Linsey did character sketches. And I wrote the stories and made audio treatments. In the end we won!

What is your involvement in the Return of Alice?

We are doing the campaign and three movies in the game. [the first one is the video at the top of this page]

How do you tackle something like this creatively? I mean, for a production of this scale, does it affect the way you approach it?

My biggest concern was to get the initial ideas perfect. We want to create something that is psychologically dark as apposed to scary. We work with symbolism and archetypes to create images and scenarios that are truelly disturbing.

I think that you need a concrete base to work from, or else you might find that you’ve wasted a lot of peoples time making something thats “Ok“, instead of brilliant. Its easy to get the first step wrong, because anyone can come up with an idea. Right?

A lot of time needs to be spent on an idea for it to develope beyond someones two cents.

Of course an idea is literally nothing without the music and art direction which manifests it, but the content is what makes something hit or miss.

Once the idea is formed it is vital that each key member of the operation should be able to visualize the process and the end result in his or her own way. I think trust is also important in a set up like ours. I would, for instance, never try to enforce my ideas on Rees art directing or push to get my way with the directing on Jannes.

This is quite a big step in terms of recognition as well as a massive foot in the door into the gaming market, is this something that you guys have always wanted or aimed to achieve?

Yes we’ve been planning our own Black Heart Gang game title for sometime. This is, as you say, a very good opportunity to speak to the right people!

What are your future plans with something like this? Do you have more plans to work on games or even make some yourself?

As I said we hope to create our own game in the next five to ten years. I’m presently working on another game called Dawn of The Fly with Breakdesign. and Rick Treweek and I indent to make many more for the iPad platform in the next year.

Nice guys… really great work!!!!

WANT MORE?

• the black heart gang website
• return of alice (american mcgee)

Happy Tuesday y’all

So a couple months back part of my Facebook feed was about my homie Lebo who had been making some kind of fancy video that was doing the round. I knew he was a filmaker but I never asked any further questions. Anyway I watched the videos and discovered that they featured Damon Dash. WHAT? DAMON DASH? YES.

I contacted with Lebo who is currently living in Beijing and I asked him to talk me through what he’s been up to and how the hell he ended up making a documentary with one of the legends of hiphop. I’ve also asked him a couple of personal questions for those of you that don’t know who he is yet. Read closely because one day he’ll be very famous.

So who are you and what do you do?

I’m Lebo, and I kinda live a double life. I am this scholarly/bookish dude writing my masters thesis by day, and working as a videographer by night making documentaries about sub-cultures in Beijing…it gets a little weird at times…

What is this project with Damon Dash about?

Damon Dash came to China to “check it out”, and when he was in Beijing-he got hold of people I know and work with…

How did you get involved?

Well, when he came over, his people got in touch with people that I work with. “Sexy Beijing” is a popular online TV station that I have done work with and DJ WORDY (3x China DMC Champion) is a good friend of mine and we’ve done videos together (check it here). The other dude in the video is MC WEBBER – China’s freestyle prodigy-I’m working on this video called “section 6″ and its about this monthly underground hip-hop party featuring some of Beijing’s dopest mc’s, b-boys etc, and Webber hosts it, I have these killer freestyles of him in it-I wish everyone in the world spoke Chinese so they could understand what he was saying-the kid is hot!!! Anyway so naturally, when they were looking for someone to shoot Damon Dash coming to Beijing, they called me…

China is pretty flippn far away so how did you end up there and thus in this project?

I don’t know, I wanted to learn Chinese and I wanted to pursue filmmaking as a career and I didn’t want to be another one of those South Africans that go to America or London, I just wanted to do something different, something no one has ever done before. And when I got there, I was lucky enough to meet good people. And of course my interests lead my to those people, so it was a pretty organic process.

Who is the crazy stylish lady playing hostess?

Oh her, that’s Anna Sophie , aka Sufei … she is amazing. She is the star of Sexy Beijing… she doesn’t really shine in this episode but if you get a chance you should check out some of their shows…nothing mind blowing, but she is on fire …

Any plans for future projects like this?

Yeah, hopefully Damon Dash signs Wordy to roc-a-fella, and Wordy and I go to New York and I film the second part of what could be a potentially awesome document on the progression of Chinese hip-hop.

What else are you involved in over China side?

A bunch of stuff, but in short, making music videos and videos about music, documentating the Beijing underground hip-hop scene, making sandwiches for everyone involved in the Beijing hip-hop scene and more importantly; making films that deal with the realities and conditions of the African Diaspora living in Beijing.

Is there anywhere online where we can check what else you get up to?

Yeah, I kinda have a vimeo page but its nothing official yet…I’m in the process of putting more stuff up…it should be cooking in the next month or so…and for those of you who do actually end up on my vimeo page, i commend you to watch “Sino”. Its a short film, the first part in a trilogy I am working on about the African Diaspora in Beijing. All of the things I have done, I really love this one the most. (Check out his vimeo page here).

I hope this inspired y’all to go and do something valuable today.

Happy Tuesday.

Anths.

Bi.son

noun ( pl. same) a humpbacked shaggy-haired wild ox.

The guys over at BISON have a paranormal gift for creating striking art, illustration and design. Their style lies somewhere within the oxymoron of DIY sophistication, and their peculiar layout and edgy type treatments always employ a shameless shift towards the experimental.

Their process uses techniques as bizarre as printing onto ‘non printable’ materials, and utilizing found objects such as human hair in their artworks. Call it odd, but you can’t deny the outcome is something of genius.

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They are a Cape Town based studio, and have been featured in Computer Arts [UK], iDN [Hong Kong], and One Small Seed [SA] to name a few.

We caught up with the rare and mystical beast that is BISON, for some telepathic Q&A.

DP: First up, coming from a country with such an array of odd animals, why the name BISON, a creature so alien to us?

B: I originally wanted to use the name for some music I was making about two months before myself and Linsey ever discussed starting Bison. The night after we decided to start something in the line of art and design, the name came back to me and seemed to fit perfectly and I liked the fact that it was born of another very expressive medium, music – something which we are both very passionate about.

DP: You guys have a very unusual style, is there any formula behind your design, or is it spontaneous from the beginning?

B: Usually it is pretty spontaneous and in the moment type thing, or when the inspiration drives it, But sometimes when we deal with corporate clients they often want to see a plan and progress so they can comment on the direction before the end result…we have been fortunate to have some clients who believe in and trust the decisions we make during the design process enough to leave us to our own devices or natural process.

It’s hard sometimes to try find the balance between allowing the project to unfold in a very spontaneous way and brief or timeline constraints.

DP: What tools/media/technology do you use to create your pieces?

B: Photography, flatbed scanners, any mark-making tools like pen, pencil, paint etc, and then there is an Imac and a mac mini.

DP: What would you say is the most important factor in your creative process?

B: Probably subjectivity and intuition. As long as something feels right to you – go with that feeling.

DP: How do you see yourselves within the SA design industry? Would you say that it directly influences you, or are your inspirations somewhat more abstract?

B: We wouldn’t limit our influences to the field of art and design, in any country, just because that’s what we do. Inspiration comes from our experiences everyday; it could be something a friend said, family, nature, music…anything really. Having said that, I think for such a small place we have an amazing amount of creativity flowing though Cape Town and the rest of S.A and that in itself is an inspiration to keep pushing.

DP: How do you see the SA design industry in relation to Europe and the rest of the world?

B: South Africa is hugely underrated when is comes to art and design. We could all identify a Dutch designed poster, a graphic identity from New York or a classic British design…what I like about South African art and design is that although it has strong roots, (on the whole) we don’t have a style that is particular to our geographic situation and culture. It shows that we are using our subjectivity rather than producing what would be expected from a South African designer. Although there is nothing wrong with celebrating our strong heritage and diverse cultures though art and design.

DP: What artist, brand or collective would you most like to collaborate with?

B: Anyone really. When it comes to collabs its usually with the people we meet and just get along with.

DP: What advice would you give to those young’ens that wanna become a BISON when they grow up?

B: Take up a musical instrument, start a band with your friends. Watch Wes Anderson movies. But just be honest and true to yourself, that’s all.

DP: Why did the BISON cross the road?

B: It liked the sound it’s hooves made on the hard asphalt as apposed to the usual soft grass it had become accustomed to.

You heard it! BISON has spoken.

Check out BISON’s way cool website over here, and their Behance folio this side.

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Local Cape Town based artist BAKAbeans recently caught my attention in a big way! His pieces seem like a combination of Seth McFarlane and Salvador Dali, with such complex and intricate attention to detail he produces kind of twisted, motion driven compositions where insane character sketches meets a world of warped graffiti.

What struck me about his work is just the pure intensity of each piece: Each work is so full and epic that it takes you a while to fully grasp how much time has actually gone into its creation; as your eyes adjust to the imagery you start to realize the absolute complexity of it all.

In my opinion BAKAbeans is the epitomy of the modern artist, using non-conformist methods to express the inner man whilst slamming work in the corner of peoples eye in a Banksy-esque manner.

I caught up with the man himself and ask him a few questions about his life, his art, and his geyser!

1.           So when I came to your house yesterday, I understand it had been a bit of an epic morning for you?  What happened?

Geyser fucked out and flooded the place. Super awesome.

2 .        When you started creating art, what was you goal? Where you in a graffiti based mind-set, or where you looking towards a more classical approach? i.e. did you always start with the intention of being a “modern” artist (if that’s how you see yourself)?

I’ve been drawing since i remember. I’ve had plenty influences on the way. it was less of me wanting to be an artist and more of me just doing what i needed to do. I get quite irratable if I don’t create things!

3.         Who are your heroes? Past and present… the guys you look up to?

Plenty plenty. I would consider anyone I’m influenced by in a positive way a hero. SIngeling out a few just wouldn’t do everyone else justice!

4.         How do you rate SA artists of your kind of origin on a global scale?

SA’s Got Talent

5.         Where do you, ideally, want to be in 5 years?

uh, 5 years older and still creating things!

6.         If you could do a commissioned piece for anyone in the world (artist or otherwise) who would it be? Why?

Wow hectic question. I’d rather do a work for anyone who values what i do, rather than seeking approval.

7.         What would you create for them?

Extraterrestrial Puke Art

8.         Take us through the process of your “creations”? Do you have a goal, or objective when you start sketching or do you kind of start and end up where you end up?

At the moment a lot of it kind of creates itself. Otherwise I’ll sketch it up and formulate a concept.

9.         The office, the mighty boosh or not the nine-o-clock news

The mighty boosh and The Office (UK version preferably)

10.       Did you vote in the SA elections?

Next time…

**BAKAbeans is going to be doing a PIECE for dont party and it is going to be GIVEN AWAY at the DONT PARTY in “the little shop of horrors” event!

To check out more of the life and times of the BAKAbeans check out his FLICKR and his BLOG