| Studio in the Spotlight, 1998 Creative |
 How was 1998 Creative born? 1998 is a concept that's constantly evolving. Having known each other since childhood, we’ve grown up together and as a result, have become interested in the same things. I
How did the concept for the 10 commandments come about? We knew that we wanted our next project to be done using stop motion animation, and we wanted it to be accessible to everyone. Having the expertise of animation studio Global Mechanic in our corner certainly made the whole process easier on us. They provided us with the wisdom that made these videos possible. So making a 10 part series of the 10 Commandments just logically fit the picture. It's a well known story, and the idea of presenting it in a fairly straight forward way, but in a style that sort of undermines that seriousness, appeals to our sense of humour. For us, using fruits and vegetables as the main characters was a no-brainer, that’s just where our sense of humor comes in.
Having a fruit or vegetable emote sadness or happiness is a constant challenge. If you feel a disconnect between yourself and the tomato protagonist, then we haven’t done our job as storytellers. With this being a 10 part series, we don’t want the content to become tedious and predictable, so you’ll be seeing an evolution with the release of each subsequent animation. Another challenge we face is dealing with real fruit. Working with an unpeeled banana under hot set-lights is frustrating to say the least. There’s a lot of hurry up and shoot followed promptly by reshooting. But in the end, it’s worth it. Can you take us through your creation process? The creative process begins with the choice of which commandment we want to tackle. We'll usually start by brainstorming the different ways that one could break that commandment. Then we typically narrow it down to about 2 or 3 solid ideas before we start introducing potential fruits and vegetables to tell the story with. Once we’ve agreed upon the story and the vegetable, we move forward. What's next for 1998 Creative? While these Commandments will keep us busy for the next while, we like to keep different projects on the go. You’ll be seeing a couple entertaining and informative PSA’s (Public Service Announcements) and a couple print ads down the line as well as various art projects for galleries and other websites. Is there anything else you would like to add? Yes, if you're an artist living in Vancouver and you're interested in collaborating on a project, get in touch with us. We're always looking for new creative partners. We're like jazz musicians: we're professionally promiscuous. You can contact us at 1998creative@gmail.com.
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