I’m still not sure I believe this project actually happened. I’m still not sure it’s real. But if I go here, I see that it did happen, and it is real. How bizarre, how bizarre.
I had worked with director Joe Posner on a series of explainer videos for Vox,when they were first launching in 2014. The first video I designed and animated for Joe (this one) got featured in prime time on MSNBC the day after it launched, which was neat. Another one (this one) got almost a million views the week that it launched, which was also neat. Point being, Joe and I had a good working relationship from those first few animated videos. The content was interesting and working for him felt easy, and was more like working with him.
So when Joe called and said he wanted to talk to me about a project but couldn’t until I signed an NDA, I was immediately interested. I signed it, still not knowing if the timing, scope, etc. would work out. But I wanted to hear about it and hoped it would work out.
We talked a couple days later. “So let me tell you about that project I was being so cagey about,” Joe began. “We have an hour with the president later this week.” [The who. The what. Do what now. The president… of what? Wait, Joe is still talking.] “…so we’re going to interview him about a few things and add animation to it. We’re gonna need some help because it’s a lot. The thing is I don’t know what we’ll need exactly since we don’t know what he’s going to say.” [Right. Sure. What the freaking president is going to say. Yup.] “But it’s going to be a quick turnaround – we don’t want to sit on this for very long.”
[Long pause]
“…………. Um the prezyeah um OK yeah, right, sure. Yes. OK. Yes. I’m in. Are you kidding? Are you serious? Of course? Tell me what you need and I’ll do it.”
My response, or something close to that. After the footage was shot, the process was fast-paced but fun. Joe and I mostly communicated via text believe it or not, with a few phone calls sprinkled in between, and it worked out well and felt pretty smooth. Early on in the workflow, Estelle Caswell made a great little animation that really unlocked the direction of the graphics from that point going forward… simple representations of the idea being discussed using geometric shapes that at times were tied to Obama’s movements, and at other times acted independently from the footage environment. We sort of got into a rhythm, and it got to the point where Joe would say “I need something for this section,” and I would make something rough and send it and he would say, “yeah but more like this…” or “no, it needs to be more…” or every now and then, “Yes, that’s it. Do that.”
It was a ridiculous honor to be asked to be involved. Estelle Caswell and Joss Fong (both work at Vox) also contributed awesome stuff on the motion side of things. Joe Posner directed and edited the interview, directed the motion graphics, composited the animations… he probably wrote the music and answered the questions too. I don’t even know. He was everywhere.
Oh, and the White House tweeted about it with a thumbnail that had stuff I made. That was pretty neat.
You can watch the full conversation series here. Below are some animations and stills of some of the stuff I made. Thanks for reading!
