http://www.r000g000b000.net
TRANSISTOR STUDIOS
A panda bear with a past meets a mackerel in a Sergeant Pepper uniform to tragicomic effect in Black, a short film directed by Transistor Studios’ Saiman Chow for Adidas Adicolor shoes. Chow and six other directors were handpicked by Adidas to create a unique podcast campaign for the groundbreaking custom-sneaker relaunch.

Given total creative freedom by Adidas, Chow chose to create a stop-motion live-action film noir that explores the dark underbelly of homicidal wildlife. “It is my version of a piñata,” he says. “Destruction equals celebration.”

“I have always been intrigued by ghosts. I grew up in Hong Kong, where horror movies are about ghosts and spirits. I lived in an historical part of Hong Kong with old wooden buildings with lots of trees and bushes. The Chinese are superstitious about banana trees harboring fox spirits, which are very scary. Spirits get into your body and make you do crazy stuff. Bad behavior is usually blamed on spirits—not necessarily alcoholic! Even though I was terrified of ghosts and spirits, I was intrigued by them and watched plenty of horror films, which did not make nighttime walks through my neighborhood easy ones. I always thought ghosts would come at me from the woods and bite my ass! So now as an adult, for a long time, I have wanted to do a dark theme, but in a funny way. Sort of like Casper or Ghostbusters, but not quite so light.”

The film’s aesthetic embraces bold, black-and-white graphics reminiscent of 1960s London fashion designer Mary Quant, with visual elements like stripes, polka dots and houndstooth. Chow’s love of the Beatles and psychedelic ’60s music also influenced the mackerel’s Beatles-inspired wardrobe. Chow’s Black has its own dedicated site at www.r000g000b000.net—which is the RGB code for the color black.

Production on the film totaled two months, equally split between preproduction and set building, and shooting and postproduction. Chow and his crew allowed for plenty of spontaneity on the set to let the film evolve into a truly surreal expression of blackness. Known for its eye-popping motion design, Transistor—with studios in New York City and Venice, Calif.—creates motion, liveaction, web, interactive and print design for commercials, broadcast and entertainment.
Terry Lee Stone