(TOP) LEFT: REEBOK WRAPSHEAR, 2005. Motion Theory's directors and designers combined forces in order to create THE BURGEONING CITY, which seamlessly integrates L.A. locations and a full CG city. RIGHT: Music video for Beck's “GIRL,” 2005. When considering how to visually represent Beck's lighthearted tone and dark lyrics for “GIRL,” Motion Theory found inspiration in Al Jaffee's classic fold-ins for MAD Magazine—creating real-life scenes where reality seems to fold in on itself. (MIDDLE) CENTER: HP “IT CONSOLIDATES,” 2004. Motion Theory directed and designed “IT CONSOLIDATES” to represent the consolidating power of HP’s newest enterprise server. RIGHT: RESFEST 2004 opening. Teaming with illustrators Kozyndan, Motion Theory directed and animated the 90-second opener for RESFEST, which combines motion-control filming with 3D animation in a series of inventive scenes connected into a single camera move. BOTTOM: NO PLACE, USA, senior thesis project at CCAC. “I Have long been interested in just what constitutes a sense of place. I found the suburbs of San Francisco to be like so many others, and at night quite eery and stark. I began driving around the peripheries in the wee hours with one hand on the wheel and one hand gripping my camcorder out the window of my car,” Slane explains.

Mike Slane, Motion Theory Latin Name: Visionis Grandis Age: 35 323.243.3801 | www.typeshift.com

Motion Theory is one of those basketball-in-the-back kind of studios where there’s so much going on, the designers can’t really go much further than that court for a break. But today, it’s a little too quiet for Mike Slane, who looks genuinely upset there’s not more to do. “We just wrapped a Cadillac job on Monday,” he says. “All the freelancers went home and it’s kind of depressing.”

Thoughtful, soft-spoken, and 100-percent workaholic, Slane has applied himself at this top pop factory since 2002, when he stumbled into a position at the Venice, Calif., firm after graduating from CCA just months before. Slane considers himself extremely lucky to work at the intersection of cultural and commercial triumphs, where projects for Nike and HP regularly sweep award shows and imbed themselves into consumer lobes. “We bring as much art and playfulness as we can to the work,” Slane explains. “But the ultimate goal is still to sell the product.”

Although Slane is happy to do commercial work, his film No Place is about corporate sprawl—the box stores’ relationship with rural America. Slane has a degree in geography, a fascination with the organization of space and places, and a photographer’s eye that combine for an informed and intelligent commentary. Jim Kenney, assistant professor at CCA, puts it best: “Mike understands what it takes to produce short films within a design structure—to communicate with an aesthetic integrity. He is the rare mix of creativity and maturity—driven but managed.”

Slane loves mixing traditional techniques with the “mechanics of technology”: lining up all the bits throughout the process to make projects perfect. He marvels at the collaborative nature of motion and he embraces the challenges of the medium. “Film and TV are so vast, there are so many aspects that I could be better at,” he says. And with that, it’s back to work—and a big smile—for Slane.
Alissa Walker