The Rose: Come Back to Me

Coming to theaters on Friday February 13th in the US, and the 14th internationally, The Rose: Come Back to Me. This is an intimate documentary showcasing the dramatic rise of The Rose, a Korean indie rock band with roots in the K-pop training system. After cultivating a millions-strong global fanbase, a label dispute forces them into a years-long hiatus. Now, they are back, with an electrifying tour—and on their own terms.

423 Motion was brought on to design the main title for this wonderful feature, as well as motion graphics and photo animations throughout. Catch it in theaters this coming week — it’s played to sold-out audiences in festivals around the world already.

Unseen PBS Premiere March 18, 2024

The feature documentary Unseen, which 423 Motion contributed motion design to, will be premiering this month on PBS.

The film did well on the festival circuit, winning audience and jury awards including the Truer than Fiction award at the Independent Spirit Awards 2024.

423 Motion worked with the Unseen post production crew to create a visual representation of the theme song for the end credits — the idea being to give audience members who might be deaf or low-hearing to have a visual experience that echoes the music playing over the end credits.

https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/unseen/

Map Animations for The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Last year we worked with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on map animations with data visualizations for several short documentaries. Our maps were used to help illustrate bird migrations, pronghorn movement, and cedar encroachment. These are all part of a series and the entire site is worth checking out:

Grasslands Conservation in the Northern Great Plains

Embedded here are the three documentaries that feature our map animations.

2022 Tribeca Film Festival features two projects we worked on

Our work is featured in two documentaries that premiered in this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

For A Rising Fury, we created animations, titles, and credits. It premiered on June 10th.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 caught the world by surprise and seized our attention, but the war’s roots were laid far earlier. Filmed over eight years, A Rising Fury tracks the evolution of the conflict in Ukraine, from the 2013 Maidan Revolution in Kyiv, Ukraine to today. The documentary intimately accompanies Pavlo, a young idealist who enlists in the Ukrainian army to defend his country following Russia’s invasion of the Donbas and Crimea regions in 2014. In this vicious struggle between two culturally intertwined nations where friends can suddenly become foes, Pavlo finds himself on the opposite side of the battlefield from many he once considered allies as he fervently acts to defend his country’s independence, sovereignty, and democracy.

From expansive, deadly firefights to personal moments of intimacy, Directors Lesya Kalynska and Ruslan Batytskyi drop viewers directly into the front lines of the war with a boots-on-the-ground view, allowing us to bear witness to a bloody and impassioned act of resistance to an invasion that is tearing both country and family apart. ⁠—Julien Devlin

For Liquor Store Dreams, we worked on title design for credits and lower thirds. It also premiered on June 10th.

The debut feature of So Yun Um is a moving personal film about immigrant dreams and generational divides. It follows So and her friend Danny, both “liquor store babies,” whose Korean parents made the best of limited opportunities by running liquor stores in Black and Brown communities in Los Angeles. So explores her own dreams of a filmmaking career, a mystery to her bemused but supportive father. Danny returns from a dream job at Nike to help with his mother’s store in LA’s Skid Row, reimagining it as a resource to build bridges between Black and Korean communities. Liquor Store Dreams also places these struggles in the larger context of Korean-Black relations in Los Angeles, including the 1991 murder of Latasha Harlins in a Korean convenience store, the 1992 uprisings sparked by the police brutality against Rodney King and ensuing looting of Korean businesses, and growing political organizing.

So’s appealing, thoughtful voice offers a unique window on a new generation’s efforts to respect their parents’ sacrifices while remaining true to their own aspirations and contributing to a vibrant, evolving community.--Robert C. Winn

Finding Yingying Nominated for an Emmy

Finding Yingying, which we worked on last year doing a title sequence and motion graphics throughout, has been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary. It’s in some powerful company with these nominees. Stream it now on Paramount+ or PlutoTV.

Animation for users new to Twitter

423 Motion partnered with Atomic D on this project. We worked on storyboards and animation.

Hey! New around here? We’ve got answers to all the Twitter 101 questions.

Let’s get started with the basics: https://t.co/pVn9LyDXSQ #TwitterTips pic.twitter.com/P6nYoMGFOg

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 9, 2020

Finding Yingying Secures Distribution With MTV

MTV Documentary Films has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Finding Yingying. 423 Motion contributed motion graphics to the film, which premiered at SXSW 2020.

Samsung VX Virtual Experience Teaser

Recent work done for Samsung’s online virtual Back to Business event:

Bird Stress animation for Cornell University Ornithology Lab

423 Motion teamed up with Cornell University to create this informative animation based on a research study they conducted. Talented illustrator Kosta Gregory lent his design skills to the project.

Stress is a common part of modern life, and everyone has experienced its negative effects. Many people even suffer health impacts from chronic stress. So why...

Hollywood Reporter Review of Finding Yingying

“Finding Yingying is also a deft portrait of a family on the razor’s edge between hope and dread — precarious emotional terrain”

— Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

423 Motion created a title sequence and numerous animated graphics throughout this powerful feature documentary.

Read the whole review here.

Finding Yingying wins jury award at SXSW 2020

Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice: Finding Yingying Director: Jiayan & Shi

“This poignant documentary, which follows the story of Yingying Zhang, a Chinese graduate student whose disappearance in America leads her family to come search for her, combines the care and steadfastness of a true-crime procedural with a rare sensitivity to questions of cultural difference, family dynamics, and the immigrant experience.”

See full list of jury winners in Variety.

423 Motion created opening titles and animated graphics throughout this powerful documentary.

Animation for Twitter

423 Motion worked with creative agency Atomic D on this short video for Twitter announcing a new feature. We animated the UI, text, and fine-tuned the pacing and edit.

Give the gift of GIFs. You can now upload your iOS Live Photos as GIFs anywhere you upload photos on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/D8TIfsBwyd

— Twitter (@Twitter) December 11, 2019

D2IQ Rebrand

423 Motion worked with D2IQ (d2iq.com) on their brand relaunch explainer video.

Storyboards/Illustration by Peter Vandendriesse, Produced by Dave Malloure

Minding The Gap Among the Best Films of 2018

423 Motion worked on the titles, credits, and some photo animations throughout this beautiful multiple-award-winning documentary released on Hulu this past summer.

Recently it’s been included on a multitude of best-of lists, including Paste Magazine’s 10 Best Documentaries, The Ringer’s 10 Best Movies (#2), and the New York Times’ AO Scott’s Best of the Year (first place).

Vaccines.gov Animations

The US Department of Health and Human Services wanted to create a series of friendly and approachable videos about the importance and reality of vaccination for their website vaccines.gov. CommunicateHealth created the script and design, and we animated it and did the sound design.

The series is here: https://www.vaccines.gov/resources/videos_and_tools/index.html

GIF of the Week: 120316

GIF from a current project here:

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GIF of the Week: 100716

Made in Cinema 4D

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GIF of the Week: 091616

GIF excerpt from a recent project

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Work Excerpt of the Week

Bates Bird 3D animation, produced by Six Point Creative, for Bates Communication

GIF-of-the-week: 081216

Work excerpt GIF of the week

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