The Ink Tank has wrapped on a new stylized documentary for PBS entitled FASHIONATION. The 30-minute program takes a tour of the high fashion world using animation, archival material, runway footage and original interviews with curators and designers Karl Lagerfeld, Sonia Rykiel and Christian Lacroix.
Ink Tank blended together stylized caricatures, rotoscoping, live-action, and graphics for the visual feel of the show, which emphasizes style before everything. Produced by Ink Tank, the doc was directed, written and designed by fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo, with the live-action interviews conducted by Michael Quinn and RMPQ Holdings.
Head of production, Richard O'Connor, said, "Ruben had an overall idea of what he wanted out of the film. We knew that it would take mixing all these different forms to get it. We loved his artwork, and we love the idea of working on documentaries."
Financial backing for the program came from Nordstroms. The new live-action footage was shot with consumer Sony VX1000 cameras with editing done in AVID Media Composer. The animation was primarily done in AfterEffects and Flash with some work done in Lightbox. The crew included creative director, R. O. Blechman; exec producers, Michael Quinn and Betsy Pierce; exec producer/co-creative director, Brian O'Connell; head of production, O'Connor; animators, Hiroko Nagao, O'Connor, Alexandra Reshanov and Mary Varn; and editor, David Etkin.
The Ink Tank is a New-York based animation firm whose credits include work on BETWEEN THE LIONS, SESAME STREET, live-action/animated videos for Nickelodeon, shorts for Comedy Central and SNL as well as numerous commercials. For more information visit www.inktank.net.
