Vocalist Meg Myers and director Jo Roy enlisted 2,130 children from all over the United States and Canada to help create a unique video for her cover of the classic Kate Bush song “Running Up That Hill”. The resulting stop-motion was animated with frames that were hand-colored with crayons.
…Meg climbed monkey bars, hung upside down, flew using a harness and wires …we erased all the rigging, added animation components that were moved around using visual effects (including wings), and put every frame through a photoshop filter to define the “coloring book” lines. Then, the frames were printed off into individual coloring pages which were distributed to 10 schools and various organizations in Los Angeles and Canada for children to color with real crayons also provided.
Many of the children participating were from the “Heart of Los Angeles” (HOLA) school, a teaching environment that offers underserved children equal footing in the areas of arts, academics, athletics, and wellness programs.
As part of her partnership with HOLA, Meg and the producer of the video, Jo Roy taught animation classes to elementary school students. The frames they made during the classes were then composited together, and used in the video. The result is an ethereal and highly captivating animated journey. With every frame being radically unique, the only constant is the certainty of change.
