Cool Your Jets launched!

I feel weird writing about this on SMAC. While this blog has mostly about music and events, over the 6 years I've also written about video games, comic books, toys, TV shows and food. Basically, the full spectrum things I enjoy doing with my free time. But over those 6 years, I don't think I've ever done a post on what I do during work time. Well, that's about to change...

Back in the golden age of SMAC (2009-2011) I was working as the creative director of a kid's TV channel. It was a pretty swell gig. I got to make cute stuff for children across South Africa, worked with nice people and was afford a lot of time to myself to design posters or animate visuals or write about my adventures on this very blog. As such, I did about 500 posts over this period.

Then around mid 2011, I quit. A few month's earlier I'd toured the US with Johnny Foreigner and now I'd been invited to join the kids on a tour through Europe. Realising I wouldn't get another month off to go throw myself around a stage with 3 lovely ghosts, I made the call to bid my dear dayjob farewell and fly over to London for a month of amazing rock and roll adventures. What was i gonna do when the tour ended and I had to come back to South Africa? Cool Your Jets!

For years I'd been talking about starting a company up with the super talented illustrator, designer, animator and mega-friend Matthew McFarlane. We dreamt of starting up an entitiy that would allow us to really let our imaginations run wild. A platform to create the best illustration, design and animation that we could. Unfortunately, (for a few years at least) that idea remined just that, a dream.

For most of my time in kid's TV, McFarlane was living and working in the UK. But in 2011, with Matt moving back to SA, at the same time I bowed out from my previous job, it seemed the stars were aligning for us to finally make good on our talk of starting something up. Enter Cool your Jets.

The birth of CYJ coincided quite directly with this blog dying. We started on our first proper project in June 2011 and from there a steady stream of jobs came rushing in. Great for the company - not so great for being able to sit and blog about comic books. This torrent of exciting projects was so relentless, that we didn't even have time to launch the company officially. And so, for two years, Cool Your Jets operated like motion graphics ninjas. Executing devastating hits, but doing so from the shadows. We were off the radar, an insider's secret, unknown to the general public. That is, until now.

After two years, we're finally ready to let the whole world know that we're out here! We've set up a website, collecting some of our favoruite projects of the past two years, and cut a brand new showreel of our animation work. Which is really what this post is all about, so without any further ado - here's the 2013 Cool Your Jets Autumn reel!

Click here to visit Cool Your Jets HQ!

The Frown: Metallic Kiss

Last weekend we threw a wee launch party to premier the latest music video by The Frown. And here it is!



It's been released as a product of our animation company Cool Your Jets. That said, I sadly can not take an ounce of credit for this one, since the entire thing was animated by the overly brilliant Matt McFarlane. BUT the great news is all 3 Jets will soon be combining our creative-powers on a full trilogy of narrative music videos for the band! This forth-coming intergalactic adventure is also been produced by James Carrol, who worked with us on our video for Vampire9000 and will be shot by Justin McGee, the same wild stallion that shot the above awesomeness!

And in other Frown news; my creative-genius girlfriend Nanna has drawn a poster for the band, and it is like totally the one of the most awesome things my eyeballs have ever seen:

Rebel Alliance 5 Trailer!

Illustrations and animations from The Rebel Army have started rolling in. Things are looking pretty amazing. If you want some proof, here's the trailer for Saturday:

With all the artists getting involved in this, the guestlis for the night is huge. I'm not sure how many open seats there are gonna be in The Bioscope. You may want to book some tickets here.

Till then Rebel Scum!

Animation Jam welcomes Ricky The Rocket Panda!

I am very happy to announce the latest addition to the team collaborating on this month's Rebel Alliance Animation Jam is also our very first international participant! Welcome to the Rebel Alliance Rocket Panda!

Rocket Panda, know to the authorities as Riccardo Albertini, is a motion designer from Bergamo, Italy. His wonderfully cute name and logo, love of Star Wars and passion for creating beautiful animation was a clear sign he was a perfect fit for our motley crew of rebel scum. Plus he's got mad skills - just check out his reel!

With Rocket Panda on board the total number of animators participating in this project is now 22 (and counting)! A lovely collection of human beings with a very diverse variety of backgrounds they are:

1) Ben Rausch (Cool Your Jets)
2) Cameron Lowry (Turn Your Lights Up High)
3) Daneel Malgas (Awewolves)
4) Derrek Pitts
5) J Matthew Nix
6) Jarred Pereira (Jestr)
7) Jason Sutherland
8) Jim Nicholson
9) Gordon Bakkes
10) Lodewyk Barkhuizen (Planet Future)
11) M.J. du Preez (Doktrine)
12) Matt McFarlane (Cool Your Jets)
13) Neo Majafe
14) Philip Davies (Sheer Shurikahn)
15) PJ Kotze (Planet Future)
16) Riccardo Albertini (Rocket Panda)
17) Richard van Beek
18) Silas Lekgothi (Pencils & Crayons)
19) Stuart Ziegler
20) Sylvia McKeowen (Muis)
21) Terry Adams (Pixel Ninja)
22) Werner Redelinghuis (Cool Your Jets)

To say I'm excited about seeing how this is gonna turn out would be quite an understatement!

Rebel Alliance 3 trailer!

Rebel Alliance 3 is going down this Saturday! Here's the wee trailer we whipped up for it!

You are invited: Rebel Alliance 2!

Buy tickets here!

RSVP here!

Jozi's only rock and roll/ animation/ film mash-up night is back with Rebel Alliance 2 “Attack the Clones”!
For this month's installment we've lined up:

Poseidon Adventure!

Our live act for this month, unveiling a brand new show, taking you along with the legendary Oom as he travels through time and space!

Swart Koffie!

A short film by PJ Kotze; Racist Lizard-people, a flying boer, Proffesor Mystery & The Voortrekker Monument collide in an explosion of B-Grade Afro-Sci-Fi Awesomeness.

Earthlings!

A collection of local music video's celebrating South African landscapes, with gems from Bateleur, A Skyline on Fire, Wreslerish and Balcony.

Slave Race!

An unruly new Rebel Alliance monthly feature! For it's debut installment, expect rebellious words from George Carlin, set to animation by Matt McFarlane.

Martian Martian 2004-6!

The lastest release on SMACM; a posthumous offering of various songs from the now dead, genre-defying bedroom noise-pop producer, Martian Martian. Complied with a zine illustrated by Jean de Wet, lucky Alliance attendees can win copies and for the rest it'll be playing in The Chalkboard Cafe before and after the event.

“Pixel Pirates” vs “Turn your lights up high”!

The city's most creative visual hackers are back with more eye-melting goodness.

***

I probably don't need to mention the fact that I'm excited about this.

We do this all the time: Vampire9000 music video shoot!

Tomorrow evening at Rebel Alliance we'll be unveiling Vampire9000's "Colours" music video. The video was produced by James Carrol, shot by Lindi Goosen and features animation by Cool Your Jets. The 20th's Patrick Dineen was at the shoot, documenting what went down, and in the build up to tomorrow, I'm very happy to share some of the stuff he got!

You are invited like television! Rebel Alliance 1 Trailer!

If you missed it, on Friday night we're launch the brand new monthly SMAC night, Rebel Alliance! Here's the wee trailer i whipped up for the event:

Don't forget - you can book tickets to the show HERE!

You are invited! House of Jealous Lovers!

I can't really express just how excited I am for this one. Punk Funk is the genre that got me into DJing in the first place. It's the music I started beat mixing with and, it's easily my favourite sub-genre of dance music. That said, distancing myself from dance music and playing more rock and roll, pop and soul over the last while, I haven't played a straight up disco punk set in ages. So it was to my great joy that Ri contacted me a few weeks back with some good news. He was planning to throw another one of his awesome Disco De Moda parties, it's was gonna be punk funk themed, Matt McFarlane was designing the flyer and he wanted me to play. Unsurprisingly all I could say was "Fuck yeah!!!"

RSVP here!

You are invited! Ssshh it's Gary's Love Tempo!

Over the course of a little over 24 hours Kitchener's will be host two radically different, equally awesome events!

On Sunday afternoon Ssshh (the city's raddest quietest, sun-shineyest acoustic sessions) make their return. This sunday you can look forward to shutting up to listen to Cape Town virtuoso Gary Thomas supported by some lovley DJs!

RSVP here!

Then on monday night, to celebrate Valentines day, Disco De Moda are throwing another groove fest! Woo!

RSVP here!