Creative Vision Archive

Daniels’ candle burns bright and from both ends

Friday, February 25th, 2011

If you’ve recently smelled something smoldering in Columbia, it could be the maze of cables that link and feed the edit suite at 808 Lady St. Resigned to the recirculated air and all-to-familiar darkness of that room, editor/director/sound-designer/cine-Swiss-army-knife-incarnate Steve Daniels sits dead in the eye of an exhaustingly prolific storm, battling not only the usual Mad Monkey deadlines, but those from a string of personal projects likely to up the wattage on an already luminous body of work.

First to be released, a music video for “Still Sound”, the lead single from Toro Y Moi’s new album Underneath The Pine. To kick off his second offering under the Carpark Records banner, Chaz Bundick (Toro Y Moi) sought an organic, spontaneous affect, free of narrative constraint. Daniels, it seems, was more than happy to oblige.

“The video was free-styled all the way,” Daniels says. “We agreed it should be fun and reflect a kind of “day in the life” of Chaz dancing about Columbia, hanging out with friends, performing with the band.”


The result is raising industry eyebrows and creating the pre-release buzz demanded from an album in the digital era. The day it leaked, the video claimed front-page real estate on indie music site Pitchfork and has subsequently charted more than 38,000 views on YouTube (link to the video here). Most recently, the video and its director were profiled by the Art & Design blog The Black Harbor.

Take a peak here {http://theblackharbor.com/steve-daniels-still-sound/}, because it might be your only chance to hear from Daniels for a while. With a Heather Henson produced puppet film, Junk Palace, now in the can and final cut of his own fantasy short Dirty Silverware due at the end of the month, he’s all but welded a Do Not Disturb sign to the edit suite door.

Doodles from a Graphic Designer

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

What artistic meanderings do our graphic designer Steven Olexa commit to paper? Check out the doodles from his notepads below:

Notebook Sketches

On the Road with Mad Monkey

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Mad Monkey’s on a whirlwind speaking circuit this week and you’re invited! Come check us out at the following events.

South Carolina Arts Commission’s Statewide Arts Conference – Tuesday, September 15

Communicating through the Internet: Your Mission Still Matters – 10:45am – 12:00pm

Myrtle Beach Ad Club – Thursday, September 17

The More for Less War: Adjusting to the New Economic Landscape – 11:30am – 1:00 pm

Admission: $35.00; students $20.00

Location: The Dunes Golf & Beach Club

Charleston Ad Fed – Thursday, September 17

The More for Less War: Adjusting to the New Economic Landscape – 5:30pm – 7:30pm

Admission: $15.00; free for Ad Fed members.

Location: The American Theater. R.s.v.p to Tom Jeffrey

NUM8ERS

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

I have been thinking this week about the value of numbers. A number can seem like a lot when vaguely referenced or presented with no context. “I’ve built $5 million in business!” Ok, but over what period of time? And are you talking about sales or revenues? Not to mention, how?!

Mad Monkey is a group of extremely creative, problem-solving-focused people; but when you drill down to a starting point, usually that creativity grows from a number or set of numbers. Examples include, “80% of our target audience is women in their 50s and 60s.” Or, “when we run  TV spots, telephone calls to our call center increase by 30%. Our goal is to push that number to 50% over 6 months.” The example list, of course, goes on.

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