N.A.S.A. DOCUMENTARY

ANIMATIONS CREATIVE SUPERVISION

Creative supervision: Lorenzo Fonda
Client: Sam Spiegel & Syd Garon
Animations & vfx: Lorenzo Fonda, Markus Wagner, Ranefritte
Producer: Susan Applegate

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When I screened my documentary Megunica in Hollywood in 2009, among the the audience were sitting musician Sam Spiegel and animator/director Syd Garon. They were right in the middle of creating a film that documented the creation of the N.A.S.A. album, a project Sam started with his friend DJ Zegon. From Wikipedia: Spiegel worked with Brazilian DJ Zegon under the name N.A.S.A. (North America/South America). Their debut album, The Spirit of Apollo, includes Kanye West, Karen O and Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lykke Li, John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Waits, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, George Clinton, David Byrne, M.I.A., RZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang Clan. Such collaborations earned Spiegel the title “Hot Star Magnet” on Rolling Stone’s annual “Hot List” in 2008. The album was “a conscious effort by NASA to show how people can be brought together by music and art.” The Spirit of Apollo took over five years to create, and some songs required N.A.S.A. to wait up to three years for collaborators’ schedules to match. It was finally released on February 17, 2009, and received generally favorable reviews.

Sam and Syd were looking for help to create animated transitions for the film, because for each song of the album they commissioned a music video, and they wanted to try incorporate the documentary footage and the videos in a more flowing manner. Since they liked what they saw in my film, we talked soon after and I couldn’t help get excited about the project right away. You can watch the full film, together with the segments I worked on, online at Amazon.

PRODUCTION NOTES

The poster from the film.