by Bradley Cayford

AN INTERVIEW WITH BRADLEY CAYFORD

Turnaround, the music video Bradley Cayford directed for The Jimmy Swift Band, is the story of a battle between the organic and technology. In the video, the country-dwelling band members eventually topple the mechanized execubots, but during the production, the team found a way for technology to work in harmony with their organic process. Alongside his team at Copernicus Studios, Cayford was careful to maintain a place for paper and pencil in the production effort. “If you can’t do it on paper, it’s not likely that you’ll be able to do a better job on the computer,” said Cayford. “Doing things on paper first brings out the most organic idea right from the beginning.”

With funding help from VideoFACT, the production hurtled toward production. The team relied on software, not to boost their artistic skills, but to enable them “to be efficient,” added Cayford. “But the second that it starts reducing our quality and jeopardizing the artwork we put it back to the paper, we’ll move on.”

Bradley joined us for an interview below, but for an in-depth exploration of the Turnaround production, check out the Bradley’s interview posted here back in 2006.

AARON SIMPSON: Looking back, what was the experience like, working on Turnaround?

BRADLEY CAYFORD: The Turnaround video was an incredible experience, to say the least, as it always is working with other amazing artists in the world. There are plenty of incredible videos out there and I’m happy to have created something with others that enjoyed the process and the outcome in the end.

AARON: What type of impact do you feel when your work is recognized like this?

BRADLEY: When I went to Annecy to help Copernicus showcase some work and scout for talent, a few artists whose work I really respect had some kind words to say that no money or job could ever cast a shadow over. It just felt nice to know that someone else had seen the video and furthermore had something positive to say about how it effected them, and not necessarily about the technical aspects with regards to creating the video.

AARON: Has the video led to new opportunities?

BRADLEY: The video has led to some opportunities and has more so opened my eyes to the greater importance of doing this type of art. I became more in tune with the world around me after we finished this video. It opened my eyes to new experiences within art, thusly the world has opened its eyes to me. There have been small projects that have come and gone, but the best opportunities to emerge are the confidence in my own work to push it even further. For instance, in creating artwork for my daughter and family as well as exploring my boundaries in all aspects of art and animation. I can’t wait to see what happens in the future as surely it will be a topsy-turvy story by the end of it.

Also, the band was recognized after putting so much work into creating some incredible music over the years. The video gave them some assistance in their goals and that is the true purpose of the video in the first place.

AARON: You said in our initial Turnaround interview that you still weren’t sold on the digital drawing tablets yet. Are you still a pencil and paper guy, or have you started to experiment with the Cintiq monitors?

BRADLEY: I suppose those comments on Wacoms and Cintiqs were a little premature, but I still don’t really use them as much as many others do. Artists can create life out of anything and whatever anyone chooses to make is up to them. As for me, I just use whatever I have to make my art, my art. I have a Wacom tablet which I use from time-to-time in production with Photoshop to paint my backgrounds for shows. Then sometimes I use it for show pitches and of course if I want to draw a quick rough on the fly it’s much more efficient to use the Wacom. But I still use the mouse quite a bit for those quick turnarounds.

However, all of my concept design is done on pencil and paper along with a lot of posing as well. It’s not to say that it can’t be done with the computer, as many other artists will argue, it’s just how I practiced and it’s the way my brain operates. When it comes to art, the palette or medium doesn’t make the art, it’s the passion and artist behind it. The medium, canvas and palette are there to help you attain your goal in the end. So however anyone chooses to do it, then that’s their choice. I admire anyone that has the gump to do what they feel is right before doing what they feel they are being pushed to do.

AARON: What have you been working on since the 2006 interview?

BRADLEY: There have been a few things here and there that we’ve worked on since the 2006 interview. I had the fortunate opportunity to work with Andy Suriano on a short film called Dodger Dare which was really fun to work on…

BRADLEY: We’ve also worked with John K on a few other projects and I also worked on a pitch for a show called Apollo’s Pad which I ended up doing a music video for as well. Those were all fun projects and I’m hoping that there will be more in the near future. There are also, of course, some projects that I can’t discuss yet, but I’ve been doing concept work that has allowed me to visit some inner city schools and do some real research.

I haven’t had a lot of time to work on more music videos so much as I’d like to, but we’ll see. Going to Annecy was a great experience as I finally got to witness what it’s truly like to be in the world of animators. Going to Sheridan was great because I was surrounded by talented artists, much like my situation at Copernicus Studios, but you could truly feel your place being surrounded by that kind of crop of talent and beauty. It’s led me to start working on my own films a little bit more so hopefully sometime I’ll be able to show you what can truly come out of my head at some point.