Fuzzy Logic Crowdfunds Stop-Motion Animated Music Video

Arfaaz Kagalwala aka Fuzzy Logic. Photo: Courtesy of REproduce Artists.

Mumbai-born drummer and electronic producer Arfaaz Kagalwala aka Fuzzy Logic is finally living out his dream of filming a stop-motion animation video. “It’s something I have wanted to do for years now,” he says over the phone from Marseilles, France, where he is currently based. “I’ve approached many animators in India and outside who are my friends and like my music, but it takes a lot of time, effort and at least four to five lakhs to make things work.”

Kagalwala is now crowdfunding this project for shooting a video for “Pretty Child,” a track from his upcoming EP Foe On The Floor. The production plan involves combining 9,000 photographs into a storyboard, all themed around revisiting nature to break away from the mold of modern social order. “This song is a narrative of a parent to their child saying, ”˜I want you to grow up to be who you want to be, not what society wants you to be’,” explains Kagalwala. “The lyrics are extremely simple, and about being anything you want in the world.” He is joining hands with American sculptor and stop-motion animator Joey Ellis to make his idea a reality. “I shared the track with him and he really loved it,” recalls Kagalwala, explaining that Ellis is just as determined as him to see the project through. “He’s agreed to do it for less than the minimum amount [needed for a video like this].”

Ellis, who is currently based in Kathmandu, will be working with a team of Nepali designers to create the video. The animator is known for having worked on Sierra Leonian rapper Moinina Sengeh’s “Ar Don Go” and has a particularly meticulous method of creating stop- motion videos. “He is into technology in art,” says Kagalwala. “Stop-motion is basically photographs for each frame [of the production.] But every photograph that he takes is layered with another five or ten photographs and that makes one frame of a 24 frame per second video.” Needless to say, an elaborate video like this requires months to complete and a huge budget to see it through.  “He’s put three months of his life, his commercial work on hold to do this,” says Kagalwala about Ellis. “We really need to make this happen.”

Although Kagalwala was sceptical about crowdfuding at first, the duo ultimately made the decision to start a campaign on Wishberry. “We put a lot of thought into this campaign,” says Kagalwala, adding that as a reward, the contributors will be offered a chance to feature in the video ”“ by means of their [or their loved ones’] photographs in the stop-motion frames. “It’s about getting people into the independent music scene, making them feel more involved, like they’re becoming a part of the whole process.”

The month-long campaign has received positive response so far; Ellis and Kagalwala have raised 1.5 lakhs out of their goal amount of 3 lakhs. But they can’t rest easy just yet. “Wishberry does an all or nothing campaign,” says Kagalwala. “So even if we’re a few thousand rupees short of our goal on the final day, we lose all the money [collected so far] and have to give it back to everybody who has contributed.”

The two collaborators stand firm in the fact that even if that happens, they will continue with the video. “We’ve already put a lot of work into it,” says Kagalwala.

The project still has 17 days left. Click here to contribute and be a part of the “Pretty Child” music video.