 | |
| Industry | Media production |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 |
| Founder | Zachary Mortensen Mark De Pace |
| Headquarters | New York City |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Website | www |
Ghost Robot is a creative content studio based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, United States. [1] The company produces projects in a variety of media.
Ghost Robot was founded in 2002 by Zachary Mortensen. The company derived its name from the theme of a music video Ghost Robot was producing at the time. The video was for the song "In The Waiting Line" by the band Zero7, directed by Tommy Pallotta. "In The Waiting Line" was the first commercial use of machinima using the animation engine from the Quake video game. The video won awards at the first Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences awards ceremony at the Museum of Moving The Image in New York City. [2]
In 2005 Mark De Pace joined the company as a full partner and spearheaded the formation of the company's roster of directors for commercial representation. The addition of De Pace repositioned the company within the industry and began their official move into advertising and commercial production.[ citation needed ]
Ghost Robot established its position in the industry with the production of music videos. Notable productions include RJD2’s “Work It Out” which features a performance by dancer and artist Bill Shannon, shot in one take on the streets of New York City. [3] The video was featured in the Saatchi New Directors Showcase in Cannes. [4]
In 2008 Ghost Robot produced the music video "Wanderlust" for Björk. The video was directed by long-time Ghost Robot collaborators Isaiah Saxon and Sean Hellfritsch of Encyclopedia Pictura in New York City in stereoscopic 3D. The video involves a mixture of large scale puppeteering, live-action acrobatics, miniatures, and CG. The video took nine months to complete and required the creation of a custom-built 3d camera and playback system. [5]
Partners Zachary Mortensen and Mark De Pace, both graduates of NYU Film School, began their careers in independent film in New York City. Ghost Robot has produced feature films, documentary films, and comic books. In 2008 the company produced Against The Current , which premiered at Sundance Film Festival. [6]
Benjamin Dickinson directed Ghost Robot's feature film Creative Control , starring, which had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 14, 2015. [7] It was released on March 11, 2016, by Amazon Studios and Magnolia Pictures. [8]
In 2014 Ghost Robot launched its first comic book with the publication of The Gatecrashers: A Night of Gatecrashing. The book found critical acclaim [9] [10] and continues as an ongoing comic series.
Ghost Robot produces advertising and branded content for international brands, including for the relaunch of the 2013 Ford Fusion. [11]
Chris Cunningham is a British video artist and music video director, best known for his music videos for electronic musicians such as Autechre, Squarepusher, and most notably Aphex Twin on videos for "Windowlicker" and "Come to Daddy", and Björk's "All is Full of Love". All were used in Chris' chapter in Director's Label. He has also created art installations and directed short movies. He was approached to direct a movie version of William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer; the project has been in development hell for more than two decades. In the 2000s, Cunningham began doing music production work, and has also designed album artwork for a variety of musicians.
Machinima, originally machinema is the use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "machinima" is a portmanteau of the words machine and cinema. According to Guinness World Records, machinima is the art of making animated narrative films from computer graphics, most commonly using the engines found in video games.
Adam Spiegel, known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American director, producer, screenwriter and actor. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television.
Michael John Kricfalusi, known professionally as John K., is a Canadian illustrator, blogger, as well as a former animator and voice actor. He is the creator of the animated television series The Ren & Stimpy Show, which was highly influential on televised animation during the 1990s. From 1989 to 1992, he was heavily involved with the first two seasons of the show in virtually every aspect of its production, including providing the voice of Ren Höek and other characters. In 2009, he won the Inkpot Award.
Red vs. Blue, often abbreviated as RvB, is an American web series created by Burnie Burns with his production company Rooster Teeth. The show is based on the setting of the military science fiction first-person shooter series and media franchise Halo. It is distributed through Rooster Teeth's website, as well as on DVD, Blu-ray, and formerly on the El Rey Network and Netflix. The series initially centers on two opposite teams fighting in an ostensible civil war—shown to actually be a live fire exercise for elite soldiers—in the middle of Blood Gulch, a desolate box canyon, in a parody of first-person shooter video games, military life, and science fiction films. Initially intended to be a short series of six to eight episodes, the project quickly and unexpectedly achieved significant popularity following its premiere on April 1, 2003. The series consists of eighteen seasons and five mini-series. Red vs. Blue is the third longest-running animated webseries of all time, behind Homestar Runner and Neurotically Yours. The nineteenth and final season is scheduled to premiere in late 2023.
"All Is Full of Love" is a song by Icelandic musician Björk from her third studio album, Homogenic (1997). The lyrics were inspired by love in spring and Ragnarök of Norse mythology. Björk's original version is a trip hop ballad with soul influences, harp, strings, and electronic beats; the version on Homogenic is a minimalist remix by Howie B, emphasising Björk's vocals. A remix by the German IDM duo Funkstörung was released as a single in 1998.
Steven Aaron Golin was an American film and television producer and the founder and CEO of Anonymous Content LLP, a multimedia development, production and talent management company and co-founder and CEO of Propaganda Films. Golin graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 1976 and attended the AFI Conservatory. He won Best Picture at the 2016 Academy Awards for Spotlight.
Matthew Jay Hullum is an American director, producer, writer, actor and visual effects supervisor living in Austin, Texas. He is one of five co-founders and former CEO of production company Rooster Teeth, which specializes in online content, including live-action series, podcasts, animation and machinima, an art using game engines to create films.
Machinima, Inc. was an American multiplatform online entertainment network owned by WarnerMedia. The company was founded in January 2000 by Hugh Hancock and was headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
Pilobolus is an American modern dance company that began performing in October 1971. Pilobolus has performed over 100 choreographic works in more than 64 countries around the world, and has been featured on the 79th Annual Academy Awards, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Zachary Mortensen is an American film producer, writer and founder of the production company Ghost Robot.
Fan labor, also called fan works, are the creative activities engaged in by fans, primarily those of various media properties or musical groups. These activities can include creation of written works, visual or computer-assisted art, films and videos, animations, games, music, or applied arts and costuming.
Björk Guðmundsdóttir is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has developed an eclectic musical style over her four-decade career that has drawn on electronic, pop, experimental, trip hop, classical, and avant-garde music.
Blink is a British production company and creative studio producing commercials, music videos, short films, branded content, and long-form entertainment. It is composed of Blink Productions, Blink Ink, Blink Art, and Blink Industries. The company's head offices are based in Soho, London. Blink is headed by managing director, James Studholme, and represents a total of 48 directors and artists across its five divisions.
Good Company is an independent US entertainment production company founded in 2012 by Jonathan Lia, Brian Welsh and Ryan Heiferman in New York City with a second office in Los Angeles. The company has produced content including commercials, music videos, films and experiential.
The Art of the Game is an hour-long documentary film that explores the cultural importance of video gaming by following a group of students at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco as they compete for a job in the video game industry.
Dražen Bošnjak is a composer and sound designer based in New York City. He founded Q Department, Mach1, and Department of Records. He has created soundtracks and sound design for a number of films, television shows, video games, advertisements, and more recently, virtual reality projects.
Isaiah Saxon is an American film and music video director. He co-founded the animation studio Encyclopedia Pictura, and the online community DIY.org.
Lloyd Lee Choi is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is most noted for his 2022 short film Same Old, which premiered in the short film competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and received an honorable mention from the Best Canadian Short Film jury at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.