After years of working in animation, Kevin Davis opted to go to film school at UCLA. He tells FLIP about how he came to create videos with the unlikely pairing of Bill Mumy - yes THAT Bill Mumy - and one of the most outrageously funny animators you will meet, Jeff Etter.
by Kevin Davis
Thrill-o-rama Films all started when I was attempting to complete my UCLA thesis film, Of Robots and Rednecks. I was inspired by Professor Bill Barminski's After Effects class. He had just completed a set of very creative music videos for Death Cab for Cutie, and I was impressed with what you could devise and complete with a very small production crew and an even smaller budget. In After Effects you could pull off an infinite variety of funky camera moves and effects that, back in the MTV heyday of 80's music videos, would have been next to impossible to pull off.
At about the same time, Actor / Musician Bill Mumy had seen an Of Robot and Rednecks preview on YouTube, and liked it. He later told me to that it was, "Twilight Zoney", which made my day. He then asked me if I would like to do a music video for his upcoming CD, Until the Big Bang Whimpers. His timing couldn't be more horrible, due to my deadline for my thesis film, but I couldn't turn down a chance to work with one of my childhood heros.
