Maggie Dave - Old You, the official music video animated by Cassie Shao, was awarded Honorable Mention at the 2022 Los Angeles Animation Festival. This honor is given "to work of an exceptionally high standard and worthy of festival praise." Shao is an alum of LAAF, earning a nomination for her film There Were Four of Us as Best Student Experimental Short at the 2019 festival.
Animated by Cassie Shao.
"Maggie Dave - Old You" recently competed in the International Competition of Music Videos at the Fest Anča International Animation Festival in Slovakia. Animated by Cassie Shao, her video shared the screen with a superb collection of films from around the world, featuring documentary to experimental works. The complete program to the 2022 festival can be found here.
(From left to right) Ross Garren and Maggie Dave guitarist/collaborator John Schroeder. (Photo courtesy of The Sheriffs of Schroedingham)
Maggie Dave guitarist John Schroeder celebrates the release of season one of “John & Ross Presents,” a YouTube series with bandmate & co-producer Ross Garren. Together, John & Ross invite some of LA’s most exciting voices in popular music to perform acoustic covers and original songs on the stage of their virtual variety show.
From John & Ross: “John Schroeder and Ross Garren are a production duo with a decade of experience writing, recording and playing music together. Their extensive recording credits collectively include work with Bon Iver, Keisha, Bruce Hornsby, Ben Folds, Noah Cyrus, Pomplamoose, Keb Mo', Rita Coolidge and many others. Active media composers as well, their original music has appeared in dozens of films and television shows, including Love, Crashing and Bold Type. Alongside their steady diet of production work, they are currently focused on the video series “John & Ross Presents,” capturing performances of a rotating cast of featured performers in an intimate, stripped down setting.”
Be sure to subscribe to their playlist on Spotify to catch up and stay connected with new singles from the series!
On December 4th, director & animator Cassie Shao took home her second award for Maggie Dave - I'm Not Ready at the 2021 Austin Music Video Festival. Praised for the video's dreamlike atmosphere and harmony between the song and the visuals, Shao was awarded the top prize for animation from a program featuring videos from celebrated artists such as Missy Elliot, The Shins and Mac DeMarco. Lead singer Sean David Christensen joined remotely from Los Angeles for a brief Q&A with the festival after the "Saturday Morning Cartoons" program, where the video was shown shortly before the live-streamed awards presentation. That same afternoon, Maggie Dave - Old You (also animated by Shao) made its theatrical screening premiere at the London International Animation Festival, capping off a week of festival screenings for the artist & the band.
We’re thrilled for vocalist Tehillah Alphonso, a key arranger and collaborative partner of the band, who recently accompanied chart-topping artist Olivia Rodrigo in a live performance of “perfect crime” on Vevo LIFT. It was a USC Thornton homecoming for Alphonso, a graduate of the school’s Popular Music program, who sang alongside alumni Liv Slingerland (’15) on guitar as well as backing singers Georgia Greene (’18) and Lily Elise, who studied at the school. Behind the camera and the performance, the music direction was from alums Aron Forbes (’07) and Derek Renfroe (’17). Maggie Dave is proud of this latest career accomplishment for an artist who continues to awe us with her talents.
Tehillah Alphonso, second from right, joins Olivia Rodrigo in a live performance of “perfect crime”.
Maggie Dave - I’m Not Ready - Dir. Cassie Shao
Maggie Dave - I’m Not Ready has been awarded with “Best Music Video” at the 2021 Columbus International Film & Animation Festival. One of nine films honored by the longest running film festival in America, animator Cassie Shao takes home top honors in the music video category. Celebrating its 69th year with virtual and drive-in screenings, the festival continued its revered tradition of showcasing the finest in short form works (narrative & documentary) along with special programming for experimental and animated films.
Sean David Christensen in conversation with the Portland Film Festival; October 16th, 2020.
Earlier this year, Maggie Dave lead singer/songwriter Sean David Christensen sat down for a virtual conversation with the Portland Film Festival. Discussing the making of “I’m Not Ready,” the acclaimed music video created by Cassie Shao, Sean described their collaboration and Shao’s distinctive visual style that defined this memorable work.
2020 Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival - Official Instagram promo
Cassie Shao’s music video for “I’m Not Ready” will be screening alongside some of the most adventurous and boundary-pushing animated films from around the world at the 2020 Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival - held online from October 23rd to 30th. Featuring award-winning and celebrated music videos, experimental & narrative work, we’re proud to be a part of this show!
Excerpt from the program “International Block 2”
From the festival: "Since 2012, Sweaty Eyeballs has carried the torch of the animation scene in the Mid-Atlantic with independent programming & special events. Now in our 9th year, we have partnered with our longtime friends at the Maryland Film Festival to launch our 2nd international festival of animation. The festival will take place October 23-30, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic the festival will be held online in 2020. The festival will open with six original animated music videos set to music by six Baltimore area bands, an international competition of 80 animated shorts, a Baltimore showcase, and remote animator studio tours."
Cassie Shao animates for Sam Fischer’s “I Got to Live,” directed by friend-of-the-band Kimberly Stuckwisch. Shao’s dreamy visuals ascend upwards, beautifully paired with the song’s elegiac recollections of a life lived to its fullest, with all of the imperfections worth remembering.
Sam Fischer - I Got to Live (Dir: Kimberly Stuckwisch; Animation - Cassie Shao)
Maggie Dave - I’m Not Ready, animated by Cassie Shao
Maggie Dave - I’m Not Ready (Dir: Cassie Shao) at LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival
Cassie Shao’s brilliant music video for “I’m Not Ready” was announced on two lauded festival lineups this week. At the LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival, Shao’s work will make its Ukrainian premiere alongside 26 other international offerings in the “Commissioned Film Competition.” At the “Sundance of the Sierras,” the Nevada City Film Festival will host the music video in their innovative online program, complete with filmmaker Q&As.
From Program 1: Face On, clockwise from upper-left: Raman Djafari & Daniel Almagor with Lucky Chops – Traveler, Russ Etheridge with Armstrong, Jack Maschka with Seed Supreme and Cassie Shao with Maggie Dave - I'm Not Ready.
Very proud of our friend Cassie Shao today, whose work was announced alongside 77 cutting-edge international animated shorts at 2020 Pictoplasma in-Isolation. Her music video for “I'm Not Ready” is a stunning addition to this vanguard of innovative and visionary work presented this year. Bravo, Cassie! This year at Pictoplasma, the festival boasts "4 thematic programs full of psychedelic eye candy, virtual popcorn and ingenious storytelling—with many of the international filmmakers staying awake in their respective time-zones to meet you for live behind-the-scenes chats and realtime interaction." It's such an honor for us to be counted among these visionary artists, each joining together from isolation to celebrate the art of animation and character design.
About: Pictoplasma is the world’s leading platform for contemporary character design and art. The project pushes forward interdisciplinary discussion, development and promotion of a new breed of visual vocabulary—from illustration to animation, game to interactive design, urban to graphic arts.
Cassie Shao’s Maggie Dave - I’m Not Ready makes the front page of Fest Anča International Animation Festival - 2020 Official Selection Program!
What a surprise to discover this week that not only will I'm Not Ready be competing for the "Music Video Award" at the 2020 Fest Anča International Animation Festival, but we made the front page as well! Created by the visionary animator Cassie Shao, our video will join nearly 300 works from 65 countries in this international celebration of groundbreaking animation. Shao's critically-acclaimed There Were Four of Us is also in competition for the "Anca Student Award." Way to go, Cassie! It's great to see so many other animators we love on the lineup as well, including Joao Gonzalez and his nervous meditation on obsession and isolation, Nestor.
"The official selection of Fest Anča’s 13th edition embraces diversity, offers films from renowned as well as up-and-coming creatives, large Slovak film sections, and the very latest animation trends...The international competitive program comprises a selection of stand-out animated films completed in the last two years, highlighting short films, music videos, and non-competitive screening sections." A unique event with so much breadth of programming, we can't wait to take part later this fall (fingers crossed)!
Artist & Animator, Cassie Shao.
Learn more about the creative process of animator Cassie Shao, director of Maggie Dave - I’m Not Ready, in this revealing and thought-provoking interview from VoyageLA:
“Making animations about my dreams, and the reality told through dream imagery have been extremely fun. I enjoy creating the otherworldly perspective. As I try to achieve that, I went down the road of mixing and blending all mediums I could think of and capturing the texture of everything I see fit. I find chaos and contradictions the most charming, and they are emphasized continuously more. I do realize that it creates some sort of distance as if examining something very personal from ten feet away, and it steers the audience away from designated emotions; but sometimes with this distance, sparks curiosity.”
Sean David Christensen, lead singer of Maggie Dave, performs storytelling at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles - November 12th, 2019. Event photo by Brian Feinzimer. I’m Not Ready single cover by Nicole Neri (photo) and Kadie Cook (illustration).
So grateful to have been a part of the Flux Screening Series this November. Our music video for “I'm Not Ready,” directed & animated by Cassie Shao, premiered for a sold-out audience at the Billy Wilder Theatre at the Hammer Museum. The special event was a feast of short films and visual works from luminary directors from around the world, capped by Flux’s signature “Filmmaker Presentations,” allowing the invited filmmakers to express themselves in unexpected ways on stage. One year, a surprise drop-in from director Michel Gondry resulted in an impromptu drum performance, setting quite the precedent. I, however, decided to bring my old cell phone from the early 2010s. I used it on stage as a prop that helped resuscitate emotional memories of my struggle with depression, during a time when reconnecting with family and friends was difficult. A variation on a story I’ve told with The Moth in Los Angeles, it was invigorating to pair it with Maggie Dave’s music.
As the presentations continued, this immersive dialogue between myself, the other filmmakers and the audience was an affirmation in the power of experiencing art together. I hope to continue this spirit of exchange with our upcoming releases as a band. After the show, members of YACHT treated everyone to a special DJ set in the courtyard under a warm canopy of stars. I was flattered to talk with so many who were moved by my story, as I kept switching my drink to shake their hands. The Los Angeles evenings had not yet been seized with cold, so plenty of dancing and smiling was enjoyed by all. (with bandmates Mark Christopher and Ricky Berger there in spirit!)
-Sean David Christensen, December 22nd, 2019
All event photos by Brian Feinzimer.
The audience waits for the show to begin in the Billy Wilder Theatre at the Hammer Museum.
Artist Kilo Kish entertains us with a puppet show, featuring characters from her music video for “Bite Me.”
Director Kimberly Stuckwisch (left) hosts “America’s Next Top Model,” *pun intended,* a game show that pitted directors (from left) Gareth Smith, Yoni Lappin and Dimitri Luedemann in a battle of wits to determine which scenes from classic films used either miniatures or computer-generated effects. Smith ran away with it - he’s a pro!
Lazy Susan by directors Ian Kibbey & Corey Creasey (as Terri Timely) was given a TED-style talk on the ingenuity of laziness, hosted by actress Monica Hong.
Can you spot my phone in my right pocket?
Director JJ Stratford and Claire L. Evans of YACHT give a lecture on pioneering voices in video art.
The audience gathers before the outdoor DJ set at the Hammer Museum. Can you spot my friend Hunter and I?
YACHT is ready to bring the tunes to the people.
Filmmakers, friends, artists and museum-goers enjoy the night outside in the Hammer Museum courtyard and the special DJ set by YACHT.
Jonathan and Meg Wells, creative directors of the Flux Screening Series, dance the night away!
if you are a music video director or visual artist with work to share, please visit Flux on FilmFreeway to learn more!
I’m Not Ready; Animated by Cassie Shao
In an exclusive interview with THE PLUS, Cassie Shao reveals her creative process behind the making of I'm Not Ready and the inspiration she finds in her world of dreams.
Animator & visual artist Cassie Shao has left an indelible impression on our song “I’m Not Ready.” Her handcrafted dreamscapes have been awarded with a Vimeo Staff Pick, richly deserved for the visionary labor she poured into each frame. Special thanks to our production team that helped us shape and realize the music, including Ricky Berger (Mixing & vocal production) and Trevor Case (Mastering).
I’m Not Ready (2019) by Cassie Shao
I’m Not Ready (2019) by Cassie Shao
Directed & Animated by Cassie Shao
Produced by Sean David Christensen
“I'm Not Ready” written by Maggie Dave
Vocals & keyboard: Sean David Christensen
Synthesizers: Mark Christopher & Ricky Berger
Vocals engineered by Ricky Berger
Mixed by Ricky Berger & Mark Christopher
Mastering by Trevor Case
