#blankandbow

[mikeambs]

View more #7x7s at mikeambs.com/7x7

1) Grabbing some lunch with Gino. 2) Erica teasing Rachel about walking in heels. 3) Sketching some rough outlines for an installation. 4) This concave mirror is way more fun than its probably meant to be. 5) Blank played at the Santa Barbara film festival, which was a lot of fun. We all went out for a post-screening drink. 6) Go-karts and putt-putt! 7) And so started the longest two weeks...

[disneyblank]

Working on storyboards for #BLANKandBOW - by @reginoroyiii

[disneyblank]

Yay - we took away best animated film at the @NewMediaFF tonight :) Huge thanks to NMFF for playing our little film - it's always wonderful to see people connecting with #BLANKandBOW !

[mrdannysanchez]

Selfie with Iron Man! #disneyland #selfie #marvel #TomorrowLand #innoventions #ironman #blank #Bow #BlankAndBow #TheTravelsOfBlankAndBow #VinylmationAdventures #Disneyside #vinylmation #DStreet #vinylmations #believeindisneyyy #instadisney #disneygram

[mike-ambs]

Hello -

I was born in Jackson, Michigan on Nov 11th, 1981. I’m a self-taught filmmaker, currently working on my first feature-length documentary, FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES, a story inspired by my own 4,200 mile cross-country bicycle trip.

By day I help create stories for companies including NBC, Smashface, MRC, Vimeo, and Disney. Most recently, our small team co-directed the stop-motion short film, BLANK, partnering with Google for a special first-of-its-kind Valentines experience. 

I currently live in Los Angeles with my beautiful and talented wife, Erica Hampton. 

[mike-ambs]

BLANK  - a Vinylmation Love Story

An epic adventure in miniature scale, a completely original, heartwarming love story filmed entirely in practical stop motion. #blankandbow

The story within BLANK is a simple tale of learning to be yourself, and how to express who you really are through creativity; all of these lessons are tied to an adventure of two lovers pulled apart, and they each go to great lengths to reunite. But the story around BLANK, around how it came to be, is something that will always be very special to me -- 

The five of us (myself, Paul Foyder, Regino Roy III, Whitfield Scheidegger, and Greg Shewchuk) who collaboratively directed this 45 minute film, we're all professionally-working in stop-motion for the first time; which made for a rough / wonderful / overwhelming / exciting learning experience.

Everything we did, every problem we needed to find a solution for, was a completely new thing for us, from something as simple as rigging the characters with armature, to as complex as filming a 40 foot long hang-gliding sequence down the side of a snow-covered mountain top. It threw each of us into the world of stop-motion so fast and with such little time to second guess, that we really had no choice but to keep up. 

I fell in love with stop-motion during the production of BLANK... 

Watch for FREE on Google PLAY

* Concept art by Regino Roy III