We once heard that a messy workspace is a sign of genius – and anyone who has ever shared an office with us will understand why that’s a piece of folk wisdom we hold quite dear. Seriously. There was a Tunnock’s Tea Cake on my desk for 7 months. And so Jesse Ewles’ You Don’t Exist promo for Reverie Sound Revue struck a chord in quite a profound way. A pile of mess springs to life as a giant grubby gruffalo invades an artist’s studio… oh we know that feeling. Ewles brought the monster to life in collaboration with creative studio Exploding Motor Car, who created the puppet

We caught up with Jesse to find out why the former shoe designer decided to make the leap into professional art, how he has taught himself filmmaking and why, for this video, the biggest challenge was tidying up afterwards.

Where did the inspiration for the mess monster come from?
My friend Marc DePape is in the band Reverie Sound Revue. He brought me and Exploding Motor Car (Winston Hacking, Brett Long) together to talk about ideas. Marc and Winston basically wanted to do a monster in the closet concept. From there I wrote a story set in an artist’s cluttered studio. I thought about how studio mess can both cripple a person, and inspire new art. I had also been wanting to build a Chinese dancing dragon costume for a long while, and it’s sectional snaking concept, became the bases for the incredible beast Exploding Motor Car created.

How We Made Reverie Sound Revue part 1

LOVE the fact that you’ve actually made a gigantic puppet rather than relying on post or animation. Why did you decide on that approach and how did you go about bringing the beast to life?
Practical effects always look better. Plus having a real monster in the room allows for happy accidents. “Crash the monster into that, and let’s see what happens. Bust through the doors with all your might!” Computers are great, but work best stitching “real” elements together. Not making stuff up from scratch.

How We Made Reverie Sound Revue part 2

What was the biggest challenge during the shoot?
Everything went pretty smoothly. It was tough cleaning everything up afterwords because the apartment we shot in was just as messy as it appears in the video, when we found it. We had to be careful not to throw out anything precious, while we scooped up piles of monster debris, yarn and slime.

How did you first get into filmmaking?
I was working in the footware industry designing shoes after school. In late 2006, I resigned from my cushy job, and took a fool’s leap in professional art. I knew there was a recession on the way too, which made it doubly thrilling. I decided to make music videos instead of going to film school, since I figured making short works was an efficient way to learn story telling and timing. Also, working with a band guarantees at least a few people will be interested in watch your work, until like short films.

What inspires you?
Passionate people talking. Old myths. William Blake paintings. The pop psychedelic art on Fecal Face. Chip tunes. Steve Reich. The Blood Meridian. Kurt Vonnegut. I don’t know if any of that stuff has come through my work yet, but I’m hoping it will one of these days.

Aside from You Don’t Exist, which piece of your work are you proudest of and why?
It’s a pleasure working on videos. I would do them for nothing if someone would give me a house and food. However, I think of my videos as student work, and as such I see too many mistakes in them to be truly proud. If you pressed me, I think I’d say I’m proudest of the fact that I finished each of the projects I set out to finish. 🙂 That’s an accomplishment I think.

To find out more about Jesse and his work check out www.jesseewles.blogspot.com/
And to check out more from Exploding Motor car visit http://explodingmotorcarblog.blogspot.com