MK12, based in Kansas City, was founded in 2000 by five guys who met at Kansas City Art Institute: Timmy Fisher, Ben Radatz, Matt Fraction, Shaun Hamontree, Chad Perry and Jed Carter--and began immediately working titles and digital matte work for VH1, MTV and TNT before moving on to features like Stranger Than Fiction and The Kite Runner.
German film director Marc Forster has grown especially fond of MK12 since their relationship began on Stranger Than Fiction. He used these guys on The Kite Runner, Quantum of Solace and his short LX Forty film (all work by MK12) for Swiss Int'l Air (stills below).
Out of everything MK12 has done, the LX Forty spot is their most visually and narratively arresting. I never thought there were companies in this world that Ok'ed spots like this one. It's about dreams and ultimately the nature of ambition--"I keep moving forward, never looking back, until there's nowhere to go," the voice of Marc Forster intones as we are treated to what amounts to psychedelic then industrial-looking images (an M.O. MK12 would fall back on once more for Telephoneme, their latest show).
"We communicate more, but say less." Another truth that struck me.
Over the past three weeks, I've watched nearly three hundred spots by leading post-VFX companies, and not to denigrate their tremendous (some almost ethereal), superior aesthetics--but you come away from them feeling like, "That's a great commercial." I came away, for the first time since my introduction to VFX in my first Effects class with Dale Angell, with the feeling that I had experienced a great story. Again, unusual in the world of multimedia advertising production. I hope to see (and soon produce) ads like LX Forty.
Telephoneme, their latest, has to do with the nature of communication (something briefly touched upon in LX Forty), but on a more sinister level, as you'll see below. Another genius work, from a company that just keeps the hits coming and the clients calling.
http://mk12.com/
