Rootle Up!
- Motion
- July 17, 2017
Client: PBS North Carolina
Agency: In-House
Roles: Art Director, Animator
Objective:
Bring an ambitious creative concept to life for the music video and theme song of Rootle, PBS North Carolina’s new kids channel.
Produced by Joy Potts and Jessica Edgar, original song by Mr. Steve.
Process:
It all started in the Board Room. The channel director enthusiastically explained her 22-page storyboard. It was ambitious, to say the least, and it would require a lot of moving parts as well as some techniques we didn’t commonly use in house. She had already been working with Mr. Steve on the theme song, so for her everything was already coming together. I took a breath and said, “We’ll probably have to cut some things, but I think we can make it work.”

Next came a series of shoots — including one at a tumbling gym — that culminated in a furiously flurried day in the studio with at least a dozen kids and an endless supply of props.

Post-production was much quieter.
Our Associate Producer put together a rough cut and sent me video in pieces. We went back and forth a bit to make adjustments as I composited the elements and added animations.
Compositing was challenging, given the mixed venues and less than ideal circumstances in many cases. The safety of the kids was always the first priority, and we didn’t always have control of the environment. But with a little creativity and a dash of obsessive personality traits, everything came together.
All of the illustrations are original artwork. I wanted everything to be consistent and unique to our brand, so no corners could be cut. I also made sure to include some North Carolina landmarks.

The video features illustrations of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, the ‘Metalmorphosis’ kinetic sculpture in Charlotte, and Chimney Rock National Park, as well as a recreation of the North Carolina Museum of National Sciences in cloud form. As a statewide television network, we felt it was important to showcase North Carolina and reflect the diversity of the state. Representation of all of the communities across North Carolina has always been a top priority in programming and outreach services, so it only made sense to reinforce that ideal in the video. To that end, the lyrics and visual components tap into landmarks and location from the mountains to the sea.