pes: western spagehtti.

To me, the master of modern stop motion is film maker Adam Pesapane (aka PES). He can do more with a matchstick and a bag of candy corn that most film makers could hope to with a full crew and million dollar budget. Perhaps necessity is the mother of invention in his films, but he uses his remarkable skill and ingenuity to take the most innocuous household items and turn them into something outstanding.

His recently released short, “Western Spaghetti”, is his best one yet and has to be seen to be appreciated:

In a recent profile in Paste Magazine, the brilliant Michel Gondry said of PES “Clicking on a PES film is to open a safe and see a million ideas glittering and exploding. The only reason you close the door is to re-open it just after and discover what will pop this time.” Damn. High praise indeed.

A success at taking his own quirky style and integrating into commericals for big time clients like Nike, Sony, Orange, and Bacardi, he hasn’t let his commerical work dampen his own creative exploration. And for that, I’m very thankful.

All of the shorts and commercials on his site are worth a thorough checkout (in fact, the more you watch them, the more you catch small details you missed before), but here are a few more of my absolute faves:

“Game Over”