H-Gun
Encyclopedia
H-Gun was an innovative film
/animation
consortium which started in Chicago
and expanded to include a San Francisco studio.
Their early videos
included work for the band Ministry
, LaTour
, Nine Inch Nails
, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Megadeth, Smashing Pumpkins, Killing Joke, Meat Beat Manifesto, Young Black Teenagers, Son of Bazerk, Anthrax, KMFDM, I Mother Earth, Prong, Consolidated, 808 State, Crystal Waters, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, Melvins, SNAFU, Offspring, Infectious Grooves, Suicidal Tendencies, Josh Wink, The Orb and many more. Founding member Ben Stokes is also a musician and member of Tino Corp. Former founders, employees and freelancers are still involved in TV, Film, Music, Animation, Design production in the USA. H-Gun began as a collective of students from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College in Chicago who were involved with making art, film, and music. Originally, UNGH! was the name of the band formed by founders Eric Zimmermann and Benjamin Stokes. Once they began making visuals or music videos for the music they were producing, and for other recording artists, they created H-Gun. The artists approached filmmaking in a renegade style and in some cases defining "run and gun" style of filmmaking. The work was purely experimental and raw. Yet, in some respects the work was highly innovative, imaginative, controversial and certainly unpredictable. In some cases footage that would normally be considered "outtakes" was included into the edits. H-Gun were early adopters into the use of Apple Macintosh computers and the earliest versions of animation software. As the company evolved, so did the visual styles that the collective pursued. H-Gun became one of the few (at the time) companies in the world that would shoot its own live action film, design its own motion graphics, 2D and 3D animation, and integrate the work into its own finished pieces. The progression of the work created by H-Gun garnered world wide attention. The work was curated by museums, chronicled by newspapers, and TV shows. Also the work often won international awards with Promax / BDA, International Monitor Awards, Billboard Music Video Awards and the like.
H-Gun videos were often featured on marquee MTV shows such as 120 Minutes
, Headbanger's Ball and Beavis and Butthead. H-Gun evolved from music videos into doing major content like network ID's, commercials, and show opens. For more information in greater detail, yet not completely up to date, the link below tells more about H-Gun.
In 2002, the studio moved to Burbank, CA, went under new management, and became Big Machine Design.
Various former members of H-GUN currently play significant roles in animation. John Schnepp operates LA based FX house King Robot, for example.
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
/animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
consortium which started in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and expanded to include a San Francisco studio.
Their early videos
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
included work for the band Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
, LaTour
LaTour
William LaTour, better known by his stage name LaTour and also known as "Bud" Latour, is an American singer, songwriter, and voice over artist...
, Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Megadeth, Smashing Pumpkins, Killing Joke, Meat Beat Manifesto, Young Black Teenagers, Son of Bazerk, Anthrax, KMFDM, I Mother Earth, Prong, Consolidated, 808 State, Crystal Waters, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, Melvins, SNAFU, Offspring, Infectious Grooves, Suicidal Tendencies, Josh Wink, The Orb and many more. Founding member Ben Stokes is also a musician and member of Tino Corp. Former founders, employees and freelancers are still involved in TV, Film, Music, Animation, Design production in the USA. H-Gun began as a collective of students from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College in Chicago who were involved with making art, film, and music. Originally, UNGH! was the name of the band formed by founders Eric Zimmermann and Benjamin Stokes. Once they began making visuals or music videos for the music they were producing, and for other recording artists, they created H-Gun. The artists approached filmmaking in a renegade style and in some cases defining "run and gun" style of filmmaking. The work was purely experimental and raw. Yet, in some respects the work was highly innovative, imaginative, controversial and certainly unpredictable. In some cases footage that would normally be considered "outtakes" was included into the edits. H-Gun were early adopters into the use of Apple Macintosh computers and the earliest versions of animation software. As the company evolved, so did the visual styles that the collective pursued. H-Gun became one of the few (at the time) companies in the world that would shoot its own live action film, design its own motion graphics, 2D and 3D animation, and integrate the work into its own finished pieces. The progression of the work created by H-Gun garnered world wide attention. The work was curated by museums, chronicled by newspapers, and TV shows. Also the work often won international awards with Promax / BDA, International Monitor Awards, Billboard Music Video Awards and the like.
H-Gun videos were often featured on marquee MTV shows such as 120 Minutes
120 Minutes
120 Minutes is a television show in the United States dedicated to alternative music, originally airing on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then on MTV's sister channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003....
, Headbanger's Ball and Beavis and Butthead. H-Gun evolved from music videos into doing major content like network ID's, commercials, and show opens. For more information in greater detail, yet not completely up to date, the link below tells more about H-Gun.
In 2002, the studio moved to Burbank, CA, went under new management, and became Big Machine Design.
Various former members of H-GUN currently play significant roles in animation. John Schnepp operates LA based FX house King Robot, for example.
Clients
- MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
- Cartoon NetworkCartoon NetworkCartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
- Turner Classic MoviesTurner Classic MoviesTurner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
- TNT
- NickelodeonNickelodeonNickelodeon is a US cable TV channel.Nickelodeon may also refer to:-In television:*Spinoffs of the Nickelodeon channel:** Nickelodeon Magazine, a children's magazine.** Nickelodeon Universe, an amusement park....
- PillsburyPillsburyPillsbury may refer to:* Pillsbury Company, a brand name used by Minneapolis-based General Mills, with The J.M. Smucker Co. as licensee for baking products....
- LocomotionLocomotion (TV channel)Sony Spin is a Latin American cable television channel, launched on May 1, 2011, replacing the local version of Animax.-History:Animax, being Sony's first attempt to offer a 24-hour anime channel in Latin America, it was planned to broadcast the series in two formats...
- M2MTV2MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
- Comedy CentralComedy CentralComedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
- MTV Latin AmericaMTV Latin AmericaMTV Latin America is a cable television specialty service aimed at residents in Hispanic American countries. It was launched on October 1, 1993 as MTV en Español. The channel is a Hispanic American version from MTV...
- E! Entertainment Television
- Nickelodeon Russia
- Bravo
- NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
- G4G4G4, G.IV, G04, G.4 or G-4 may refer to:- Aircraft :* AEG G.IV, a German World War I heavy bomber* Caudron G.4, a 1915 French biplane* Friedrichshafen G.IV, a 1918 German medium bomber* Gotha G.IV, a 1916 German heavy bomber...
- Lifetime
- A&EA&EA&E is an abbreviation that may refer to:* Accident and Emergency, in the UK and Ireland, a common name for the emergency department of a hospital* In multimedia, it commonly stands for Arts and Entertainment....
- Discovery ChannelDiscovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
- Food NetworkFood NetworkFood Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
- YTV
- W