Animated bicycle messengers weave between live-action traffic in Midtown Manhattan, highlighting the peculiar relationship between messengers and the city in which they operate.

Bicycle Messengers has screened at film festivals around the world, as well as on PBS/WNET in New York City as part of the ReelNY series in 2007.

The film was made possible through a Media Arts Grant from the Jerome Foundation.

These prints are constructed from images extracted from frames of my animated film Bicycle Messengers.

For the film I wrote customized mental ray contour "shaders" in C++ (little computer programs, essentially) that attempt to teach the computer render in a style that mimics the way that I draw.

To create these prints I returned my computer renderings to the physical world by making silkcreen prints. The final prints, like bicycle messengers themselves, weave together human, digital and mechanical processes.

The photo above shows the prints on display at the Starving Artists Ball at the Angel Orensanz Center in 2005. Below is each image individually.

Here's a painting that I made in 2002, which pointed towards this project:

Credits

Written and Directed by Joshua Frankel

VFX Supervisor Dylan Maxwell
Director of Photography Nina Krstic
Bicycle Camera Operator Charlie Wittenberg
Stunt Driver/Dolly Grip Mike Winton
Grips Ben Cannon, Clark Frankel, Frances Ibadlit

Cast Frank Boudreaux, Juan Brown, Peggy Diggs, Simon Gerson, Diane-Marie Johnston, Jess McLeod, Daniel Ibsen Morales, David Niles.
Messenger Stand-ins Charlie Davidson, Michael McBean, Israel Mirsky
Extras Fleur Edwards, Aaron Gardner, Marjorie Taylor
Casting Director Jess McLeod

Lead Animators Joshua Frankel, Dylan Maxwell
Animators William Arias, David Barosin, Scott Carroll, Eric Cheng, Rob Dollase, Christopher Hill, Andrew Romatz, Bill Stout, Kirill Yeretzky
Riggers Michael Ware, Jeff Guerrero
Modellers Minchung Cho, Hungkit Ma, Bogdan Mihajlovic
Textures Eve Biddle, Martin Boskar
Matchmove Yohance Brown, John Budion, RaAzikwe Medley
Lighters Atsuki Hirose, Irene Kim, David Sarma, Eugen Sasu
Compositors Jesse Geller, Alexey Khaimov, Makoto Sato
Graphic Design Azusa Kobayashi

Original Score by David Frankel, Judd Greenstein, Yuyang Liao

Sound Design/Mix John Moros
Sound Editor Abigail Savage
Foley Engineer Jeff Soto
Audio Post Facility Dig It Audio, Inc.
HD Mastering Craig Gordon/rhinopost

Production Counsel Carter McGowan
Fiscal Sponsorship Film/Video Arts
Render Farm provided by The School of Visual Arts

Supported by the Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recognition of the valuable cultural contributions of artists to society