How Artifactuality Reunites the Fresh Meat for MTV
A Closer Look at the Award-Winner’s Creative Process

By David Weiss & Christine Moh • August 2007

When MTV approached us with a brand new challenge series called ‘Fresh Meat’, we knew we couldn't get too serious. We thought it was a perfect opportunity to do something out of the ordinary… Something quirky and not slick… Something tactile... Something hand-made... We thought about getting a fresh whole chicken from the market, cut it into pieces and sew it back together—kind of like Nip-Tuck--to represent the "reunion" of the "fresh meat." But, as you may have already pictured in your mind, this imagery is very gruesome.

So besides ordinary pictures of real slabs of beef and pork and lamb and bloody slaughter house, what else could represent "meat" without being offensive and suitable for the young audience?... Well, a meat diagram came up in the Google image search pretty quickly... Bob and I looked at each other and we smiled--Bingo!

Immediately, we proposed our idea to the client for his upcoming show "The Fresh Meat Reunion.” The concept was a puzzle game made out from a butcher’s meat diagram. So Artifactuality would create and build the puzzle game as a prop. For the actual design package, we would show the action of someone physically playing the puzzle game to reunite the meat diagram puzzle pieces, which is a perfect tongue-and-cheek solution to represent “The Fresh Meat Reunion.” We presented the idea with a pencil drawing. It's funny and entertaining. This kind of cleverness don't happen everyday and the client immediately saw the value of this idea. So they let us continue to build a storyboard.

For the storyboard, we drew a pig and a cow diagram on the computer. Printed them out and cut them into pieces with scissors. We took pictures of a pair of hands assembling these cut papers into whole diagrams. From doing this test shoot, we made a list of what to do: Create the prop; enlarge the diagram so they are comfortable enough to be handled; find the right kind of material that can handle detailed cutting on a table saw; find a silk screener, etc...

We consulted a specialized carpenter who understood different materials and had the ability to work with very tightly detailed graphic cuts. So we went to Home Depot to get the materials, primed them with gesso and took them to an industrial silk-screener who don't do just t-shirts. They worked rather fast. Two days later, we took the silk-screened diagrams to the carpenter's wood shop. We spent a day there cutting the wood into pieces and hand painted the back and the side edges of each puzzle piece with red acrylic paint. When all the pieces were done, we have created the world's one and only “Fresh Meat” puzzle game! The final pieces weren’t perfect, but the little nicks and chips made it look like an antique toy, which worked in the larger context.

Next day, when all the paint dried, we moved all these pieces carefully to the shoot location: Our very own kitchen. We spent half a day setting up the scene, and another half a day shooting all the possible sequences we could think of... Yes I did say "sequence" because we used a Nikon D50 and shot stills, in keeping with the "analog before digital" philosophy of this project. Bob said stop action is an old-school type of approach that’s very playful and a lot of fun—again it worked with the larger context of a “game.”

Bob directed the talent through the entire shoot as he hit the shutter. He made sure there was a big difference between each shot: His hand on the right, then on the left. We didn’t want smoothness; we wanted dramatic action. So we’d tell him things like “React to the word ‘fatback’, react to the snout, make a funny gesture with your hands…” The results are kind of jarring, but that was the humor effect we were looking for. During the shoot, we would review the pictures on the computer. If there were even one shot we didn’t like, we'd reject the whole sequence and reshoot it to ensure continuity. Toward the end of the shoot, we took advantage of the individual puzzle pieces to make the notable lower third graphics.

After the shoot, we took these sequences into After Effects for animation, editing and composite.

When we animated the lower third graphics, we realized we couldn’t be dainty with the individual meat parts. These big clunky meat pieces with the cast members’ names were animated as if they were being banged around during the puzzle game. The content of ‘Fresh Meat’ is not elegant, so our approach was different, but beautifully appropriate.

For the music, we searched out an easily licensable soundtrack that would lift the visuals to the next level. We tried to find something a little quirky – MTV rock and roll with a bit of goofiness to it. The piece we found is like a game show theme, with a lot of bright electric piano and hand clap rhythms. Everything had a beat just as each frame was going by – they were made for each other.

Once everything was assembled, delivered and aired, the healthy mixture of traditional media techniques executed with digital precision, proved to be the perfect setup for “Well Done: The Fresh Meat Reunion”. For MTV, the mandate is always to be original, different and playful. But for us, this project was a lot of fun. Instead of going right for the digital tool, we were working with materials on a prop in a wood shop, sawing wood, painting it, and assembling it. It’s a little ironic, but ‘Fresh Meat’ actually took us back to our roots as artists.

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About Artifactuality

Artifactuality is an award-winning graphic and broadcast design team based in New York City. Founded by Christine Moh and Bob Mickens, we take a multidisciplinary approach to creating effective and motivating onscreen graphics campaigns, map design and implementation, TV and film titles, and more.

For more information, please visit: www.artifactuality.com .

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