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Crossroads for the Arts

Mar 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Eric Melin

Content creation in Kansas City.

           

MK12 recently used its onsite greenscreen to land the job of designing the titles for the latest James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, as well as the graphical user interface of MI6’s computers.

With such a mysterious slogan on its doorstep and website, it is clear that the group applies the same unique brand-marketing sensibilities to itself that it creates for its clients.

More than anything else, MK12 values collaborative creative effort, so the partners founded the company with this specific thought in mind. It's a tight-knit group of people, and MK12 is hesitant to call attention to any one particular member — no matter what part of the production phase is happening at any given moment.

“We've had as many as four people on set before — a couple people to oversee the technical side, a couple to oversee the talent,” says Ben Radatz, cofounder of MK12. “For the amount of manipulation [in postproduction] we do, it's a good way of going about it because some people can focus on the bigger picture and other people can focus on some of the more specific things like the acting, the framing, and stuff.”

“We're like the Voltron of motion graphics,” Fisher says, referring to the animated team of smaller robots that could form into one giant robot at will in the 1980s Japanese cartoon.

Just past the salvage airplane wing that serves as the lobby conference table is a wide-open space where the artists have their own work desks, each one personalized with the kind of mess that indicates there's not a lot of sleeping going on here. Separated by an enormous black curtain to the right is the shooting stage.

“That's the beauty of having that greenscreen there. If we want pickup shots, it's just walking over to the studio,” Fisher says.

Being based out of Kansas City hasn't stopped the group from netting high-profile clients such as Adidas, Best Buy, Budweiser, ESPN, MTV, Comedy Central, and Cartoon Network. Since 2002, MK12 has been represented by production company The Ebeling Group, which has offices in London and New York and handles business acquisition for nine other leading design collectives and commercial directors as well. Between producing network launch packages, music videos, and motion graphics for television commercials, MK12 has also been able to balance its own creative projects.

For four years, all of the group's off-time was spent shooting a 30-minute motion-control animated satire called The History of America. The movie, which toured film festivals and was part of the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, is a tongue-in-cheek celebration/condemnation of America through a war that pits cowboys against astronauts. It was a labor of love for the studio, and it was filmed on a shoestring budget with a lot of help from friends.