Who might be giants? Maybe local artists Jack Fields, Hannah Miller, John Regan III and April Tennyson who rushed to answer when They Might Be Giants put out a call in February asking artists to submit “... beautiful, bold, stylish, contemporary, psychedelic, mind-bending” videos for their track "Am I Awake?" Fields, who is well known in Orlando for his work in puppetry and animation, and his creative team more than met these massive demands, and their madcap work is currently being featured on They Might Be Giants' YouTube channel. They also won $1,000 and a special advanced copy of They Might Be Giants' upcoming compilation album Idlewild.
The challenge was daunting enough, but Fields (a Stetson University grad and Ibex Puppetry digital media producer) also had to work around more than just time constraints on this one - he was fulfilling a puppetry residency in Canada (funded by the international organization of puppetry, UNIMA) for two weeks in the middle of this project. Fortunately, Fields had lots of creatures in his current puppet camp to pull for the video, and only one character had to be specially made (that typewriter monster makes me hesitate to trust my keyboard!).
Comedian John Hodgman judged the competition, selecting three winners, including Fields' team. Of their work he said, "Startling, original, repulsive in the most beautiful way, it engages with the lyrics without being an on-the-nose dream sequence."
