Western Spaghetti

PES (born Adam Pesapane, 26 May) is a director and animator of numerous short films and commercials.

Receiving a B.A. in English Literature at the University of Virginia, PES migrated to film as a storytelling medium. His use of everyday objects and stop-motion animation to create original material is instantly recognizable. His work has been recognized in the United States and internationally, especially the short films “Roof Sex”, “KaBoom!”, “Game Over”, and “Western Spaghetti”. PES’s latest short, “The Deep”, premiered as part of Showtime Network’s “Short Stories” series in December 2010. An early influence on PES’s animation style is the work of Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer.

PES’s first animated film, “Roof Sex”, features two life-sized chairs having sex on a New York rooftop. Though only a minute long, the film took 20 shooting days to complete. In 2002, “Roof Sex” won the Best First Film award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. “Roof Sex” was featured at over 100 film festivals worldwide and won numerous awards.

The war short “KaBoom!” (2004) was instrumental in defining the artist’s personal style and approach to animating objects. The film features an atomic airstrike on a miniature city using children’s toys and festive objects such as gift bows, Christmas ornaments, and clown-head cupcake toppers. A "Making of “KaBoom!” narrated by PES is available on the director’s website and gives insight into the logic behind the object use and selection.

In “Game Over” (2006) PES recreated classic arcade death sequences (from the games Centipede, Frogger, Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man) with familiar objects including muffins, toy cars, insects, pizza and fried eggs. The film was inspired by an interview with Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man, who said the original source of inspiration for the Pac-Man character was a pizza with a slice missing.

In July 2008, PES released his short “Western Spaghetti”. The film shows PES cooking spaghetti (the hands in the film are PES’s5) but all the ingredients in the dish are replaced with objects such as tomato pin cushions, rubber bands, rubik’s cubes, post-it notes, and bubblewrap, and all are brought to life through stop-motion animation. TIME Magazine named “Western Spaghetti” the #2 Internet film of 2008 in its “Top Ten of Everything 2008”. The film also won an Honorable Mention at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Annecy International Animation Festival in June 2009.

In Winter 2008/2009 PES launched his own version of the classic Yule Log (TV program), creating a miniature fireplace loop using pretzel logs and candy corn animated in stop-motion. The film is available as a free screensaver on the director’s website.

PES also directs TV commercials, including spots for Kinder Surprise (2011), Washington State Lottery (2010), Scrabble (2008), Sprint (2007), Sneaux Shoes (“Human Skateboard”, 2007), Orange Telecom (2006), Bacardi (2005), and Coinstar (2005). The commercial for Sneaux, “Human Skateboard”, became an internet phenomenon in 2007, amassing millions of views online. All films are available for viewing on the director’s website.

In June 2008 Director Michel Gondry was quoted in Paste Magazine as saying “Clicking on a PES film is to open a safe and suddenly see a million ideas glittering and exploding. The only reason you close the door is to re-open it just after and discover what will pop this time.” —wikipedia