They Might Be Giants: "Sometimes a Lonely Way" from the album Nanobots from Ursula Murray Husted on Vimeo.
This is about the They Might Be Giants music video "Sometimes A Lonely Way." And a class project. Some class projects, it turns out, are more exciting than others.

Students in Assistant Professor Ursula Husted's animation design class at the University of Wisconsin at Stout got to do something a little unusual for undergrads: create the official music for a top band's song.

Professor Husted, who is to be congratulated for her cleverness and going outside the box, contacted a couple of bands, including They Might Be Giants, to see who would be interested. They Might Be Giants has won two Grammy Awards and sold more than four million records since forming in 1982, and they remain pretty darn popular. The band may have been more receptive than others to the idea of an animated music video because it has contributed to Hollywood and other animation projects themselves, including "Coraline" and "Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: Season Zero."

So the band, having put out a new album “Nanobots,” liked the idea. They not only agreed to let UW-Stout students in Professor Husted's class create it, but they also proposed a contest: the best-animated video from four teams in the class would be named the official music video for that song.

The class divided up and went to work. The winning video was created for the song "Sometimes a Lonely Way," and it was picked by They Might Be Giants themselves. It is the video above.

In the video, creatures resembling a fairy and an armadillo go about their daily lives while trying to avoid being eaten by giant vampire bats. True to the song’s title and lyrics, the video conveys a sense that life can be lonely, harsh and unforgiving despite its inherent beauty and promise.

All students contributed to all areas of production on this film but held responsibility in the following areas:

• Director: Amanda Nordman
• Lead Animator: Matt Patten
• Lead Storyboarder: Ava Broscoff
• Character Designer: Samantha Belhumer
• Environment Designer: Taylor Hewitt

Next, the students get to learn about being completely ignored while the band gets all the credit for the music video - except here. The band has to be congratulated for giving the kids an opportunity and seizing their own opportunity to get a nice video. But the students are the real winners because they have something to always be proud of. Well done, students!

2020