Pollen Lifts Google's Spotlight into the Limelight

Pollen Music recently teamed up with master animators and filmmakers to create award-winning content for Google's Spotlight Stories.

Spotlight Player (an Android app pre-installed on Moto X phones) provides users with a specially designed interactive environment to enjoy Spotlight’s extraordinary animated shorts by award-winning artists.

"We love stories. We love technology. And we love creating where those two things come together," states Google Spotlight Stories' Tumblr. "From that, we made a new storytelling canvas especially for mobile and then partnered with world-class creative talent to make Google Spotlight Stories."

Scot Stafford, a principal composer at Pollen Music, scored all three Spotlight Stories: Windy Day, Buggy Night, and Duet. Each is an interactive work that engages the viewer as they move their phone while using the app.

https://youtu.be/VAJXkZ0WB_o?list=PLosovmwdWDNs0FqVGDm5hZwffCyfSbD_D

"Windy Day" was created by "Ratatouille" writer and director Jan Pinkava.

https://youtu.be/Fa0so7mjS_s

"Toy Story" animator Mark Oftedal created "Buggy Night" along with award-winning children's book writer and illustrator Jon Klassen.

https://youtu.be/O9CG_PoEWCg

"Duet" was animated and directed by Glen Keane, renowned writer, animator, and character creator of several Disney masterpieces.

Both nominated for an Annie and shortlisted for a 2015 Oscar in Best Animated Short category, "Duet" ultimately snagged the 2015 AICE Award for Best Original Music. (Way to go, Scot!)

Pollen composed two versions of the score: one to accompany the stand-alone short film, and one 'responsive' score for the interactive version released on Google Spotlight Player app.

“Scot Stafford may be the most versatile composer I have ever worked with. He and his team at Pollen Music Group are pioneers," said Glen to Animation World Network in 2014. "They lift high their craft and deliver not only virtuoso writing and talent, but are able to collaborate on the highest technical level imaginable.

"What Scot did for 'Duet' is nothing short of miraculous.”

The admiration is clear between the two collaborators when speaking about the scoring process.

“Glen is an incredibly musically sensitive person. He brought a lot of ideas to the table," Scot told AWN of his colleague. " Our solution was to have a recording session where we allowed a ‘conversation’ to happen between the musicians and Glen directly.

"His animation is so musical and lyrical that we just followed the lines in his drawings. It was a true collaboration.”

Google's collaboration with artists, filmmakers and musicians sends beautiful works of visual art exclusively to the palms of Spotlight app users hands.

Could this new technology help lift our ageless love of stories into a whole new world of interactive possibility?