In the fourteen years that the CalArts Motion Graphics Show (MoShow) has been under the direction of Tom Bland, CalArts has accumulated student video and motion graphics works by over 350 graphic design students. Tom is in the process of cataloguing and archiving the work with the CalArts Library, and reflects on what the MoShow has meant to him and the CalArts community.

The MoShow started in ’97, instigated by Michael Worthington, as a way to screen the motion pieces being created in his motion graphics electives and also his BFA3 movie titles project on the big screen of the Bijou Theatre. The MoShow quickly grew into a yearly event that included student projects from other graphic design classes as well as independent projects.

Tom Bland: I started overseeing it in the Spring of 2000. The main goal for the screening has always been a simple one: to have a non-juried show in the Bijou Theatre where graphic design students can freely show the motion work they made during the year: from BFA1s first motion experiments to MFA2s thesis projects. Over the years it has become more difficult to be this inclusive—as the amount of motion work produced by students has increased—and it’s become unfeasible to show every work made by every student. So the last few years the students putting the show together have selected the works from open submissions, trying to include as much as possible, within a limited running time!

Tom Bland: I encourage the students to develop a whole identity around the show, having them create a trailer, interstitials and bumpers. Some years I help the students develop the theme, but mostly I try to leave it to the students to come up with one on their own. Themes from the past years have been cult movies, gaming super heroes, viral video, Star Wars… I’d have to go back and watch the rest of the series to remember the others. One theme that might be fun to explore that we haven’t done yet would be going back in time and also forward into the future: MoShow’s Excellent Adventure! My favorite theme so far has been cult movies by the class of 2010. I’ve watched it over and over and it never gets old. Karen To as one of the droogs in A Clockwork Orange is epic. Masato Nakada’s leg in The Graduate is probably my favorite clip of all. Tiffany Dantin is hysterical in The Graduate also. In the most recent 2013 show package, students made a cartoon superhero in the likeness of Mr. Keedy; that speaks for itself.

Tom Bland: I’m currently putting together a packaged DVD set of each of the years’ shows to have on file in the CalArts library for both faculty and students from across the Institute to view and be inspired by. I also want to have copies of the shows sent to motion houses both here and in New York on a yearly basis with the contact info of the students in the show. Directors from the L.A. motion companies come up to see the show and by sending it out to the various motion houses it will help with getting internships and jobs for the students.