Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Gordon.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I guess part of me always knew that Stop-motion and fabrication would be my life. I loved watching old Gumby animations with my dad and to this day, I am convinced that I was named after his blue friend, Tara. As a child, I always loved to explore hands-on projects and tell stories. I found myself building my own accessories for my Polly Pockets and spending more time “setting up the scene” than actually playing with them. When I got older, I struggled to find a way to combine my love for storytelling and miniature fabrication. It wasn’t until I went to the movies with my sister in 2012 and saw Laika’s Paranorman. It was at that moment I realized that was what I was meant to do. I spent hours on end in my basement making 1-4 second animations with my Pollys or any other objects I had floating around my house.
Without realizing it, I had managed to dabble in various styles including puppet and pixelation. The summer going into my Senior year of high school, I created my first short ” Zeek vs Zit”, which I would later re-create my sophomore year of college. Zeek was my first puppet and my first time bringing a story of mine to life. Zeek was the start of it all, which is why my company bares his name. Throughout the end of high school and college, I would go on to create various characters from an army of upset foods to 2 old biddies in a retirement home. It was also during college where I found my love for pixelation style animation, otherwise known as “Instagram animation”. While I loved the art of storytelling, pixelation allowed me to go back to my roots and create visual magic with items I could find at the dollar store.
While stop motion and storytelling are my guiding drives, my fabrication side extends outside of the stop motion world. Just like how Stop-motion is hands on, the world of practical effects and SFX make up allows me to create my visions in real life. I’ve always love gore and weird looking monsters. I collected these dolls called “living dead dolls” and was fascinated with autopsies and blood. I was blessed to have parents who, while terrified, nurtured this passion rather than guiding me away. It wasn’t until my Senior year of high school where I got to bring this passion to life at the NYSTEA conference in a makeup class. Something finally clicked because creating scars and gashes came naturally to me. After the conference, I continued to build my skills and horrify my parents and friends with each new look. When I got to college, I started out by doing looks for myself and as a side gig on Halloween. When other filmmakers in my program found out, I was called on every horror set in production. I predominately worked with James Abrams, director and founder of Carmel Hippo studios to bring his characters to life. James allowed me free will with design which allowed me to experiment and grow my skills. Today I freelance with both make-up, fabrication, and stop-motion and all of my most recent work can be found at tarabyrngordon.com.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not. I think I have spend an equal amount of crying as I have creating. I think my biggest struggle has been comparison. There is such a fine line between inspiration and comparing and I always found myself on the latter. I struggled with not giving myself a chance to learn and was comparing my learning to someone else’s final product. The biggest thing I have learned throughout my creative career is that you can only compare yourself to your past self and grow from there. You lose so much time in self-doubt.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Zeek and Friends story. Tell us more about the business.
I guess you could say I am a bit of a jack of all trades. My company can be split into three categories: stop-motion animation, fabrication, and SFX make up. In the realm of stop-motion, I predominately focus on pixelation and replacement style animation. Fabrication ranges from miniature to life-size puppets, props, and costumes. At the time being, my biggest specialty is costume fabrication for both miniatures and life-size and creating the same design for both sizes. Finally, I am known for my creepy and gore SFX make up. I specialize in burns, gashes, and rotting wounds.
I think the thing I am most proud of is my ability to adapt to my projects and use skills from each of my categories to bring my projects to life. Like I mentioned earlier, being a jack of all trades is something that I see as a benefit and definitely sets me apart from others. On a practical scale, I can do/figure out how to do anything for a project. I have developed a large skill set and have worked on a wide range of projects that I can quickly find an answer to any problem.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I have been seeing a re-birth of practical effects and stop-motion animation in content and it makes me very excited. I think we will see a growth in studios using practical effects and have them work alongside VFX rather than being replaced by them. I think people miss the real feel in television and movies and will be excited to see it back in the production process.
Contact Info:
- Website: tarabryngordon.com
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