Recently, local artist Charlie Mylie ventured out from here in KC’s geographic middle to explore our country — its countrysides and city-sides — and understand the parts of it he doesn’t normally get to see. He’s set out (without a car we might add) also to challenge himself as an artist.
Here at Flatland we asked Mylie: Can you find home while away from home?
Over the course of 10 weeks, Mylie (working as Pop-Up Charlie) sent envelopes of drawings back to Flatland’s headquarters as he contemplated our question. We eagerly awaited the mail drop each week while following his travels on social media. When his road trip was done, our Multimedia Producers Cody Boston and Mason Kilpatrick painstakingly recreated his route and brought to life his trip — and his Drawn Home findings — in this stop-motion film.
Go Behind the Scenes
Peek into the studio as our multimedia producers go to work.
Pop-Up Charlie’s drawings came in bundles every week for ten weeks.
More detail work by the producers. Including planning, the 10 weeks of travel for Pop-Up Charlie, and post-production work, the project was about six months in the making.
Producers Kilpatrick and Cody Boston at work in the Hale Center Studio.
Blink and you’ll miss this detail shot in the video — it’s one of the drawings shooting away.
Each tiny movement on the map is a separate image.
Multimedia Producer Mason Kilpatrick with a glue stick. The map was hand drawn then filled in with torn pieces of construction paper.
Sticky-notes on the camera arm pleading to not be touched. For each image the camera moved a fraction of an inch, and any disturbance would mean lots of re-shooting.
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Every week for 10 weeks, Pop-Up Charlie's drawings arrived in bundles in equally elaborate envelopes. The first step was to narrow down more than 300 images yet keep the story — and Pop-Up Charlie — moving along. (Photos: Catherine Wheeler | Flatland)
Multimedia Producer Mason Kilpatrick works in Flatland's Hale Center Studio with a glue stick. The hand-drawn map was filled in with torn pieces of colored construction paper.
Each tiny movement on the map is captured as a separate image. The images are then strung together in post-production.
In the video, blink and you'll miss this detail shot — it's one of the drawings scooting away.
More detail work by the producers. Including pre-planning, 10 weeks of travel for Pop-Up Charlie, and post-production work, the project was about six months in the making.
Sticky-notes on the camera arm pleading to not be touched. The camera had to remain completely still over the 3 days of production in the Hale Studio.
Producers Kilpatrick and Cody Boston at work in the studio. Once production began, the entire process took about two weeks of (often-interuppted) work.
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Follow Pop-Up Charlie's trek across the Western part of the U.S. as he answers the question: Can you find home away from home?
