We recently connected with Bradford Uyeda and have shared our conversation below.

Bradford, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Well I would say that the music scene or cummunity is huge even at a local level. Musicians or individual artists going out into the world and creating a sound that is unique to their style of music. Then take them and subcategorize them into genre and then sub-genre. That means that there are a lot of artists and groups out there renting spaces and making recording booths to create music. Every band or singer wants to make an album and nowadays you can’t have a new album without music videos or lyric videos. Mainstream artists have labels that take them in and pay for all those things and top it off with a mass marketing roll out. Everyone else has to do it all themselves or end up under a smaller label that still doesn’t have the capital to launch a massive promotion. So for the last two decades I have been that one artist that offers these musicians reasonable and affordable animation content for their music videos. It was actually this music community that took a chance on me when I first started out as a freelancer. These collaborations are special I feel, the artists are very down to earth and have regular jobs but the drive to make music is inspiring not only to them to me. I have had a blast making music videos for so many different musicians. Some bands had given up and stopped for a time but that fire never went out. I am making several music videos for a band that decided to give it another go. Gotta love that.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Brad Uyeda and I am a one stop production shop for 2d and Stop motion animation. My company is called SavMo Studios based in Phoenix Arizona. It started in one of those band spaces once upon a time.I had rented a space at the band Smash Mouth’s recording studio in California and began my freelance animation career. I stumbled into animation when I was in college at San Francisco State University studying fine art. I somehow was able to get into the animation program and fell in love with the medium.

Since 2000 my work has been to bring life to the inanimate. In my work I delve into various
mediums and use their textures and brilliance to convey my thoughts on the world as it is. I normally would generate several works through painting, sculpture and mix mediums such as print with combinations of mediums. Though through film and animation I am able to bring life to what is line and shape. Animation allows me to express myself through movement and visual purity. Through the process of trial and error I have found my style of animation to be stop-motion animation.

In the footsteps of Ray Harryhausen, Kihachiro Kawamoto and Jiri Barta I have found that stop-motion animation has unique qualities when it comes to bringing life to the lifeless. This idea of life and creating a statement of feeling through this medium is powerful to me. Images and sculpted visuals can convey the most thought provoking ideas. Being able to create what the eyes see is bold in its context. I enjoy this visual presentation and all aspects of the process using sound to generate realism and voice to humanize the idea expresses on film. It is a wonderful art form.

I provide clients with a one stop shop. I create animated content in either traditional hand drawn animation or stop motion animation. I storyboard, edit, shoot, sound mix and more. I do pretty much everything except compose music. Music is provided when needed by composers I have worked with for a long time. Most of time it’s a music video so the music is already provided. I also make short films and I am currently getting my first feature film ready for production.

I am out to prove that animation is affordable, and that it can be accessible. It won’t cost you millions or tens of thousands to do. There are artists out here like myself that can make you something amazing in your budget.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I am at a point in my life that I want to document my families story. I want to be the keeper of the family archives. With that I also would like to leave something behind. I want to make films that tell important moments in history that my family was a part of. So much of our own family tree has a story in there that is cinematic, heart felt, dramatic, epic, horrific, romantic and comedic. As is life our elders are passing away and with them that knowledge. Their story was never told. I have been blessed and gifted with the ability to tell stories through an art form that is universal. I am on a mission to tell these stories. I have feature about one of my grandfathers in WW2 and a short film about a great uncle who died saving another in the Korean War 1950.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I had known about networking and how important it is. The do’s and don’ts when meeting with these individuals. How to stay connected and build your network over time. Collaboration is key.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://savmostudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brad_uyeda/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561379992931
• Twitter: https://x.com/StudiosSavmo

Image Credits

Head shot by Lilybelle Photography