Before we started Ringo none of us knew eachother that well. Most of us had just met. We wanted to make something. At the time, none of us had any real experience. Ringo started as a weekend project but we ended up working on it for another nine months. We didn’t plan. Things just developed. We learned as we went along with it. Here is the original press release by markus…Hello my name is Donald Wormstorm. I’m 22 years old and live in City Bowl ,Cape Town ,South Africa. I share an apartment block with about eight young professionals, All bursting at the seams with success,patience and natural charisma. We’ll examine each of them closely in a second. But right now, let’s talk about me…
Presently I’m sitting in my studio/lounge,typing away on my black desktop. About 30 minutes ago, Jannes (my cousin and flat mate) served dinner to myself ,Pieter and Ree. The food was lovely, Thai i think. We sat there on our colourful balcony, enjoying the silence. I was about to compliment Jannes on how nicely the Shiraz he had chosen, went with the food. It was a ninety six I think. But he spoke first. His big cow like eyes glinting as he casually commissioned me to write a press release for Ringo. So here it goes…

Ringo is the name of a music video project. My music video in fact! And it took a team of five creatives, nine months to complete. And it’s finished! And we’re all very proud of it. Its a two minute long animation, that will stun and amaze all, with it’s dazzling amount of detail and wacky style. The lead actor’s name is Ringo, and he’s late for a date. And you get to watch him get there in the nick of time. But to get there, Ringo has to run through exotic bread villages, toxic jungles, and floating gardens. The desired look for the animation is a cardboard cut-out set. The music that accompanies the video, could be revered to as TV game electronica. The music video will be released with my album,through African Dope, sometime near the end of May. The album is a three cd extravaganza! Simply called The Real Estate Agents, composed by me and my best friend SiBot (aka DJ Cool guy aka DJ Fuck). But apart from the album, I believe that Ringo could do just fine on his own.
How we got started:
On the first of September 2003 me and my cousin Jannes, moved in together. And we still stay in the same apartment today. Jannes had been in London before that, and had been making amazing music videos as a hobby. And because of the quality of his productions, he very easily got a job at a well known post production agency. He didn’t have any friends yet, so I introduced him to a close friend of mine, her name is Ree. Ree’s a really talented artist. And I thought it could be cool if the three of us did some small production together. We were going to take Ree’s pictures and make them move.We thought we would kind of slap it together over the weekend or so, luckily for us it took a bit longer.
Two months later we had finished experimenting, we had found Ringo’s look. Jannes was doing most of the technical stuff at that time. That being taking Ree’s pictures and turning them into Vectors, animating them in Flash, and building environments with them in After Effects. 2D images spaced in a 3D world. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be. The After Effects files took too much memory to render, and for a fleeting second it seemed as though Ringo was doomed.
Near the end of November my favourite Afrikaans friend came to visit us for a weekend. He ended up staying for six months. His name is Pieter. And he’s a 3D wiz kid. With him on board, Ringo quickly bounced back to life.Shortly after that Jannes’ beautiful girlfriend Miné joined us in Cape Town. She turned out to be a great adviser, and helped us where she could. And the team persevered and stayed up late for another eight months. And here I am today, writing The Ringo press release.

Technical
We did most of the work on Adobe Photo shop, After Effects 6 and 3D studio Max. Ree’s pen sketches where scanned, and coloured in, using a wacom pad. Pieter did all of the particle systems and intensive 3D work and Jannes did just about everything else. And me? Well I wrote the song. But I can’t help but feel that Ringo belongs more to the guys than to me, here’s a brief profile on each of them.

The Black Heart gang:
1)Pieter Mentz
He’s 23 years old and stays next door from me. He is six foot eight making him my tallest friend. He’s a skinny 3D software developer, video jockey and animator. He was definitely the backbone of the operation . A bit eccentric, and lots of fun. He freelances and enjoys boating.

2)Ree Treweek
She’s 25 and lives in an old mental asylum turned loft apartment, fifteen minutes out of town. She’s definitely the look behind the video. She designed, drew, and coloured every character in Ringo. She’s got red hair and likes to play with clay.

3)Jannes Hendrikz
Is twenty-four and its his birthday in 3 days. He could envision Ringo long before we could, so in effect I’ll say he was the Director of Ringo. He did all After Effects work, and built 3D scenes with Pieter. Me and him are family! He works at The Refinery and specialises in Motion Graphic Design. He has a motorbike and his favourite colour is black.

4)Miné Jonker
This well mannered Afrikaans girl has got a million and one tricks up her sleeve. I’d say that her company and gentle advice was the putty which held Ringo together. She enjoys drawing pictures and picking on me.

5)And lastly and most unimportant, me. Markus Wormstorm. I’m twenty two. I’m an electronic composer and I form part of the Constructus corporation. I’m signed to Sound-ink (a glitch-hop record label from New York) and also local label African Dope.
So there you are. The nice conclusive history of how Ringo came to be. I really hope you guys enjoy it. I hope some of you will even want to write a review on it or something. So, you know, keep a eye open for more projects by us. And look after yourselves.

Abundantly yours
Markus Wormstorm