Michael Patterson

Michael Patterson is a director, designer, and animation artist working in visual music. 

He currently teaches at the Division of Animation and Digital Arts at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He is best known for animating the music video for A-Ha's "Take On Me" song and creating the Warner Bros. characters MC Skat Kat, the Stray Mob, Yakety Yak, The Madden Brothers, and Tibi the Take it Back Butterfly.

Education

Patterson attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1980. He then earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from the program in Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts (1981–84).

Career

After his graduate studies with Jules Engel at CalArts, Patterson was brought to the attention of record executives with his Student Academy Award-winning animated short "Commuter". Employing his unmistakable drawing style, he began his career in music videos in 1985. 

Patterson and his wife Candace Reckinger were driving forces behind the early days of MTV. Winners of an MTV award for the animation in A-Ha's groundbreaking video for "Take On Me" and "Train of Thought", they went on to animate and direct Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract". "Opposites" was nominated for 6 MTV awards and won the Grammy for the best music video of the year. The same year, they also directed the second version of the music video for Abdul's of "Knocked Out". In 1990, they directed video for "Across the River" song by Bruce Hornsby and the Range.

The couple also directed videos for Sting ("Be Still My Beating Heart"), Suzanne Vega ("Luka"), Roy Orbison, Wilson-Phillips, Ian Hunter, Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, and Go West among others.

After nearly a decade in music, Patterson shifted his focus to commercials, combining his animation expertise with live-action storytelling. From 1993-2002 he directed at Rhythm and Hues Studios working extensively with 2D compositing and 3D animation. As part of a hands-on style, he works as his own storyboard artist, designer, and on-set effects supervisor. He's directed award-winning spots for Nestle, NBC, FOX, General Mills, and Yoplait, as well as receiving Clios for Intel and Reebok.

In the fall of 2006, Patterson's film "Commuter" was added into MoMA's permanent collection along with a number of Patterson/Reckinger music videos. 

Patterson began teaching at the University of Southern California in 2007 and continued his work in visual music by expanding into live and immersive forms. In 2010, he and his wife, Reckinger, collaborated with symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and a team of their USC students and graduates to create an expansive 5-screen visualization of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The 35-minute live work premiered in January 2011 with live orchestra at the gala opening of Frank Gehry's New World Center in Miami Beach, Florida.

In 2012, Patterson and Candace directed another team of students to create a fully animated music video for Jeff Lynne's Electric Light Orchestra classic, Mr. Blue Sky.In 2015, the couple created and performed 7 visual music works for live performance. These include Arcadiana by composer Thomas Adès, And so the Wind Blew... by Gene Koshinski, qsqsqsqsqqqqqqqqq by Tristan Perich and Mideragamiby Veronika Krausas.

Patterson was also a judge for the 7th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.

Personal life

Patterson is married to Candace Reckinger, who is also an animator and collaborates frequently with him.

Filmography

• Commuter (1981) (Director)
• Take On Me (1985) (Director)
• Train of Thought (1986) (Director)
• Be Still My Beating Heart (1987) (Director)
• Opposites Attract (1989) (Director)
• Skat Strut (1990) (Director)
• Yakety Yak, Take it Back (1991) (Director)
• Big Time (1992) (Director)
• We Tell Ourselves (1992) (Director)
• Trash Talk (1992) (Director)
• Mr. Blue Sky (2012) (Director)