We the People "Stronger"
2021
Made in collaboration with the Obamas, and Netflix, "Stronger" is another BUCK-designed episode and serves as the anthem for the Schoolhouse Rock-inspired musical anthology series from Chris Nee and Kenya Barris. At the first annual Children’s and Family Emmy award show in 2022, the series took home a statue for Outstanding Short Form Program. In this episode, we bring Oscar-winning director Everett Downing Jr.’s story to life and set the visuals to Janelle Monae’s track “Stronger.”
Mandy, Taylor & Eliza
“Stronger” tells the story of three friends from different socio-economic backgrounds and how their lives are impacted by a natural disaster and its aftermath.
Disaster
The trio witness first-hand the destructive nature of a storm and how the damage and devastation disproportionately affects the most vulnerable neighborhoods.
Inspiration
Each of the three friends experiences a pivotal moment that inspires them to get involved and help their communities, setting them on journeys of personal growth.
Growth
We watch as Mandy, Taylor, and Eliza make decisions that push them closer to their goal. They start small: Eliza volunteers to help clean up the damage from the storm.Taylor studies law at the university after seeing his town displaced by the storm. Mandy becomes politically active, leading housing demonstrations and helping her local community register to vote.
Time Jump
The middle of the story called for a four-year time jump. We thought it would be great to show this via a single time-lapse shot. Going from a “register to vote” poster to Mandy's own election poster felt like a great way to communicate the passing of time while also progressing the story.
After the time jump, we catch up with Mandy, Taylor and Eliza, who have a newfound confidence in themselves. Four years later, they’re now in positions to help others through their service.
Victory
We watch as the three friends achieve their full potential. Eliza joins the National Guard, Taylor wins a class action lawsuit for the people of his neighborhood, and Mandy wins an election for public office.
Flag
We knew that we wanted to end with the three friends united in a crowd that represented a cross section of America, a reminder that these storylines are only three threads in a fabric of millions.
But then we got to thinking about the American flag — is there a way we could incorporate it without it feeling cliché?
We explored impressionistic images of the flag and how to create a reveal. We liked seeing a crowd of people first and then the patterns of colors would unite in such a way that the image fell into place. The result was expressive and beautiful.
We had our ending. Now we just needed a way to get there.
The Power of Monae
Janelle's voice becomes so powerful and expressive at the end of the track. We wanted to capture that visually, as if her voice was breaking through and affecting the visuals.
We explored this idea in design and let the ending unravel into bold minimalist collages, interwoven with moments of the three characters living their lives after the events of the story end.
The Ending
The ending culminates with our characters joining a crowd that simplifies and unifies into one last image.
Cinematic Paper
Everett Downing Jr. had the main points of the story blocked out and a few visual references for a cut paper look.
We liked the idea of having a tactile, handmade quality, but in our minds the story needed to be told in a cinematic way.
We decided to design in a cut paper aesthetic but retain cinematic composition and lighting.
A Three Dimensional World
We landed on a 2D design that checked all of the boxes, then went to work translating this look into 3D.
Crowds
The story called for a lot of crowd scenes. We treated crowds as shapes and patterns with a sliding scale of detail.
Concept Art
We developed these loose concept art sketches to give us the feeling of environments and moments before designing them in our cutout style.
Check out the other We the People episodes ↓
Bill of Rights
Miracle of Morning
Active Citizenship
BUCK
Chief Creative Officer
Ryan Honey
Group Creative Director
Joe Mullen
Global Executive Producer
Emily Rickard
Executive Producer
Nick Carmen
Creative Director
Robert Bisi
Associate Creative Director
Kenesha Sneed
Senior Producer
Justin Harris
Art Director
James Noellert
Production Coordinator
Lara Arikan
Global Head of Design
Brian Won
Storyboards
Max Forward
Trystin Pease
William Rosado
Design
Colin Bigelow
Dan Muangprasert
Daniel Amdemichael
Jacob Myrick
James Noellert
Jamiel Law
Joe Dennis
Kenesha Sneed
Rich Kelly
Robert Bisi
Scott Jonsson
Xia Gordon
Global Head of 3D
Doug Wilkinson
Head of 3D / 3D Supervisor
Alex Dingfelder
Senior 3D Lead
Wing Sze Lee
Lighting Lead
Sana Srinivasan
Rigging Supervisor
Ernesto Ruiz Velasco
Technical Director
Jens Lindgren
Modeling
Alfonso Petersen
Arvid Volz
Brian Yu
Elias Glasch
Irmak Semiz
Marina Czarnecki
Sana Srinivasan
Scott Crawford
Soroush Ghaffarian
Tim Krakowiak
Tina Chao
Wing Sze Lee
Rigging
Ernesto Ruiz Velasco
Jing Huang
Lighting
Alfonso Petersen
Beatrice Viguier
Brian Yu
Irmak Semiz
Kien Hoang
Marina Czarnecki
Sana Srinivasan
Soroush Ghaffarian
Tina Chao
Wing Sze Lee
Look Development
Alfonso Petersen
Irmak Semiz
Marina Czarnecki
Sana Srinivasan
Tina Chao
Wing Sze Lee
Compositing
Alfonso Petersen
Beatrice Viguier
Brian Yu
Irmak Semiz
Kien Hoang
Marina Czarnecki
Sana Srinivasan
Soroush Ghaffarian
Tina Chao
Wing Sze Lee
Head of 3D Animation
Alessandro Ceglia
3D Animation Director
Alessandro Ceglia
3D Previs
Adam Floeck
Alessandro Ceglia
Anaël Saint-Jean-Vidal
Christopher Meek
Hillary McCarthy
Matt Williamson
Tyler Mele
3D Animation
Adam Floeck
Alessandro Ceglia
Anaël Saint-Jean-Vidal
Christopher Meek
Hillary McCarthy
Ken Huling
Matt Williamson
Tyler Lancaster
Tyler Mele
Global Head of 2D Animation
Daniel Coutinho
2D Animation Directors
Esteban Esquivo
Junyi Xiao
Stephen Loveluck
2D Previs
Esteban Esquivo
Junyi Xiao
Mercy Lomelin
Moses Journey
Scott Jonsson
Stephen Loveluck
Tinghe Yang
2D Animation
Esteban Esquivo
Jardeson Rocha
Jesper Bolther
Kyle Griggs
Leo Franchi
Mac Wojcik
Miriam Palopoli
Nico Piccirilli
Nicole DiLeo
Cel Animation
Griffin Giersch
Junyi Xiao
Léa Bancelin
Lumi Chang
Matt Deans
Matthias Cuciniello
Ryoko Kondo
Stephen Loveluck
Valérie Galchynska
Global Head of Post Production
Paal Rui
Editor
Cudjo Collins
Lead Compositor
Beacon Street Studios
Titles
Chief Creative Officer
Ryan Honey
Group Creative Director
Joe Mullen
Global Executive Producer
Emily Rickard
Executive Producer
Nick Carmen
Creative Director
Andy Lyon
Senior Producer
Justin Harris
Art Director
Debora Cruchon
Global Head of Design
Brian Won
Design
Colin Graham
Debora Cruchon
Mark Kulakoff
Global Head of 2D Animation
Daniel Coutinho
2D Lead
Nick Petley
2D Animation
Daniel Rodrigues
Delainey Cummins
Lumi Chang
Morgan Allison
Nick Petley
