Meet the MusicWorks Panelists: Anders Erickson, Ben Williams, and Matt Schellenberg

Posted on February 16, 2018

We live in a digital world where visual content is more important than ever. It’s no secret that pictures or words, paired with music, takes the emotional impact of the song to another level. In the upcoming workshop, Creative Video Content, we'll be talking with some film and video pros to explore some of the creative ways artists can produce effective content on a budget, including narrative and live music videos, lyric videos, animation, as well as song placements on TV and scoring for film.

Anders Erickson is a musician, songwriter and visual artist. While touring with his first band, Inward Eye, he began making video blogs, logos and various online content. This evolved into DIY music and lyric videos for his current project, Attica Riots, as well as other Winnipeg artists, including Lanikai, Mise En Scene, Noble Thiefs and Middle Coast. Anders works in various mediums, allowing the song to set the mood for the artwork. Lanikai’s “I Need Love” was done by hand animating water colours, accentuating the melancholy feel, while he used Super 8 film for a gritty, high energy feel in Attica Riots’ “Love Sunshine & Hysteria".

Ben Williams is the Production Centre Director for the Winnipeg Film Group (WFG) – For the past four years he has served as one of the artistic, development and operational leaders. Ben has a BA (Magna Cum Laude) in Advertising Graphics from Central State University in Ohio and studied digital filmmaking at the New York Film Academy in Manhattan. For over 15 years, he has worked in digital media studios in NYC, Chicago and Shanghai and has freelanced as a video editor in the U.S. and Canada. Most notably, he worked for JWT/New York in the broadcast and entertainment division and for Wieden+Kennedy in Shanghai on an award winning, groundbreaking Nike campaign featuring NBA superstar Kobe Bryant. Additionally, he can also be counted among the first generation of podcast pioneers and independent digital
producers to emerge in the online community.

Born into the bustling metropolis of Kleefeld, Manitoba, Canada, home to four streets and one bay, Matt Schellenberg moved to the city of Winnipeg so that he would be able to buy a Slurpee whenever he wanted. As a young adult, his house on Lipton Street gave birth to a group called The Liptonians, who won a Western Canadian Music Award for Best Pop Recording in 2008. Schellenberg’s current musical collective, Royal Canoe, inked contacts with Nevado Music in North America, Embassy of Music in Europe and Moorworks in Japan. The band has toured the world and has been featured in many a taste-making blog as well as receiving a shout out from the New York Times, Consequence of Sound, and their network television debut on Last Call With Carson Daily. Alongside the band, Schellenberg's work on scoring and composing has brought him into the national spotlight as an emerging composer. His work on commercials, documentaries and feature films has landed him 2017 Visual Media Composer of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards, and a nomination for Best Original Song at the Canadian Screen Awards. Schellenberg composed the theme music to a new nationally broadcast CBC show this fall called Now or Never. Stay tuned for much more in 2018.

Get to know them better with our little Q+A...

Q: If you could be any movie or TV character, who would you be, and why?

Anders: Scott Pilgram for his sweet bass tones, but any awkward Michael Cera character would make sense.

Ben: If I could be any movie/TV character, I would be the Black Panther. He’s the first legit black super hero to be properly injected in the mainstream consciousness.

Matt: Clark Kent, cause he's Superman playing a character when everyone thinks that Superman is the character that some man plays, and it's the other way around. Which I think is cool.

Q: What is your favourite material object that you own and why is it special?

Anders: My bed. I miss it after a few weeks on the road.

Ben: My favourite material object(s) are my silk head scarves, a signature and unique part of my personality and style.

Matt: I have an Orbitz drink from the 90s

Q: When you were 6, what did you say you wanted to be when you grow up?

Anders: Astronaut, race car driver or dinosaur depending on the day.

Ben: When I was around 6 years old I wanted to be unpredictable, animated and INSANE like Crazy Eddie (a TV commercial dude from my childhood).

Matt: A drawer for Disney, in those words.

Q: What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

Anders: "Don't stop believing, hold on to that feeling." - Journey

Ben: One of the best pieces of advice that I’ve ever received was a song by Mos Def, a song titled “Umi says.”

Matt: Do the thing you have the most patience for.