West Kelowna’s Johnny Jansen has been nominated for direction of the ‘Music Video of the Year' at this year’s Juno Awards, thanks in part to his use of the earliest form of animation; phenakistoscope. 

Dating back to the 1800s, phenakistoscope uses the persistence of motion to create an illusion of animation. He used vinyl records to create the video ‘Record Shop’ for ‘Said the Whale.’

The Mount Boucherie Secondary School graduate was surprised by the nomination one morning after forgetting that the video was submitted.

“Last year’s video with ‘Said the Whale’ I did for ‘Unamerican’ there was hype around it because we were nominated for other awards. I had won a Leo Prism Prize for it so we had all this buzz about,” he told Castanet. “But it never ended up happening and then this year all of a sudden I get an email that says ‘Congratulations’, it came out of nowhere.”

When asked what it would mean to win the award, Jansen said he’s just honoured to be nominated alongside talented filmmakers and artists across Canada.

“This project, in particular, is the most technically challenging video that I’ve ever done… the whole process of making it, nobody really understood what it was. I was the only person that kind of had it figured out in my mind.”

He says this video feels like the first true art project that he’s created and to have it recognized feels incredible. 

Jansen is fascinated with the history of animation and this specific project has been in the works for over a year. 

The shooting of the video only took one day, but behind the scenes was where the most time was spent. There is no real “technique” for this type of work, Jansen said, adding he was just figuring it out as he went along.

“I was just discovering a new technique to spin in a unique way and I would go back through the whole edit just change everything.”

Each sticker printed was meticulously cut and placed in the right exact spot on the record.

“Once the images were on the records, there was no turning back, we can’t fix it in the post,” laughs Jansen. 

Overall, Jansen says he was definitely happy with the end product. 

As this is the first time Jansen will be walking the red carpet, we had to ask who he will be wearing. He says, as long as it fits, he will most likely be donning a custom flowery suit he got made years ago when he was in Thailand. This year's Juno Awards take place in Saskatoon on March 15.