Steve Vai and Ann Marie Calhoun lend talent to Live Music

Mass Animation, Sony Pictures and Intel Corporation today announced that the ground-breaking animated short film Live Music, a worldwide collaboration by animators using a unique application built on the Facebook Platform, will be attached to TriStar Pictures’ animated feature Planet 51, scheduled for a Nov. 20 wide theatrical release in North America.

Live Music is directed by Yair Landau, former president of Sony Pictures Digital, and produced by Landau and Jacquie Barnbrook (producer of the Oscar-winning short, “The Chubb Chubbs”). It is the first production from Mass Animation, an effort sponsored by Intel Corporation that brings together the worlds of computer graphics, Hollywood and Facebook.

The 5-minute computer-generated animated short is inspired by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and early CGI films. Set in a musical instrument store, the story follows Riff, a rock ‘n’ roll guitar, who, as Landau describes it, “falls in love to the wrong song but ends up with Vanessa, the classical violin of his dreams.” The story is conveyed through the universal language of music, allowing the expressions and actions of the characters to be instantly relatable globally. The instruments are brought to life through original compositions and familiar rock tunes played principally by legendary guitarist Steve Vai as Riff and acclaimed violinist Ann Marie Calhoun as Vanessa.

A new high-def trailer for Live Music can now be viewed on Apple’s Quicktime Trailers Page. You can also view the trailer on YouTube. You can become a fan of Live Music on Facebook and check out some photos of Steve and Ann Marie during the recording sessions.