Shy The Sun + Strange Beast: “Alice: Madness Returns” Game Trailer

Shy the Sun and Strange Beast team up in this trailer for the upcoming game release, Alice: Madness Returns.

Motion 2010

Motion 2010 on October 16-18 in Albuquerque and Santa Fe

Malcolm Sutherland “Umbra”

Montreal-based Malcolm Sutherland is a busy guy, creating self-initiated short films ranging from meditations on the beach to Mayan-inspired space travel to contributing to Star Wars Uncut. His new short, Umbra, is a wonderful wormhole of a film. The precocious character will bring a smile to your face and the unraveling story is a welcome break to a busy day. Don’t scrub ahead or you’ll break the space-time continuum… or maybe do once it’s all said and done to reconstruct it.

Malcolm was kind enough to answer some questions about Umbra and the (beneficial) emptiness of existence. Interview and Credits after the jump.

Also- If you’re a fan of Malcolm’s work, there’s more goodies on his vimeo, including the more experimental/synesthetic Light Forms and Forming Game.

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Moving Picture Company: “Polar Bear” for Nissan Leaf

Love it or hate it, Nissan has released a provocative new ad to unveil the automakers first electric car, Nissan Leaf. In Polar Bear —directed by Daniel Kleinman with post-production by MPC— the company tugs at the heartstrings of viewers by showing an arctic bear fleeing from its eroding habitat in search of a better home. The result is strangely moving, while at the same time, pretentious. Lets play devils advocate.

In many ways, Polar Bear is a snapshot of now: an ad that takes the pulse of the times and sums up how we are at this very instant. It’s an ad that, for better or worse, will give you goosebumps. It’s so elegantly packaged —so squeaky clean— which for some, may be too slick. Lets be honest, we’ve seen these ads before. Nissan is not the first —surely not the last— to market themselves as environmentally friendly. Laced with schmaltzy narratives, corporations pontificate about the greater good, while behind the scenes, rake in awesome profits. Moreover, Polar Bear is not the kind of content we usually post on Motionographer, so why post it?

The reality is obvious: many companies today are looking for creative ways to cash in on going green. Greenwashing, or misleading the public in matter of a companies environmental practices, has become commonplace. And while advertising has always appealed to altruistic lure, the verdict on Polar Bear is up in the air. However potent, it remains to be seen if the spot will be a bellwether for change or commercial hyperbole. In Nissan’s case, their environmental record is nothing special, but hope to get big by going small.

Time will tell if the company puts its money where its mouth is, but in the meantime, we’ll muse. In an attempt to start a conversation, we’d like you to weigh in. Is Polar Bear an example of corporate greenwashing or a step forward in the right direction?

More here on the fully electric, Nissan Leaf.

Noah Harris + The Mill for Brother Printers

In a mix of stop-motion and post-production, UK director Noah Harris and The Mill serve up these two spots for Brother Printers: Architect and Cafe.

Walt Disney Animation Studios: “Tangled” (trailer 2)

Walt Disney Animation Studios releases its second trailer for Tangled: a modernized, CG version of the Brothers Grimm classic, Rapunzel.

The PEN Story

Shot with over 60,000 photos, The PEN Story is an epic stop-motion piece utilizing no post-production.