Factory Fifteen: Jonah

Kibwe Tavares’ vision for “Jonah” is a unique one. Though the film is laden with visual effects from Factory Fifteen and Jellyfish Pictures, they are there only to serve the story.

Themes of greed, hubris and loss are rendered in moving performances by the film’s three primary actors, Daniel Kaluuya, Malachi Kirby and Louis Mahoney. But the city is a star, too. Its ever-changing facades communicate the passage of time and the painful decay of a dream.

Synopsis

Mbwana and his best friend Juma are two young men with big dreams. These dreams become reality when they photograph a gigantic fish leaping out of the sea and their small town blossoms into a tourist hot-spot as a result. But for Mbwana, the reality isn’t what he dreamed – and when he meets the fish again, both of them forgotten, ruined and old, he decides only one of them can survive. Jonah is a big fish story about the old and the new, and the links and the distances between them. A visual feast, shot though with humour and warmth, it tells an old story in a completely new way.

VFX Breakdown

Full credits on the Vimeo page.

Hat tip to Ash Thorp.

Google’s Project Loon and How We Create the Future

Google’s latest gloriously ambitious initiative, Project Loon, is all over the news this week. This beautiful piece – directed by Google Creative Lab with Mixtape Club acting as the production company – explains Project Loon. Wired has also written an in-depth look at the history and goals of the project.

Project Loon is groundbreaking work. But it’s only one of many futuristic projects that Google is involved in. From self-driving cars, to the future of energy, to artificial intelligence, to (yes) Google Glass, the ways in which Google pursues so many mad scientist initiatives – many of which are only distantly related to what actually makes Google money – are what makes the company so interesting.

But do you have to be Google to be so ambitious? Does it take billions of dollars to have the freedom to pursue these crazy (awesome) goals? I don’t think so. We work in an industry that, on a good day, is filled with brilliantly creative folks. What kind of crazy projects are we doing to help create the future? I’m interested to know. Share your stories in the comments – and I’ll put together a roundup.

Credits

Virgilio Villoresi: John Mayer “Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967″

Milan-based Virgilio Villoresi uses the pre-cinema technique, ombro cinema, to animate the drawings made by Virginia Mori. Everything was filmed in live-action, no post production effects were employed. Make sure to check out the rest of Virgilio’s charming portfolio.

For those of you curious to learn more, check out lenticular sheets and autostereoscopy, aka glasses-free 3D. Go nuts with lenticular image creator.

Behind-the-scenes photos and credits after the jump!

Read on →

OFFF Main Titles 2013: Mr. Emilton’s Cabinet of Curiosities

OFFF 2013 Main Titles by From Form from OFFF, let’s feed the future on Vimeo.

There’s always much anticipation towards the new Offf Barcelona titles. At least, for me there is. With companies like The Mill, Post Panic, Upperfirst and Brosmind it almost seems like unfair compition to begin with. Not that there’s anything to win, but you definately want to show what you are worth.

This years title is made in a colaboration between dutch based design studio From Form and Part of Something.

They decided to take a step back. No over the top VFX, insane 3D animations and fast paced editing. Purely focussing on the narrative, telling an inspiring story about a man and his journey and the need to be curious.

The names of the speakers merged with the memorabilia and souvenirs of all his journeys. It’s not new to put the names of the speakers on objects, 2 years ago Post Panic did that for the same Festival. But the combination of a good storyline, nice camera angles and almost everything in-camera make this a piece to remember.

The superfine audio is done by 
Ben Lukas Boysen, as is becoming a tradition for the Offf festival. Also take note of the subtle cello track in the background.

More info on the project is found here

Credits…

Spectacle: The Music Video

Spectacle: The Music Video is the first museum exhibition to celebrate the art and history of the music video. This groundbreaking exhibition, curated by Jonathan Wells and Meg Grey Wells of Flux (and RES Magazine fame), explores music video as an important and influential art form in contemporary culture.

The exhibit is a treat for any animator, filmmaker, music lover, or pop culture geek. There’s Michel Gondry’s White Stripes legos, the original drawings from A-ha’s Take On Me, This Too Shall Pass OK GO jump suits, Gangnam Style sans music, and over 300 videos to enjoy on loop. The beautiful exhibit design is by Logan.

After its inaugural run at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati last year, it has landed in New York and will be on view for one more week at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. The Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, check out their hours here.

Here’s hoping Spectacle can tour many more cities and this amazing collection of videos will find a home online.

The music video is one of our favorite mediums at Motionographer. What sets it apart from tv, feature films, musicals, or short films? One significant characteristic is the high percentage of writer-directors. A music video director often writes the treatment himself and leaves a strong, tangible mark on the final product. If film is a symphony, and a television episode is a chamber piece, then a music video is a solo.

The second notable characteristic is the “music” in “music video”. A music video inherently has a relationship with another piece of art and another artist. Sometimes this means you’re getting a hybrid idea that’s the result of a collaboration between the director and the musician. Other times the director is solely responsible for the concept, but the song itself provides a jumping off point. As opposed to short film, where you start with a blank page, a music video starts with a running time, a mood, and lyrics as constraints from which creativity and innovation occur.

Michael Patterson, who created the iconic animation of A-ha’s Take On Me music video shared the following thoughts with us:

Music videos allow artists their individual voices. In the film and entertainment industry, it’s one of the few places where there’s a need for true invention without too much interference. In my experience, music companies and music artists would hope for something new and inspiring when commissioning a video. That expectation was a fantastic motivator for us as directors.

When animating “Take On Me”, we were asked to bring our unique talents to the project. It was a chance for our careers to catch fire and get work out to millions of people. Whether it’s a video, an installation or an interactive experience. People love experiencing original work and a unique vision. This is why this medium will keep growing and developing.

Giovanni Braggio: Animation Tutorial Part 1

Intimidated by character animation? Don’t be! Giovanni Braggio shows you just how easy it is.

Hat tip to Danica Perry.

Nico Casavecchia: “A Boy And His Atom” The World’s Smallest Movie

Working with animation studio Punga,1stAveMachine’s Nico Casavecchia had the honor of creating the world’s first movie at the scale of individual atoms — the world’s smallest movie — at least until someone figures out how to animate quarks.

Nico took some time to share details about the unique process behind this project.

How did this job come about?

The job came to 1stAvenueMachine in November of 2012, and we started having the initial meetings with Ogilvy & Mather around then.

Was there a script or did you have to propose a story?

We worked on the script for a long time. We had different ideas on how to approach it. Originally, it was related with an actual scientific achievement, which is connected to the use of nanotechnology for data storage, so we were working with a lot of concepts around the idea of human memories, information, things like that.

I was obsessed with the plaque designed by Carl Sagan for the Pioneer probe sent to Jupiter. I thought, “If we’re writing a message with atoms, it has to be transcendent and celebrate human achievements.” It was a lot of pressure!

I started thinking about animating a famous haiku, the smallest poetic form, or illustrating a quote of Carl Sagan on how atoms are the building blocks of life.

Fortunately, the guys at the agency brought me back to reality and suggested to have fun with it. They came up with this little story, which is human and universal. They wanted something that didn’t need words — which now seems like the right decision. Once we had the script, I started fleshing out the way to tell the story in the most economic format possible.

I’m assuming there were a lot of technical limitations for this project. Did you have to learn a lot about molecular imaging in order to even begin thinking about this project?

→ Read on for more process imagery and details

Corridor Digital: Kittens on the Beat

It’s Caturday. Enjoy some Phantom cam + clever forced perspective green screen adventures by Corridor Digital.

Hat tip to Kris Merc.

Blur: League of Legends Cinematic “A Twist of Fate”

It’s getting very hard to stand out in the world of game cinematics. But somehow Blur always manages to pull it off.

Case in point, “A Twist of Fate,” Blur’s trailer for League of Legends, the multi-player battle game from Riot Games. Each vignette in the trailer pumps up the action from the previous vignette, culminating in an over-the-top battle royale that even the most jaded consumer of game trailers can appreciate.

Podcast: The Collective

Ash Thorp has been busy. In addition to banging out amazing design and illustration work, he’s launched a podcast, The Collective.

The third episode, featuring Danny Yount, just launched. Other episodes include GMUNK and Anthony Scott Burns as guests. Check them out below.