Posted on Motionographer

Posted on Motionographer

Amsterdam-based agency Selmore selected Matthijs van Heijningen (Bonkers) to direct this epic tale of a water drop’s lifelong mission to join his breathren as a pint of Bavaria Beer. While the denouement in chuckle-worthy and nicely paced, the real replay value comes from the lush CG work from Eight VFX. Each scene is fully realized and full of nearly tangible depth.

As an aside: the concept reminds me of a bit of a photo-realistic retelling of the oft-admired Guinness “Dot” spot from Psyop and agency IIBBDO Dublin.

Credits
Agency: Selmore
Art Director: Jarr Geerligs
Copywriter: Kim Triesscheijn
Account: Olivier Koning, Floor Schroeiers
Client: Marco van Bilsen, Frenkel Denie, Peer Swinkels, Mathieu Veldhuijzen

VFX: Eight VFX
VFX EP: Baptiste Andrieux
VFX Supervisor: Vania Alban-Zapata
AD, Shoot Supervision and Matte Painting: Yann Mallard
Compositors: Nicolas Cadorette Vigneau, Jean-Marc Demmer, MC
Animators: Freddy Burgos, Chien-I Kao
CG Artists: Giancarlo Lari, Shuichi Nakamara, Mathias Jourdes, Raphael Protti
Digital Integration: Yannick Leblanc
Roto Artists: Marianne Magne, Joe Chiao
VFX Producer: Marsi Frey

Production: Bonkers
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen
Executive Producer: Saskia Kok
Producer: Daan Hofman

Sound: FC Walvisch
Music: Massive Music
Post Production: HecticElectric, MacGyver
Editor: Jono Griffith, Michael Horvers

Posted on Motionographer

My first introduction to French duo Gangpol & Mit (Guillaume Castagne and Sylvain Quément) was through their music. It wasn’t until recently that I learned they are as involved in the creation of animation as they are in concocting their unique blend of electronica.

Their latest DVD, Faits Divers (Pictoplasma Publishing), is a collection of 18 audio-visual offspring from Gangpol & Mit’s collaborative relationship. According to Pictoplasma, “Guillaume emails some graphics to Sylvain, who then composes a melody and sends it back – or Sylvain coughs up a tune and has Guillaume translate it into animated worlds.”

The introductory essay for Faits Divers from Peter Thaler and Lars Denicke builds an interesting context for the DVD, albeit in the affected language of an art exhibition. The thrust is this: “Eat technology before technology eats you.” This cultural wariness underscores much of the DVD’s contents: Gangpol & Mit are clearly in command of the technology they use to create their audio-visual works, and yet they seem to hold it at arm’s length, choosing to exercise only a certain level of sophistication, never more. in this, they remind of the Amish, who have decided that wheelbarrows and ovens are acceptable technologies, while everything else is regarded with suspicion.

As with all of Gangpol & Mit’s music, the soundtrack is a precise melange of meticulously crafted electronic hooks that mixes a staggering array of retro-flavored synths with Baroque fugues and campy musical devices. Melodies run and jump like Super Mario himself, and warm analogue pads wrap around your head with nostalgic charm.

The visuals, while equally controlled, are comprised of rudimentary vector shapes and gradients, animated in simple, mostly linear movements. If 8-bit Nintendo characters could reproduce and evolve, they might have grown into something like the cast of Faits Divers. In terms of its intentionally sophomoric execution and its left-field content, the animation reminds me of cut-scenes from the Katamari Damacy franchise. Colorful, simple and weird.

Gangpol & Mit juxtapose cultural ephemera like well-traveled DJs, mashing up new and old, familiar and obscure, high and low. Aztec warriors hurl cell phones at each other in a video game brawl, a James Bond-esque hero ingests a psychoactive plant, and a man riding a flying armchair considers cutting off his own arm to rid himself of an evil hand-puppet. Every moment of seemingly cheery sentiment is undercut by a quiet violence, a disturbance of some sort.

The contents of the DVD are grouped into loose categories: Clips/Stories, Activities, Art with Heart and Archives. Clips/Stories are loosely narrative sequences focusing on the misadventures of a motley cast of characters. Activities are stand-alone vignettes that often combine spoken word and music. Art with Heart is a series of three “interviews” with fictional artist characters, each of whom suffers from a unique form of narcissism. Archives contains three animations from the back-catalog of Gangpol & Mit: “Chinese Slavery,” “A Few Elements of Vocabulary” and “How to Play Ping-Pong.”

The accompanying 32-page booklet is handsomely produced and re-presents some of the DVD’s films as sequential art, complete with typographic annotations that shed a little light on the sometimes elusive narratives.

My only complaint: I wish the audio was available separately, either as an optional download or on a separate disc. While I appreciate the visuals, I want to listen to Gangpol & Mit so I can create my own stories to accompany their delightfully twisted tunes.

Note: Faits Divers is a PAL DVD. For more information and to purchase, visit Pictoplasma.

Our rating:

Posted on Motionographer

Posted on Motionographer

BoingBoing Video brings the N.A.S.A. goods again, this time featuring Tom Waits and Cool Keith, with visuals by Montreal-based Fluorescent Hill (previously featured on Motionographer for their 2008 New Pornographers promo). SCAD professor Jacques Khouri also lent a hand modeling and rigging the 3D star of the project.

Read the interview on BoingBoing.

Posted on Motionographer

Excerpt from Woody Vasulka & Brian O’Reilly’s “Scan Processor Studies” project

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Ross Neil and Matt Clark direct an alternate “Strawberry Swing” music video. (See Shynola’s official video.) Thanks, Hector!

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Channeling the same rebel spirit as the recent Verizon adverts for the Motorola Droid, this viral for the Nokia N900 injects the nucleus of a narrative into what could be a fun campaign.

The turn to grittier aesthetics makes sense. Attempts to unseat the incumbent iPhone using the same glossy look as Apple only confuses customers; the trick is to differentiate the brands somehow. Trouble is, Nokia and Motorola have struck the same chord at more or less the same time.

The recently posted Droid “Stealth” spot directed by Rupert Sanders aims at creating the same sense of epic mystery as the Nokia N900 campaign, albeit with a much slicker production value. It’s the J.J. Abrams school of advertising, with phones instead of “mystery boxes.”

Who will win? At this point, it’s hard to say: but it seems that they’ll still be fighting for second place.

“Focus group” was directed by Jack Masters and conceived by agency Jack Morton. The Mill’s Bif (Fabrice Le Nezet, Jules Janaud and Francois Roisin) helmed the post-production efforts.

Thanks to Harm for the tip.

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Johan Polhem directs this whimsical promo for MTV Australia and Dream World. (Post by Resolution Design.)

Posted on Motionographer