Smilefaucet Screening/Release Party

If you’re in NYC next week, check out the DVD release party and screening for the 9th edition of Smilefaucet. There will be only one more ever so don’t miss it!

Fontana’s @ 105 Eldridge St. Between Broome & Grand
Wednesday, November 18th @ 7pm — Screenings @ 8:30pm & 10:00pm
$2 @ door

RSVP: info@smilefaucet.com

Rupert & Asylum Drop Droids

Verizon literally goes to war with its touch-screen competitors in this new spot for Droid. Brought to you by “author of epicness,” Rupert Sanders and VFX heavy-hitters, Asylum; this piece is a call-to-arms more than it is a commercial. Sure, we expected something like this with Rupert’s recent work for ODST. However, this treatment is unexpectedly refreshing for a phone.

I’m personally glad to see a brand whose image counters to the safety, lightness and warmth of some of our other recent hand-held devices. Congrats to mcgarrybowen for being bold enough to take a little risk with this launch in a time where everything is so safe.

Credits

More LDN Prodco Shake-Ups

As this year nears an end, we have seen a lot of global change in the commercial production world. Companies have folded or closed offices. Representation has changed. Moves to evolve, regain relevance or merely survive have been happening at a rapid rate.

It seemed things had begun to stabilize. However, the past week has seen some notable changes amongst some of the established players on the London scene.

This week, @radical.media has closed its London office and formed a partnership with Stink (who also recently took on TEG’s London roster) to provide production support in the UK and additional European markets. Stink will also gain access to @radical.media’s branded entertainment and TV production capabilities.

Additionally, LA-based Biscuit Filmworks and London’s Independent have ended their six-year partnership. Producers for both companies say the split is an amicable one that follows an ongoing discussion about how Biscuit’s roster of directors can be best represented in Britain. “There is limited amount of time in a given work day to spend supporting a lot of directors,” says Independent’s MD (Jani Guest). “In order for us to continue to build Independent, we have to really focus in on our company as opposed to running two companies.”

This move for Independent also comes off the heels of the formation of their animation/digital division, “A Very Special Place,” headed up by Dan Dickerson (formally of Rokkit).

As noted earlier this week, John Hassay, founder and EP of London-based Blink’s music video arm Colonel Blimp has left the company after four years to pursue an undisclosed new venture. Amongst the waves of movement in Soho, it’ll be interesting see where one of pioneer’s of London’s new-school production scene plants himself next.

We Were Monkey’s Land of Talk

UPDATED with process imagery and making-of details.

It warms my heart to bring you even more darkness for the main page as we near Halloween. Directing duo, WeWereMonkeys (Mihai Wilson and Davide Di Saro), construct a dreamlike landscape inhabited by Amazonian Queen, Antiope, for Land of Talk’s “It’s Okay.”

Abstract, yet immersive; this piece evokes. It’s refreshing to see this trend of subtlety and nuance permeating animation/mixed-media work. We’ve got all the tools, but let’s worry about telling the story first. Well done Monkeys.

Hardy & Nutini’s Pencils Are Full of Lead

With Corin Hardy’s recent jump and jive piece for Paolo Nutini, it appears he has taken a turn toward the lighter side. A comical, life-sized clay version (created by some of the animators who worked on ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’) of Paolo dances with a live band. However, the piece makes a u-turn when the properties of this character become the source of his demise.

From Corin (via PromoNews):

“My aim with this video was to set up a situation where a clay Paolo would live in a real world and behave just like a real person. Once the viewer has accepted that, I then wanted to break the rules I had devised for myself and see what goes on when a clay Paolo just pushes it a bit too far.

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Board Summit: Day 2 Round-Up

As we all recover from the Boards Summit, here’s a recap of some notable items from Day 2.

The morning session, Business as Unusual, was a round-table with Jerry Solomon (Co-Founder and Executive Producer at Epoch Films), Javier Jimenez (Co-Founder and Executive Producer at Motion Theory) and Diane McArter (Managing Director of Furlined). The thread that united them all was the openness to change in the changing production landscape.

As Epoch’s Solomon discussed staying relevant, he spoke about a company before the individual and building a strong culture. He went on to say, regardless of platform changes, new media, etc. we are storytellers. So, find out what you do well and figure out how to maximize that. MTh’s Jimenez elaborated to say, pick the projects to invest in and do them so well. This would naturally lead to having to figure out a new way of doing things and to embrace that task.

During a Digital Storytelling session, B-Reel shared some of the storytelling and technology behind the horrific story of the Hotel 626 and its sequel, Asylum 626. After discussing tactics they used to absolutely freak out their users, they shared the spherical mapping techniques in flash that allowed for a 360 view whilst moving forward and the facial recognition software that let you avoid a bloody chainsaw massacre.

As I mentioned in my recent post about the ADC’s Young Guns; this year’s show Directors Showcase Screening also had a solid showing from mixed-media directors. Among the lot were some of our regulars: Alex Turvey, Corin Hardy, Dennis Liu, Hayley Morris, Gabe Askew, Sean Pecknold, David Wilson and Ray Tintori. There was also a chance to see some relevant work in the lunch-screening of Twenty 120.

The day then closed out with a heavy-weight panel of agency folk who all offered up different (and mostly positive) ideas of where we’re all headed in the next few years. The range was from JWT’s Harvey Marco saying, “we are fucked” to DDB’s Diane Jackson playfully reminding us that talent is and always will be our strongest currency.

More mini-news and quotes from the day can be found here.