Pulse Films : BBC Where Next Promo

A very well put together promo for the BBC by Pulse Films, directed by Anthony Dickenson.

Superestudio: Sony Spin “The Countdown”

Fun interaction between live action and type in Superestudio’s package for Sony Spin “The Countdown.”

Prologue: “Elementary” Title Sequence

Prologue’s Creative Director Simon Clowes has crafted an elegantly sinister title sequence for CBS’ new series, “Elementary,” starring Jonny Lee Miller as a contemporary Sherlock Holmes. (It has tough competition in BBC’s “Sherlock,” also a modern recasting of the venerable sleuth at 221B Baker Street.)

Simon carries Prologue’s legacy of impeccably crafted title work forward. His penchant for live action elements reminds me of my favorite work from Kyle Cooper, Prologue’s founder. Both Cooper and Clowes’ work leverage visual metaphors to foreshadow elements of the narrative ahead.

Both also bring a graphic designer’s eye to their framing. Credits appear in perfectly shaped lagoons of negative space, nestled between gritty textures and golden light. It’s a subtle art, one that Clowes commands with a mastery befitting Prologue.

Tip ‘o the hat to Ash Thorp.

Sony “Television Redefined”

Hints of Patrick Daughters in this stream-of-consciousness live action spot from Sony. 2D animation by Not To Scale’s Steve Scott. If anyone can find full credits, please drop us a line.

UPDATE: Mr. Scott has informed us the spot was directed by Johnny Green with an “insane amount of work by Glassworks.”

Credits

Trollbäck + Company: Website Update

Trollbäck + Company updates their portfolio with several noteworthy broadcast design projects: Cooking Channel rebrand, End Tag montage, AICP 2010 open, World Science Festival open, and a P&G promo.

Television Is A Drug by Beth Fulton

Television Is A Drug by Beth Fulton

NATPE 2010 Coverage

Photo by Todd Ehlers

NATPE 2010 Day One: “It’s the content, stupid!”

There is no better place to get a snapshot of the state of the industry than at the NATPE conference, the largest conference of content production in the world. Though the conference is held in a city that prides itself on its “what happens here stays here” mantra, the spirit of NATPE is more than ever about the sharing of knowledge and collaborative relationships of content producers, advertisers, distributors, and designers.  As Lew Klein, President of the NATPE Educational Foundation, said it: “what happens here must go out.”

Monday kicked off the conference with a remarkable range of speakers, starting with an inspiring keynote address by David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications. Zaslav, who oversees operations of content that goes out to no less than 173 countries and 1.5 billion subscribers conveyed his intimate knowledge of every single show produced on all 100+ networks in Discovery Communications’ arsenal. Zaslav attributed Discovery’s success to programming excellence and brand clarity. (more…)