Ikepod | The Hourglass
The making of the hourglass is definitely worth your time. Marc Newson’s latest creation for Ikepod. Directed by Philip Andelman.
Craig Murray | Demoreel
Craig Murray is a creative geyser that blows roughly every week or so, dousing us in directorial greatness in the process. His new showreel contains a dazzling array of work shot between June 2011 and March 2012.
All visual effects are made in camera by a process of photographic long exposure animation. All layers used are hand made. All his tees and jackets would be mine if they weren’t too small for me.
Motorola | Existential advertising
What’s that saying; two things you can be sure about in life is death and taxes. May I suggest that the other inevitability is change.
Civilisations come and go, fashion and cultural trends rotate and someday we’ll all turn into robots. In the mean time, the global economy is imploding and the 99% are voicing their opinions on an economic system that has a few inherent flaws.
So where does this leave advertisers? Well it’s clearly not a time to only ‘sell’. One good and jolly sensible reason being that there’s generally less money flowing in the 99% sphere. This means an opportunity for communications that engage and create dialogue.
Inspired by some art house sensibilities, Motorola have started the conversation with a series of ads that pose an existential question of ‘What does Abundance mean to you?’.
Featuring a range of Japanese creatives and thinkers, each one in turn answers that very question. An interesting and innovative strategy that proves particularly poignant given the Japanese peoples’ attempts to recover from national and personal tragedy.
In times of uncertainty, nostalgia is often the prescribed remedy. An alignment with an audiences real concerns though, has to be the future. I’m not sure how radical the ‘brand message’ will get over on this side of the pond, but the consumers appetite [and taste] is slowly changing; becoming just that little bit more discerning.
Leading brands of the future will have to extend the idea of purpose to more than CSR policies, making them integral to their brand values and indeed communications.
Las Vegas 1962
Colourist Jeff Altman has telecined and graded a 16mm reel of 1960′s Las Vegas that he found. A very understated and calming video from a very grandiose and OTT era, where all that glittered was far from gold.
Craig Murray | Pap-il-lon iD teaser
Our studio mate Craig Murray can be usually found up in the wee hours of the morning and is known to survive on very little sleep. This may well have inspired his latest promo vids for new club night Pap-il-lon and their iD teasers.
Craig captures a trippy dippy fantasia with healthy dollops of retro chic to create films that are both super psychedelic and warm. They feel like they could have been shot in the 70′s and wouldn’t be out of place advertising the latest designer fragrance. Good work Mr Murray!
Vibes & Pressure | Steppin Raiser
You may be familiar with Natty’s 2008 pop hits Bedroom Eyes, July and Badman, however you might not know of Natty the activist. Teaming up with friends and some like minded folk Vibes & Pressure was born – an event that mixes music, art and activism.
Tonight at Passing Clouds, Vibes & Pressure present Steppin Raiser – a chance to debate the recent UK Riots with young people, community leaders and musicians. As well as food for thought there will also some for the belly, plus live music.
For more information please visit the FB page here.
Ok Go & Pilobolus | All Is Not Lost
At first I though this was a very bad music video with a shoddy aspect ratio. However, beyond the first five seconds lies a song about hope, dedicated to everybody effected by the tsunami in Japan earlier this year.
Made as a collaboration between Google and Pilobolus, a Connecticut-based company of choreographers and dancer-athletes. The video even has the worlds first dance messenger, as well as a bunch of behind the scenes videos.
Ok Go manage to continuously pull off one baffling move after another. When the feet slowly transform into the lyrics, I dare you not to do your best Senator Clay Davis.
Logorama | H5
Logorama is an animated visual bombardment made up of a hectic display of brand logo’s. Every single item, from the characters to the backdrop are created from companies logos. The story follows two cops (Michelin Men) hunting down the crazed outlaw (Ronald McDonald). I was constantly suprised by the cleverness and dedication that this must have taken to create such brilliant work.
The animation was created by H5 a French graphics and animation company. Here’s what they had to say on it…
“Logorama presents us with an over-marketed world built only from logos and real trademarks that are destroyed by a series of natural disasters (including an earthquake and a tidal wave of oil). Logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us everyday in our lives. This over-organized universe is violently transformed by the cataclysm becoming fantastic and absurd. It shows the victory of the creative against the rational, where nature and human fantasy triumph.”
::
Guest post by Femi Idowu-Read: one of the original Let’s Be Brief crew, who’s on a six week placement with twenty%extra.
Africa Hitech | Out In The Streets (twenty%remix video)
Out in the streets, people are doing more than shopping for new clothes and furniture. History has shown that democracy in action isn’t always pretty. Many are now realising that their democratic rights can’t be fought from the comfort of the living room sofa.
If there were a soundtrack to ‘conscientious uprising’, Africa Hitech’s ‘Out In The Streets’ would be it. At twenty%extra™ we created our own version of the video in response to the poignant chorus, which could literally be a soundtrack of our times.
Batman | The Dark Knight Rises poster
I don’t know when in 2012 this film is coming out. Christian Bale aside, I don’t even know who’ll be starring in it. I do know however that this teaser poster is simply dope.
An image of anarchy and apocalypse depicted with such craft can only bode well for the film itself.