Friday 21 December 2007
Meribel 2007
Created in 2001 and now in its seventh year, Cannes somewhat cooler boutique-style cousin - the Meribel Ad festival has managed to attract over 1000 of the industries finest and most fearless to chuck themselves down the slopes, conduct some business in the snow and then gather to honour Europe’s best work in the Cristal Awards.
The Festival unites all corners of the ad world: Principal agencies, producers, directors, media buyers, survey companies and TV producers and since 2004 has opened up to the whole of Europe.
This year was the largest Meribel ad festival yet - and we at the Reel were there to check it out.
After a fairly shonky British Airways flight (they managed to completely break quite a lot of the stuff we took with us – nice one BA) and a lengthy journey from the airport we began to climb into the beauty of the Meribel mountain range, and it quickly became apparent why the festival has such a great reputation, and has gained in popularity year on year with industry top brass.
With the clouds beneath us and everyone sporting ski’s and rather big coats, Meribel is a chilly but effective place of business. This year the festival was boasting a few big named speakers such as JC Decaux, and also held several workshops and forums (one from our sister publication Contagious).
So, Beautiful setting, 1000 industry players, what was the bloody work like we hear you cry!??
The award winners this year were well deserved, with the overall winner going to a rather famous drumming simian, that has not only conquered the UK, but now appears to have bashed his way to the top spot in Europe also. Fallon’s ‘Gorilla’ for Cadbury’s won the grand Film Cristal.
The rest of the award winners were as follows – and can all be found on The Reel site.
Grand Crystal: ‘Gorilla’ Cadburys
Food / Beverage: ‘Cake’ Skoda
Insurance / Banking: ‘Never trust a man’ Mercator Insurance
Services (other than financial) ‘Belonging’ Orange
Public Awareness Messages ‘Ocean Initiatives’ Surfrider Foundation
Tourism / Sport ‘Hotel’ PS3
Retail: ‘Backstage’ Harvey Nichols
Media: ‘Gali the Alligator’ 13EmeRue
Beauty: ‘Sea of Skin’ Vaseline
Fashion: ‘Dangerous Liaison’ Levis
Charities: ‘Scary Tale’ Dr Dee Dawson for PAED
A warm mug of cocoa, and few dinners later (coupled with a bunch of of black runs under our belts) The Reel will most certainly be back in the cold climes of Meribel next year to see what’s what and who is tumbling down the slopes at high speed…
Thursday 20 December 2007
Wednesday 12 December 2007
NewsReel12/12/07
Advent-urous!
As a pleasing follow-up to last week’s Green feature, a number of companies have gone for the Green option of sending e-Christmas cards this year. The more studious have rather cleverly even included an advent calendar, and one of the best is from DLKW. It includes a daily treat of ideas, lists, and tips to help the beneficiary enjoy Christmas to the fullest, and they’re giving the money saved from postage and packaging to Marie Curie Cancer Care and The Stroke Association. Everyone's a winner. Click here to see what's behind today's window.
Young Guns announced
52 countries. 60 finalists. 71 bullets. No, the result was not some kind of mass killing spree, but some happy creatives from around the globe being awarded for their good work at this year's Young Guns Award.
Below are the recipients of the two key awards (it would seem the future is bright for advertising across the Atlantic):
Jeff Anderson and Isaac Silvergate from TBWACHIATDAY New York are the 2007 Young Guns of the Year. The best young creative talent globally in 2007 as recognised by the YGAward jury.
Their Mars 'Combos - what your mom would feed you if your mom was a man' campaign won 2 Gold and 4 Silver Bullets in TV and Radio.
As the Young Guns of the Year they also win US$20,000 and a place on the 2008 YGAward jury.
Nate Virnig, Jesse Synder and Rene Delgado from Miami Ad School Minneapolis are the 2007 Student Young Guns of the Year for their ‘Red Bull Campaign’ idea.
They also win a three-month paid placement at a Leo Burnett Worldwide office of their choice and US$5,000 to help them get there.
To download the full list of the winners and finalists this year click here.
Aussie Awards
There was a big night for the Australian film industry last week, with the 49th Australian Film Institute Awards. Among the winners were Sydney’s Fuel VFX, who picked up award in a number of categories including a Gold for their excellent work on Sony’s ‘Kiss’. Never ones to miss the opportunity to let you view the best work (and show off the size of our archive!) you can view the ad below.
You can also take a look at the full list of winners at Thursday’s Loreal Paris AFI Awards 2007 here.
It's Sonny for Jeff
Those talented folks at Sonny,
Meribel has begun
Meribel is off and running. Look out for our special report from the French resort next week and, if you’re going out there, please be nice to the representatives from The Reel.
Weekly short film festival
Short and Sweet, the only weekly short film festival in
Once again, as the newsletter is going out on a Wednesday, we’ve missed the opportunity to tell you who’s there, but the Short & Sweet end of year party is still on Tuesday 18th December at the AKA Bar in Soho.
For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv
Tuesday 11 December 2007
The Key To Reserva
Branded content has been a buzz word(s) in ‘unconventional’ advertising for quite some time now. Whist product placement has been rife in movie-making since George Bailey expressed his interest in National Geographic in It’s A Wonderful Life, and in TV since Soap Operas were sponsored by soap companies, the recent concept of incorporating a brand into a piece of filmmaking that consumers actually want to view has been like catnip to adland. With Axe/MTV’s The Gamekillers proving that successful TV shows can be derived from advertising concepts and the likes of Tony Scott and Baz Lurman providing fully branded movie stylings, it’s only fit that cinema maestro Martin Scorsese should take the reigns in this excellent piece for Freixenet Cava – The Key To Reserva.
Hosted on the Frieixnet site - http://www.scorsesefilmfreixenet.com/ - the film follows Scorsese’s quest to film a ‘lost script’ of Alfred Hitchcock’s. Shot in a ‘mockumentary’ style, the short opens with Marty revealing the script to an intrepid crew, explaining how a page is missing, and going to Spinal Tap-esque levels of anguish when his interviewer attempts to touch the pages (showcasing the acting skills the director honed in his own film cameos). However, the quality of the piece is truly revealed when the film changes gear and showcases Scorsese’s tribute to Hitch. By using classic Hitchcockien motifs (action-reaction editing, contra-zoom, the icy blonde) alongside familiar icons from his movies (the music from North By Northwest, the red spot-out from Rear Window, the birds from … well you get the jist), the homage nails the key aspect of any film-lover’s Hitchcock obsession. Working as a stand-alone piece as well as a tick-box reference game, the short again stirs memories of Tap with its pitch perfect reconstruction.
Trailed on TV and in cinemas, with the full length film only being available online, the campaign hits the nail on the head by creating not only a short that is a joy to watch, but also an environment that is heavily branded, yet not intrusively so. It’s a skill to make a branded piece that satisfies its audience, but to create the best Hitchcockian footage since the master passed (eat your heart out Brian de Palma) is a miracle.
Monday 3 December 2007
Doin' the Green thang
'Sunshine', this week's cheeky UK ad of the week for Greenpeace, is the latest in a glut of eco-friendly ads this year, and with 2008 fast approaching, we decided it would be a good time to take a look at who else has been expounding the virtues of going Green...
2006 was undoubtedly the year in which the frozen issue of climate change began to thaw into the mainstream and the words ‘carbon’ and ‘footprint’ first came together, for most of us, to mean something other than the possible result of walking through a pile of coal; Al Gore first told us of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and we had the inception of the 'Green Awards' promoting creativity in sustainability.
However, it’s throughout 2007 that brands and organisations have really woken up to public concern on the issue, undoubtedly helped along by the aforementioned ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ as well as ‘Live Earth’, both perpetrated by Al Gore. So maybe we should actually thank Kyoto rebel George W. Bush, because if it wasn’t for his frankly astounding victory in the US presidential race all that time ago, Gore wouldn’t be able to devote so much time to the issue of climate change and the great and good of adland might not have been compelled to produce so much top-notch eco-friendly advertising, some of which we’ve decided to take a look at here.
2006 was undoubtedly the year in which the frozen issue of climate change began to thaw into the mainstream and the words ‘carbon’ and ‘footprint’ first came together, for most of us, to mean something other than the possible result of walking through a pile of coal; Al Gore first told us of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and we had the inception of the 'Green Awards' promoting creativity in sustainability.
However, it’s throughout 2007 that brands and organisations have really woken up to public concern on the issue, undoubtedly helped along by the aforementioned ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ as well as ‘Live Earth’, both perpetrated by Al Gore. So maybe we should actually thank Kyoto rebel George W. Bush, because if it wasn’t for his frankly astounding victory in the US presidential race all that time ago, Gore wouldn’t be able to devote so much time to the issue of climate change and the great and good of adland might not have been compelled to produce so much top-notch eco-friendly advertising, some of which we’ve decided to take a look at here.
Sky have been quietly carbon neutral since 2006, but decided that 2007 was the year we should all know about it. The novel approach to announcing this admirable feat was created by WCRS and Hibbert Ralph Animation and features ‘Cool Cat’ a 1930’s rubber-hose-style animated cat and the catchy-as-hell ‘Joy to the World’ from Three Dog Night. The result is a toe-tapping triumph that is full of feel-good factor. How do they substantiate the claims? Shut up and look at the pretty pictures.
Even though Toyota have made - and continue to make - such gas guzzlers as the Land Cruiser, due to their ground-breaking Prius they are the car manufacturer of choice for the environmentally conscious…and those wishing to avoid paying the congestion charge. Therefore, unlike Sky, it’s easy to see the substance behind this equally attractive execution from Dentsu and Tool of North America, and their pledge to continue the good work is a prime example of a simple idea well-executed. However, after the big Chevy Tahoe SUV’s recent victory as the American Green Car of the Year at the Los Angeles Auto Show, they had better get to making cars from twigs quick-sharp before they get usurped as the world’s favourite Green conscious car manufacturer.
MTV, never shy to raise the issues that need to be talked about, showcased a series of films as part of the launch of ‘Switch’, their initiative to encourage young people to make small changes to their energy wasting habits, earlier this year. The films are a veritable smorgasbord of techniques and talents that are very mindful of their target audience, and our June cover star ‘3650’, from the combined talents of Paul Smith of Ogilvy, ubik, and Picasso Pictures, is a particular highlight, with some charming animation, beautiful music and a clear, succinct message well represented.
This work is just the tip of the (fast melting) iceberg, but each demonstrates a different and interesting approach, and is part of a wider mission to build a brand recognised for being serious about going Green rather than just taking the first opportunity to jump on the bandwagon with an ill-conceived and half-baked execution, of which there are plenty. However, we will be checking to see if the lights are turned off the next time we take a late night stroll past the MTV studios in Camden.
NewsReel 3/12/07
The NewsReel is the new way for you to tell us your news and for us to tell everyone. Please send any adland news you may have at your disposal to Sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to make sure it appears here. 
Gargette is a drawn to Draw
Ex Academy, Hungry Eye and Union director Simon Gargette is off to Draw Pictures to further expand the London based production company’s burgeoning commercials roster. The experienced Gargette started his career as an agency copywriter for McCann and Vernon’s before moving into stills photography and cinematography, alongside running his own studio. However, he quickly made the natural move into directing and helmed Europe’s first interactive spot for Shell as early as 1987.
Since then he’s been one of the lucky few to direct the best dog in advertising – the Dulux dog mauls the Andrex puppies every time – as well as spots for Ford and the RAC, among others.
Young creatives go for their guns
Young Guns have announced the shortlists for their 2007 awards, and with their ingenious call for entry featuring Alex Bogusky from Bogusky Crispin + Porter we’re sure they weren’t short on entries.
The Reel Team have taken note and the next time we ask for work, one of us will do so wearing white Y-fronts and holding a pink keytar…or perhaps not. (Sadly Alex Bogusky isn’t the one in his pants, holding the keytar)
The short list of young whippersnappers waiting for their ‘first time’ can be viewed at www.ygaward.com and we think you’ll agree that, with the variety of countries represented, the awards really do deserve the title of ‘International’. The winners are to be announced this Friday, 7th December.
Ben returns to The Square after a year in China
Yes, it may read like a headline for ‘EastEnders’ and a – probably utterly implausible - storyline involving the spawn of Phil and Kathy, but it’s not. The Ben is Leyland and The Square is Golden.
After a year away at Profero, in Shanghai, working with clients such as China Central Television, Fanta, Guinness and Samsung, Ben Leyland has returned to Golden Square as creative director of Disqo, their digital design department. Ewan McLeod, excutive producer and co-founder of Golden Square is delighted to have him back and said, ‘…timing is everything and the opportunity to work with Ben again was an enticing one…he not only adds depth but brings a vast amount of talent to Disqo.’ That’s all very well and good, but what will Phil say…oh, sorry, wrong Ben; wrong square.
Meri-bells ring out before Christmas
Entries for the competitions at this year’s Meribel ad festival have long been closed and the representatives from The Reel have been honing their snowball throwing skills (but of course they’d never aim for you) and the beautiful French resort is gearing up for the grand opening next week, on the 11th December. Watch out for our Meribel feature in this month's Reel. 
Weekly short film festival Short and Sweet, the only weekly short film festival in London, has been going from strength to strength since its launch a year and a half ago. In July it expanded into the West End and now runs on Mondays on Brick Lane and Tuesdays at AKA WC1. Founder Julia Stephenson and her small team work tirelessly to deliver the best in short films, music videos and animation from around the globe, with the intention to inspire, unearth some of the best new talent around and provide a great and FREE place to network.
This week will feature films from: Robert Samuel, Lynnel Cizo, Jamie Rafn, Jason Reitman, Richard Fenwick, Luis Cook, Max Hattler, and Nicolas Salis
MONDAY: Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane Time: Films START at 19h00 TUESDAY: Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street Time: Films START at 19h00
Short & Sweet will also be having an end of year party on Tuesday 18th December at the AKA Bar in Soho. So put it in your diary, although we will almost certainly remind you next week.
For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv
Tuesday 27 November 2007
Wii-nter Wonderland - it'll be consolly this Christmas
If current advertising is to be believed, families around the globe won’t be sitting down on the 25th to watch Noel’s Christmas Presents whilst stuffed with turkey, or mortgaging Park Lane to keep hold of Mayfair in Monopoly, they’ll be waving remote controls at a small white box roughly simulating the joys of Tennis. The Wii revolution is truly upon us, so we at The Reel thought it fit to assess how the console war was being fought in the festive season, looking at the latest ads of each of the heavy-hitters.
Nintendo Wii
The daddy when it comes to casual gaming, Nintendo’s Wii advertising from Karmarama has been keen to stress the ‘anyone can play’ aspect of the console’s appeal. Featuring generic ‘model’ types and their families having the time of their lives with their Wii-wands, the spots, whist not being creatively eye-popping, certainly convey the ethos of the system. Indeed recent celebrity fuelled versions (Ian Wright and Shawn Wright Phillips to name but one) cement the family-fun stylings with smart casting, a technique mirrored in the clients’ DS advertising too, with Johnny and Zoe Ball loving their handhelds.
Sony Playstation
Sony’s TV and cinema output for their uber-powerful PS3 system has been centred on their ‘This Is Living’ strapline. Launching the console was an intriguing set of hotel based spots which led to a stylish webfilm housed on www.thisisliving.com. However, the latest sumptuous execution from TBWA London introduces a bizarre cast of characters in a fairground-esque world, entreating the audience to share in their magic. Whilst certainly conveying the system’s ability to transport players to another world, we at The Reel feel that it doesn’t do much for the consoles warmth.
Microsoft Xbox 360
Content in the fact that they’d well and truly built their customer base when Sony and Nintendo’s consoles were just hatching (thanks to a year’s head start), McCann Eriksson San Francisco’s work for the Xbox 360 has recently focussed on major game releases – most notably the fantastic Halo 3 launch campaign – and its online networking capabilities. However, with their latest piece the agency have obviously noticed the ‘casual gaming’ uprising that’s all the rage and are priding themselves on the diversity of their catalogue. Slickly produced and with a friendly feel (although the child choir ‘Nothin’ But A Good Time’ rendition could grate, give us the Poison original any day!), the spots nicely reposition the brand without antagonising their core consumer.
It’s interesting to see that two of the three top dogs have opted for a casual gaming approach for their Christmas advertising – one, a console that has prided itself on its all-encompassing appeal, the other, a gamer’s haven that finally has the pick-up-and-play software to sell. Sony’s approach is to side-step this altogether, although in doing so seems to be unsure who it’s targeting (gamers aren’t getting the chance to see the powerhouse in action, newbies aren’t encouraged by the cold, confusing world presented). Whilst it’s pretty clear which company is leading the race for a place on Santa’s list – Nintendo’s Wii still selling out in minutes wherever it’s stocked – it will be interesting to see which brand’s approach will lead to victory in the long run. After all, a console’s not just for Christmas, it’s for life…
It’s interesting to see that two of the three top dogs have opted for a casual gaming approach for their Christmas advertising – one, a console that has prided itself on its all-encompassing appeal, the other, a gamer’s haven that finally has the pick-up-and-play software to sell. Sony’s approach is to side-step this altogether, although in doing so seems to be unsure who it’s targeting (gamers aren’t getting the chance to see the powerhouse in action, newbies aren’t encouraged by the cold, confusing world presented). Whilst it’s pretty clear which company is leading the race for a place on Santa’s list – Nintendo’s Wii still selling out in minutes wherever it’s stocked – it will be interesting to see which brand’s approach will lead to victory in the long run. After all, a console’s not just for Christmas, it’s for life…
NewsReel 27/11/07
The NewsReel is the new way for you to tell us your news and for us to tell everyone. Please send any adland news you may have at your disposal to Sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to make sure it appears here.
Jung von Matt
The German publication ‘Manager Magazin’, a magazine for German managers, has once again compiled its annual index of the most creative advertisers in Germany, and Jung von Matt, the home of October’s country feature guest editors Bernhard Lukas and Arnault Lindemann, have clinched the top spot as the best ATL advertising agency and best internet advertiser.
The agency, with offices in Hamburg and Berlin, also topped five out of six categories in ‘Agentur Images ‘07’, a poll of 300 German marketing decision makers, conducted by the ‘Handelsblatt’ newspaper and the trade publication ‘Absatzwirtschaft’.
The awards are particularly noteworthy due to the impressive state of German advertising as a whole, if last month’s country feature is anything to go by, and we’re happy because it vindicates our decision to let them take the reins of our much-loved country feature last month - if you didn’t get to see it, below is an example of the kind of thing you missed out on. Ooh, we do spoil you…
Title: Symphony in Red
Client: Konzerthaus Dortmund
Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg
Jake Wynne-s at Prime Focus
Prime Focus London (the commercials and broadcast post-production company born of the merger between Clear, VTR and The Hive) have brought in ex-HSI director/editor Jake Wynne as a visual effects director and editor. Jake started his career as an editor and won the BTAA Best Commercial Editing Award for Lucozade’s ‘Mods’ spot in 1999 - click here to view – and as one half of directing duo Jake & Jim (the other half being Jim Canty) he has directed several high profile promos for artists such as Geri Halliwell, Stereophonics and Paul Weller, as well as commercials for Nescafe, Sony PS2 and The Observer.
Simon Huhtala, MD at PFL explains his reasons for bringing Jake on board, ‘I’ve been working with Jake for almost 10 years, he loves the craft of film-making and truly understands the role post-production has to play in it. As a long term client of ours I know he has as keen an eye and attention to detail as our artists here at PFL. I’m keen to offer Jake’s skills to our film clients as well as our advertising clients, especially where the visual effects are particularly heavy or the director can’t always be available to supervise.’
Jake reciprocated the glowing praise by saying, ‘It’s an exciting opportunity to spread my creative wings within a structure that is developing in a very forward thinking way.’
It looks like a match made in heaven and we at The Reel are looking forward to featuring some of the work that results.
Meri-bells ring out before Christmas
Entries for the competitions at this year’s Meribel ad festival have long been closed and the representatives from The Reel have been honing their snowball throwing skills (but of course they’d never aim for you) and the beautiful French resort is gearing up for the grand opening on the 11th December. Watch out for our Meribel feature in this month's Reel.
Weekly short film festival
Due to the unavoidably late distribution of the newsletter we were unable to inform you of the great offerings at Short and Sweet this week. However, in retrospect, the following directors were featured and a good time was had by all (we can assure you we’ll be back on time next week to let you know what’s going on in advance):
Damien Bapst and Dan Creteur, Ken Wardrop, Chris Nolan, George Wu, Martin De Thurah, Florian Grolig, Jamie Rafn, and a special performance from Tim Key.
EVERY MONDAY:
Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
Time: Films START at 19h30
EVERY TUESDAY:
Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street
Time: Films START at 19h00
For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv
Monday 19 November 2007
BBC Switch - Red Bee Media
BBC mans have low’ed their usual swagness and flexed a BARE HEAVY new selection of gully content for the boy dem’ and gyal dem seen. Its called BBC Switch, Get me family!
If you understand all of that – well done. If you don’t – you are clearly very old and we will translate for you here:
The wonderful people at the BBC have recently announced that they are to extend their content for 12-16 year olds under the cross platform Banner of BBC Switch.
(Ok no more yout’ speak)
Whilst Switch will not involve a new service or channel – the brand will be launched across major terrestrial channels Radio 1 and BBC 2 and has been designed to occupy the prime time ‘teen zone’ between 7pm and midnight on radio and a 4 till 6 weekend slot on BBC 2. Switch will be made up of a mixture of home grown content and new programming curated from across the water including, what is being touted as the new OC, “Falcon Beach”.
The new BBC 2 home grown music show ‘Sound’ will be presented by the budding partnership of Annie Mac and Nik Grimshaw, whilst Radio 1’s Surgery will be fronted by the ever opinionated Kelly Osbourne - both promising great music and teen related banter.
To launch the new brand the clever chaps and chapettes at Red Bee Media have produced this fantastic TV campaign and series of interstitials aimed squarely at the younger Switch demographic.
If you understand all of that – well done. If you don’t – you are clearly very old and we will translate for you here:
The wonderful people at the BBC have recently announced that they are to extend their content for 12-16 year olds under the cross platform Banner of BBC Switch.
(Ok no more yout’ speak)
Whilst Switch will not involve a new service or channel – the brand will be launched across major terrestrial channels Radio 1 and BBC 2 and has been designed to occupy the prime time ‘teen zone’ between 7pm and midnight on radio and a 4 till 6 weekend slot on BBC 2. Switch will be made up of a mixture of home grown content and new programming curated from across the water including, what is being touted as the new OC, “Falcon Beach”.
The new BBC 2 home grown music show ‘Sound’ will be presented by the budding partnership of Annie Mac and Nik Grimshaw, whilst Radio 1’s Surgery will be fronted by the ever opinionated Kelly Osbourne - both promising great music and teen related banter.
To launch the new brand the clever chaps and chapettes at Red Bee Media have produced this fantastic TV campaign and series of interstitials aimed squarely at the younger Switch demographic.
You won’t understand what they are saying. You will long to be young again. There is nothing you can do about it. But I think you will agree – its all rather nice…
So this summer is gonna be CHUNG and HECTIC FAMMO! Switch is SWITCHIN’ on us – its gonna be BIG in the GAME!
C U L8R M8 etc etc… (OK, we lied about no more yout’ speak)
So this summer is gonna be CHUNG and HECTIC FAMMO! Switch is SWITCHIN’ on us – its gonna be BIG in the GAME!
C U L8R M8 etc etc… (OK, we lied about no more yout’ speak)
NewsReel 19.11.07
The NewsReel is the new way for you to tell us your news and for us to tell everyone. Please send any adland news you may have at your disposal to sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to make sure it appears here.
2AM in Harmony with Korine
The Apollo Cinema on Regent Street was the venue for an exclusive screening of director Harmony Korine’s first film in 8 years, last week. The former wunderkind writer of Larry Clark’s ‘Kids’ and director of ‘Gummo’ and ‘Julien Donkey-Boy’ introduced the film to the specially invited audience including some hand-picked figures from the advertising industry and a couple of representatives from The Reel, on Wednesday. The event was hosted by 2AM Films, who are representing Harmony in his bid to establish himself as an ad and promo director. Featuring some great performances, particularly from Diego Luna in the lead role, the film focuses on the lives of a group of celebrity impersonators, including the aforementioned Luna as Michael Jackson and Samantha Morton as Marilyn Monroe, living in an idyllic hideaway in the Scottish highlands. Werner Herzog features in occasional interludes as a Reverend leading a group of South American nuns.
Website Wonder
Digital production company B-Reel and Fallon have come together to create a particularly unique ‘infinite’ website. The site has been built to promote the Sci Fi Channel’s re-imagining of 'The Wizard of Oz', entitled ‘The Tin Man'. It utilises ‘Zoomquilt’ technology, looping stunning flash scenes together, to create a continuous zoom that feels like it’s pulling you deeper into what looks to be an amazingly realised world. If you don’t get too mesmerised by the technology and pretty pictures you can stop and learn more about the mini-series featuring Alan Cumming and Richard Dreyfuss that premieres in the US on 2nd December and will surely be crossing the Atlantic soon after.
To view another remarkable 'Zoomquilt' animation click here
Cristal on ice
This year’s 7th Meribel Ad Festival, which will take place from December 11th to the 16th, will feature a new ranking for the most awarded advertising agencies, networks and producers, called the « Cristal Ranking ».
Following Donald Gunn, who has previously awarded the best in the European rankings of the Gunn Report at Meribel over the past four years, Patrick Collister will present the 2007 Won Report exclusively for the Festival, which will also include cross-media work.
The Won Report is an annual analysis of the world’s best direct marketing and digital advertising as measured by the quantity and quality of the awards won. It is compiled by Patrick Collister and has been published since 2003.
Weekly short film festival
Short and Sweet, the only weekly short film festival in London, has been going from strength to strength since its launch nearly a year and a half ago. In July it expanded into the West End and now runs on Mondays on Brick Lane and Tuesdays at AKA WC1. Founder Julia Stephenson and her small team work tirelessly to deliver the best in short films, music videos and animation from around the globe, with the intention to inspire, unearth some of the best new talent around and provide a great and FREE place to network.
Channel 4 will once again be present this week so an extra special programme has been planned, featuring work from: Laurie Hill, Emily & Matthew, Jeroen Offerman, Ed Roe & Dougal Wilson,
DA Pennebaker, Martin De Thurah, Marc Reisbig and Keith Bearden.
EVERY MONDAY:
Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
Time: Films START at 19h30
EVERY TUESDAY:
Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street
Time: Films START at 19h00
For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv
Monday 12 November 2007
Aardman Animation - Creature Discomforts
Aardman Animation’s Creature Comfort characters are familiar to pretty much anyone who enjoys charming animation and has eyes, so it’s a joy to see their roster being expanded to include creatures with disabilities. Created for the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability, the campaign’s aim is to challenge and change attitudes towards disabled people.
Using the real voices and experiences of several disabled individuals, the talented animators have, once again, modelled endearing plastercine representations to communicate the messages, including a bull terrier in a wheelchair (voiced by Kevin Gillespie - pictured below) and a stick insect with a walking stick.
Bryan Dutton, Director General, Leonard Cheshire Disability said: “We want people to change the way they see disability, to think and act differently and to make a positive difference to the lives of disabled people.”
“Disabled people experience unnecessary social barriers which are created largely through ignorance. In the twenty-first century it is unacceptable that such negative attitudes to disability still persist. Everyone has a part to play in creating a world in which disabled people are included in every aspect of life.”
“Creature Comforts is well known and much-loved for its ability to bring home messages in a simple, everyday way. Our Creature Discomforts campaign builds on this, making a serious point with humour.”
Without losing any of the engaging wit and charisma that made previous Creature Comfort shorts so appealing, this new campaign puts forward its point in an unfussy, successful manner. Speaking of the experience, director Steve Harding-Hill said: “Leonard Cheshire Disability’s new campaign is an important step towards changing everyone’s attitudes to disability. Working on it has been an amazing experience for us all at Aardman … taking the real voices and experiences of disabled people and creating animated stories that are informative, entertaining and poignant has been an immense but incredibly satisfying challenge.”
Launching in bus stops, print and online – www.creaturediscomforts.com for a preview – from Thursday, this smart use of a recognisable animation for a worthy cause has utterly won over all at Reel Towers. For full credits and all four films in the campaign, check out our website.
NewsReel 12.11.07
Donkey Kong scaffolding
In honour of the trailer for ‘The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters’ appearing in this month’s Reel as part of our Moxie Pictures feature, the Computerspiele Museum in Berlin erected a scaffolding and, with a few strategically placed printed canvas covers, turned it into a level screen of the uber video game, Donkey Kong. Alternatively, it could be that the building is undergoing a much-needed facelift and it’s an exceedingly clever way of promoting the soon to be re-opening gaming
www.billyvssteve.com/
Jonas&François win at MTV
We must be expressing our narcissistic tendencies this week because ‘Star Video’ winners at the MTV Europe Music Awards in
LINKS:
Weekly short film festival
Short and Sweet, the only weekly short film festival in
Tim Hamilton, Sil Van Der Woerd, Romain Segaud, Dave Waters, Keidrych Wasley (cinematographer) and Gergely Czirà ki
Venue: Cafe 1001,
Time: Films START at 19h30
EVERY TUESDAY:
Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street
Time: Films START at 19h00
www.shortandsweet.tv
For more info contact:
Entries for the competitions at this year’s Meribel ad festival have now closed. It’ll be the 11th December and you’ll be drinking cocktails and chucking snowballs at each other in no time…just remember what your mothers told you and watch out for the yellow snow.
LINKS:
http://www.meribel-adfestival.com/
Monday 5 November 2007
Sony 'Monophonics' Like No Other
Eric Morecambe once famously pointed out to concert pianist Andre Previn that, in attempting Edvard Grieg's ‘Piano Concerto’, he was “playing all the right notes... but not necessarily in the right order." This mistake could be easily made in Sony’s new commercial from Fallon, in which 128 musicians take on a single note each to reconstruct a melody from the brain-box of Hollywood composer Peter Raeburn.
Gathering in London’s iconic Alexandra Palace, the musicians –spanning from axe-wielding guitarists to mini-toy-grand-pianists – were arranged by instrument group to form an ‘acoustic grid’, creating spectacular waves of sound when each note was played.
Speaking of the achievement, Sony UK’s Central Marketing General Manager Mikah Martin-Cruz said, ““This was a hugely complex technical experiment. Not only were we doing something that hadn’t been done before musically, but it also needed to provide a unique audio and visual experience. Sony always tries to push the boundaries, and this advert perfectly illustrates that. The combination of many people’s talent and passion has produced an organic experience that we are sure will capture consumers’ creative imaginations.”
Top pop promo director Nick Gordon – helmer of vids for The Kooks, Muse and Supergrass – captured the musicians in action, commenting “This was an ambitious project to work on. We didn’t just want to produce an impressive advert, we wanted to challenge people to think about music as an evolving art form.”
A great making of can be found on the official site - http://www.walkmanproject.com/
For the numerically minded amongst you who are desperate to know just how many Glockenspiels to spot, here’s the full list:
32 drummers including:
8 Toms, 8 Hi Hats/crash cymbals, 8 Kick Drums, 8 Snare Drums
8 Glockenspiels
1 Toy Glock
6 Kalimbas (thumb pianos)
16 High Synths
4 Bass Synths
4 Toy Pianos
1 Shofar
8 Tubas
4 Melodicas
8 Double Bass
32 Electric Guitars
4 Music boxes
Forming the basic of a integrated campaign - including TV, print, online, in-store and PR - the piece was viewable online from 25th October and is all over TV right now!
NewsReel 5/11/07
The NewsReel is the new way for you to tell us your news and for us to tell everyone. Please send any adland news you may have at your disposal to Sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to make sure it appears here.
Green wing
The digital arm (or should that be wing?!) of Amarillo Films, Amarillo Wing, which launched earlier this year, was among the winners at the second annual Green Awards hosted at the Guildhall last Friday. The three films for ECOutlet ‘If’, ‘Fart’ and ‘Ships in Bottles’ were victorious in the Best New Media category and lived up to their green credentials as the animation for ‘Fart’ was drawn on recycled paper scavenged from a recycling bin.
The virals, created by Marco Puig, have been downloaded over 30,000 times and can be viewed at:
http://www.amarillowing.com/source/project/2007-07_ecout/ecoutlet.htm
If you’re interested in seeing the full list of winners go to: http://www.greenawards.co.uk/winners/winners_2007
LINKS:
www.AmarilloWing.com
www.AmarilloFilms.com
Golden Square dancing at the 'Disqo'
3D animators Matthew Stevens and Michael Little, and designer Daniel Lundh have joined Golden Square and will help fill the space created from their expansion into all 4 floors at number 4 Golden Square. The appointments and move into the fourth floor are part of the expansion of their digital design division, Disqo, and their 3D animation department.
Little, a regular 3D Animation freelancer at Golden Square, is a graduate of 3D Computer Animation at Swansea Institute of Higher Education. Since graduating in 2004, Michael has worked at Escape Studios where he completed a VFX Production Grade course. Michael established and continues to run the Swansea Institute School of Digital Media Forum.
Matthew Stevens joins Golden Square direct from University where he completed a BA in 3D Animation and Visualisation at the National Centre for Computer Animation, Bournemouth University. He recently worked on a Motorola advert for the Red charity campaign directed by Jonathan Glazer.
Daniel Lundh is a 24 year old Swedish motion graphics artist who will relocate from Stockholm where he currently freelances doing motion graphics for the web/video and broadcast television. Ewan Macleod, executive producer at Golden Square, explains why they’ve gone down the staff path, ‘By having designers in house we are able to design the characters from the Agency brief, build and then animate in 3D, offering the whole process to our clients, which is proving invaluable.’ Good news all round then.
LINKS:
http://www.goldensq.com
Watch out for the blank screen at the cinema
If the screen goes blank in the middle of the ads next time you’re at the cinema, don’t be concerned; the projectionist (probably) hasn’t fallen asleep, but your ears are about to be treated to the first ever radio spot aired in a cinema. Wave, RKCR/Y&R and Paul Burke Productions have created the spot for The Times BFI London Film Festival which is designed to work on both radio and in the cinema. Wave’s Aaron Reynolds commented, ‘…the overall effect had to be strong enough to standalone in a cinema without the aid of pictures. I deliberately made the effects big and confident, so that they’d sound totally epic when played out in cinema’s Dolby surround sound.’ Paul Burke of Paul Burke Productions obviously approved and described Aaron’s sound design as ‘quite magnificent.’ He added, ‘Strategically, it seemed the obvious place to run it and there's no law that says a cinema commercial has to have pictures.’ Quite right too, but don’t worry folks, you won’t be finding radio ads on The Reel anytime soon; something tells us it won’t quite work.
If you can't wait - and don't mind listening in slightly less than Dolby 5.0! - click play below.
LINKS:
www.wavestudios.co.uk
http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/lff/
Mel - On!
Pepper Melon, a motion-graphics company based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has just launched. Between them they have a number of years’ experience and have previously worked on pieces for Nike, MTV Latin America, VH1 and Nickelodeon. Directors Tomás GarcÃa and Fernando Sarmiento have achieved international recognition, including a win at Shift Japan 2007 and being part of the Pictoplasma screening selection 2006 (Berlin), among others.
For more info contact: Fernando.sarmiento@peppermelon.tv
LINKS:
http://www.peppermelon.tv
Two more kids in a Sweet Shop
Two directors from the Southern Hemisphere, Taika Waititi and Sam Holst, have been signed to The Sweet Shop’s roster for worldwide representation. New Zealand based Waititi made the official selection at Sundance for ‘Eagle Vs Shark.’ He’s also directed and written episodes of smash-hit comedy series ‘Flight of the Conchords’ and been Oscar-nominated for ‘Two Cars, One Night.’ Whilst Aussie Holst’s short film ‘Swing’ won the Make a Film. Make a Difference competition hosted by the Transport Accident Commission in Australia and went on to pick up a Silver Clio among other awards and nominations worldwide. He’s spent the past year learning his trade as in-house director’s assistant to Steve Ayson at The Sweet Shop.
Weekly short film festival
Short and Sweet, the only weekly short film festival in London, has been going from strength to strength since its launch nearly a year and a half ago. In July it expanded into the West End and now runs on Mondays on Brick Lane and Tuesdays at AKA WC1. Founder Julia Stephenson and her small team work tirelessly to deliver the best in short films, music videos and animation from around the globe, with the intention to inspire, unearth some of the best new talent around and provide a great and FREE place to network.
EVERY MONDAY: Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane Time: Films START at 19h00
EVERY TUESDAY: Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street Time: Films START at 19h00
This week featuring films from: Andrew Kotatko Imery Watson Vincent Baertsoen Colin O’Toole Sil Van Der Woerd Tom & Charles Guard.
For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv
LINKS:
www.shortandsweet.tv
Meribel entries closing
The clocks have not long gone back and the nights are closing in; Christmas and the end to another bumper year of creativity are fast approaching. But first, over 900 delegates are set to dust down their ski jackets and descend on the French resort of Meribel for another round of awards and back-slapping. The submissions deadline has been extended to Friday 9th November so visit http://www.meribel-adfestival.com/EN/competitions.html to get them in. See you on the slopes!
Monday 29 October 2007
180 Los Angeles- Basketball is a Brotherhood
Adidas are rising high to tip-off Basketball in 2007. Having recently signed an 11 year exclusive global merchandising contract with the NBA, the WNBA and the NBA development league, Adidas are no longer move-faking in the basketball market and are setting to air walk all over the competition with the help of 180
Building on last season’s successful launch of their global basketball movement - “Believe in 5IVE” - and the idea of believing in “We” and not “Me,” Adidas and 180 announced the continuing evolution of this new philosophy with “Basketball is a Brotherhood”. NBA All-Stars Gilbert Arenas, Chauncey Billups, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard and Tracy McGrady are all featured in the multi-platform campaign which focuses on the real life moments when players shift from individuals, and form the bonds of a team.
The integrated strategy includes Team Signature footwear and consists of TV, digital, mobile, print and retail components with the campaign centering around an 11 episode web series found at www.adidasbasketball.com. The primarily led digital creative is beefed up with some clever mobile phone interactive, challenging consumers to become ‘part of the brotherhood’.
According to Adidas “'Basketball is a Brotherhood' is the integrated, digitally led marketing and advertising revolution that does something no other brand has done: it allows today’s greatest players to interact and inspire the next generation of athletes, putting them side-by-side on and off the court. This season the consumer will be able to go to www.adidasbasketball.com and experience Adidas Basketball through a series of web episodes and other creative on-line activties that show the true meaning of Brotherhood.”
“This campaign captures the beauty of basketball by showing what’s possible when players become a tight unit, a family, a brotherhood. When that happens, you’re unstoppable” says William Gelner, Executive Creative Director at 180 LA. “Look at the Spurs of today or the Lakers and Celtics of the 80’s. Great basketball is now, and has always been, about team.”
The Brotherhood campaign continues the Adidas tradition of showcasing elite level athletes alongside “real-life” players and kids, inspiring and enabling them to achieve their impossible. Adidas Team Signature products launched for retail on the 26th October 2007.
NewsReel 29/10/07
The NewsReel is the new way for you to tell us your news and for us to tell everyone. Please send any adland news you may have at your disposal to Sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to make sure it appears here.
New Parisian production company
For more information on Troublemaker and their directors contact:
Weekly short film festival
Short and Sweet, the only weekly short film festival in London, has been going from strength to strength since its launch nearly a year and a half ago. In July it expanded into the West End and now runs on Mondays on Brick Lane and Tuesdays at AKA WC1. Founder Julia Stephenson and her small team work tirelessly to deliver the best in short films, music videos and animation from around the globe, with the intention to inspire, unearth some of the best new talent around and provide a great and FREE place to network.
EVERY MONDAY:
Venue: Cafe 1001,
Time: Films START at 19h30
EVERY TUESDAY:
Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street
Time: Films START at 19h00
Meribel entries closing
The clocks have just gone back and the nights are closing in; Christmas and the end to another bumper year of creativity are fast approaching. But first, over 900 delegates are set to dust down their ski jackets and descend on the French resort of Meribel for the year's final round of awards and back-slapping. The submissions deadline is fast approaching (Friday 2nd November!) so visit the submission site to get them in. See you on the slopes!
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