Felt makes us feel all fuzzy inside

There was a time not too long ago when computer generated animation reigned supreme in adland, but in recent months a nostalgia bug has swept through the industry and beloved materials and techniques have been dusted off, spruced up and unleashed onto a gleeful public. In the past year and a half we’ve seen the return of dioramas, pop-up books, stop-motion plastic figurines, and, ultimately, the arts and craft phenomenon that was little bits of material that just about managed to hang on to each other – providing you were very careful. Yes. Fuzzy felt is back, which means this traditional animation revival business is serious, and we want to talk about it.

Microsoft may have hit us with a big budget integrated campaign, spearheaded by a fantastic diorama based spot from McCann San Francisco and MJZ, for Halo 3, but Cravendale garner the plastic figurine spoils in this feature. Their mad-cap trio of stop-motion spots featuring the odd couple of a pirate and a cyclist won the hearts of the nation and showed just how much people love their old-school toys and the fun ways in which they can be used to advertise all manner of products.

We don’t remember ever really being into pop-up books, they’re just not as fun as action figures and army men, but we’re sure that our parents and grandparents were riveted by the simple pleasures of a book with moving parts, before the goggle box made its way into the corner of every living room. Lexus got there first, but their effort was a bit too big and clever for the purposes of this feature, so if you’re looking for a good old fashioned bit of pop-up nostalgia you need to go to the single-static-shot-with-chirpy-voiceover mastery of Persil’s ‘Pop-up Book’.

The latest – and most inspired – nostalgic animated turn has just hit our screens. Surely inspired by the Fuzzy Felt greetings cards available in shops, CHI & Partners with Tandem Films have bought the glorious stuff back and it’s as fun as ever. Who would have thought that a little ol’ fuzzy felt stop-motioner would be able to cut it in the CGI dominated world of 2008? It does, however, and the spots look great – beautifully complimenting the free-range ethos of the brand.

We’re off to make Fuzzy Felt Valentine’s cards, just remember, if you’re the lucky beneficiary of one, be gentle and maybe just keep it lying face up.

NewsReel 23/01/08

Remember to keep sending in all your adland news - even if it is just shameless self promotion - and we'll do our best to feature it here. Please send all press releases or anything that could fall under the banner of news to sam@thereel.net.


VES-tival

The Visual Effects Society have announced the nominations for the 6th annual VES Awards to be held in the austere surroundings of the Kodak Grand Ballroom in Hollywood on Sunday February 10th – thankfully a Hollywood awards ceremony that shouldn’t be effected by the writer’s strike that’s crippling the town.

Australian-based visual effects company FUEL VFX have been nominated for the VES Award for 'Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial' for BMW 'Hydrogen'. FUEL are finalists alongside some of the world's best known VFX houses: Digital Domain, MPC, Method Studios and Framestore.

VFX Supervisor Simon Maddison comments that ‘although the work is technically challenging we believed the final result should belie this and appear simple and elegant. The director wanted a stylised treatment to the CG water - the concept was not so much about the physics of liquids but about using the beauty of liquid motion to describe the BMW technology in a creative and artistic way.’

The 25-seconds of CG animation, at HD resolution, was completed at Fuel in just 3 weeks. The result illustrates the breakthrough technology of the BMW 'Hydrogen 7' - it's a car that produces water emissions instead of CO2.

The full list of nominees in the category are:

BACARDI - Bacardi Sun
Vittorio Giannini, Franck Lambertz, Robin Carlisle, Nico Cotta

ZUNE - The Ballad of Tina Pink
Luisa Murray, Laurent Ledru, Katrina Salicrup, Miles Essmiller

BMW - Hydrogen
Simon Maddison, Dave Kelly, Mike Bain, Sam Cole

BMW - Road
Chris Fieldhouse, Jay Barton, Ron Herbst, Dave Stern

SMIRNOFF - Sea
William Bartlett, Scott Griffin, Dan Seddon, David Mellor

Check out the excellent ‘Hydrogen’ spot below.

Stranger than Passion

Passion Pictures has launched a new company called Strange Beast which will represent an international roster of emerging new talent including Encyclopedia Pictura, Amautalab, Lorenzo Fonda, The Blackheart Gang, Takeo, and James Price. The company is committed to developing creative opportunities for these artists across all media platforms including commercials, web based media, music videos, short films and art exhibitions.

For more information about Strange Beast and the directors visit the website www.strangebeast.tv

Short & Sweet

This week Short & Sweet teamed up with Straight 8 to screen two different straight 8 selections on Monday and Tuesday evening, along with the usual great work from established and new directorial talent. Entry is, as always, free.

Next week's Short & Sweet will be at the usual time and place:

Monday: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane. Films start at 7pm.

Tuesday: AKA Bar, 18 west central street. Films start at 7pm.


Rushes Soho Shorts Festival

Rushes Soho Shorts Festival has renamed its ‘Title Sequence & Idents’ category as ‘Broadcast Design’, opening up the category to work including brand-related short films.
The 10th festival will start in the far away and heady days of Summer, on July 23rd, and will run for ten days. Festival organisers will be accepting entries up until Friday April 25th. Check the newsreel closer to the time for more information on one of the best industry events of the Summer.