Fans of more credible ad remixes (sorry Fallon) will be no strangers to London’s visual mixing elite Addictive TV.
Addictive, who have gained a slew of awards, metres of national press and also run their own very successful VJ meet Optronica every year, are no slouch when it comes to the ad remixing game.In fact, Addictive are the world heavyweight champs of visual remixes, having reworked Hollywood blockbusters such as 'Iron Man', 'Snakes on a Plane', 'Shoot em’ Up' and the Japanese master-work 'Tekkon Kinkreet'.
We were lucky enough to pinch an hour of Graham @ Addictive’s time and get his thoughts on the new trend that is emerging.
When was the first ad / trailer remix project that you guys did, and how did it come about?
A really switched on marketing guy at New Line Cinema saw some of our bootleg film remixes and simply got in touch with us, saying they had this Antonio Banderas movie, 'Take the Lead', and would we like to make a viral trailer for the release, by remixing the movie. It was based on a true story that's partly about hip-hop culture and partly about ballroom dancing and how they mashed-up the genres - hence getting someone to mash-up and remix the movie. They said we'll send you all the film’s rushes and we obviously leapt at the chance to make the first official studio remix! It was a great opportunity.
How did the project turn out – and were the clients surprised?
It turned out brilliantly. It was a big experiment for them, as no studio had ever done this before - actually getting an outside creative team to remix and rework a whole movie into a piece of music. It won an Adland award for Best Remix of 2006, and the clients were delighted with the results, and in the wider industry it really seemed to turn heads. They put it on the DVD release as an extra and then came back to us with a couple of bigger movies; the Samuel L Jackson cult hit 'Snakes on a Plane', for which we did the US television ads, and the controversial Clive Owen movie 'Shoot 'Em Up', for which we did another web viral.
Is this something that you are doing more of?
Yes, absolutely - this started a whole trend for us, and this year we've done 'Iron Man' for Paramount, 'Max Payne' for 20th Century Fox and there's more in the pipeline. We're now also getting far more advertising approaches too, via All Films in London who rep us for commercials, which is good. It shows the style of work we've been developing is beginning to hit the mainstream.
Are there any big or famous ads that you would like to remix?
Well for starters, we’d love to remix the EDF Energy recycled clips adverts and do them properly as they should be! They’re so 20th Century the way they been stitched together. Some of the recent Honda adverts like the ‘car choir’ commercial would be great – perfect for audiovisual sampling and remixing. The recent ‘Life flows better’ Visa ad was great too - not sure though how easy it’d be to remix audiovisually, but it would be great to take that idea and approach it from a much more audiovisual and musical angle.
What did you think of the Cadbury's remix project? (Where “Gorilla” was remixed for general release by a member of the public)
They were terrible! The original was brilliant and a fantastic idea - I loved it. But the supposed ‘remixes’ weren’t remixes at all, they were the same ad with different soundtracks! A very odd use of the word remix in my opinion. It’s a shame they didn’t get actual remixers involved to remix those ads audiovisually, that would have been a fantastic idea. Actually seeing the gorilla cut-up and banging out a drum ‘n’ bass rhythm on the drum kit during a Coronation Street ad break would have been brilliant, or maybe another where the gorilla is cut-up doing a Led Zep’s John Bonham style drum solo! The Fallon’s boys missed an opportunity there I think!
Do you think DJing culture has affected or become the catalyst for what you do? Is moving image merely an extension of this?
It's certainly a big influence, sampling and remixing has been big in music for ages, and we're simply taking it to its next logical step. But I don’t really see DJ culture as affecting us, it’s more like the other way round, artists like ourselves are affecting DJ culture, we see DJs all the time now wanting to integrate a visual aspect to their shows. Audiovisual remixing is now evolving in its own right into a whole new form. With what we do, we see moving images as an actual extension of the music, something completely new, not merely an added extension to existing DJ culture.
With the advent of platforms such as Youtube and cheaper digital technology – people are beginning to play with this technology a lot more, is this merely a current trend, or do you think that something bigger is growing out of this?
Definitely something bigger is growing out of this. As people become more media literate, and technology gets cheaper, then inevitably it's going to carry on. It's certainly a popular trend, but it now has strong roots embedded and will continue to grow and evolve. In the UK, since the early 90s and rave culture, there’s been a real lack of any major youth movement, it’s all become very fragmented and is now completely influenced by major brands, but generally not in a very radical, imaginative or meaningful way at all. I think ultimately, technology is what’s going to change this, I’m not sure how exactly but the whole adoption of download culture and user generated content is clearly only the start of things. Technology is definitely going to play a central role in a wider and immanent cultural revolution, I just hope it’s as socially transforming as rock ‘n’ roll, the hippies, punk and rave.
Can you name other people / VJ’s / Artists who are also pushing the boundaries? (apart from yourselves?)
Bauhouse from Germany are great, working with live orchestras and AV samples, blending them audiovisually in real-time to produce beautiful shows. They've always been a cutting edge outfit.
(Thanks to Graham and Addictive for the short notice interview!)
With ads becoming the building blocks for new creative it appears that nothing is sacred or safe from the busy little fingers of the remix brigade.
Not even Cillit Bang and the mighty Barry Scott.
Record Label Nukleuz and their legions of hard house fans across the country have been spreading the Barry Scott message and trying to get the loud mentalist to number one for a number of months now (good luck).
Agency ruse or just plain coincidence? We couldn’t be sure, but the time effort and interest proves one thing:
That the Ad Remix is here to stay.
That the Ad Remix is here to stay.
And it's spreading.
