Thursday 5 March 2009

NewsReel 06/03/09

Horrobin joins Smoke and Mirrors.




Mark Horrobin formerly of MPC has joined Smoke & Mirrors as Head of Telecine .

Mark joins with over 10 years of experience and has worked with some of the most highly respected directors in the business.

His impressive showcase of work speaks for itself, including the More 4 Kubrick season for 4 creative and most recently the one off Cadburys Wispa ad for Fallon not forgettingthe new Sony Bravia-Dome spot.

Mark’s naturalistic warmth and attention to detail within his work has earned him a place amongst the most talented and respected colourists in London.

To watch a collaboration of Marks work just click over to http://www.smoke-mirrors.com/

Hungry Man in the mood for a bit of Lemon.


Hungry Man has recently aquired the skills of Argentinan native Lemon, as they join Hungey Mans healthy roster.
Surrounded by art at a young age, Lemon came to directing by way of photography.

“My mother has a degree in art and used to give courses to young people in our living room. As a kid I used to spy on them, it really left an impact on me,” he says.

It wasn’t a straight path to directing for Lemon; originally he studied law and worked in an attorney’s office for almost 5 years. Needing some more inspiration in his life, Lemon left everything behind and went to live in Barcelona where he taught himself cinematography.

“I used to sneak into the University of Catalunia’s library every single day of the week and would watch four movies a day,” he says. “I learned all the shots by heart.”

Returning to Buenos Aires in 2000, Lemon began working as an assistant director at Peluca Films and then signed on with Rebolucion in August 2005.
In 2007, he won the Grand Prix for his Impulse’s campaign (co-directed with Armando Bo) at San Sebastian, and Silver at Cannes. Lemon continued to win many other awards in 2008 including bronze at the Clio’s & at the New York Festival for his work on Sprite “Graffiti”, as well as the Impulse Campaign. Additionally, he received bronze at San Sebastion for Mox’s “Masoquistas”. In continuing his success, Lemon was listed among talents like Tom Kuntz, Frederick Bond and Noam Murro for the Gunn Report as one of the most awarded directors in the world in 2008.

“Lemon’s reel is one of the best we have seen from South America recently” says Alex Mehedeff, Hungry Man Rio Manager & Executive Producer. “His work shows how dedicated and focused he is in developing great performances and adding his visual influences within the frame.”

Sir Martin Sorrel to Lead Cannes 09 debate.

Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Worldwide, returns to Cannes to guide a heavyweight panel of global marketing leaders in a discussion on how the recession is affecting the industry now and how it will shape its future. Joining Sir Martin on stage will be Marc Pritchard, Global Marketing Officer of P&G; Mary Beth West, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Kraft Foods Inc.; and Mary Dillon, Executive Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer of McDonald's Corporation.

The three represent an incredible 13 billion dollars of Ad spend together, making this discussion one that is not to be missed.

The Cannes Debate, which launched in 2005, is a group discussion between the most influential people in the business addressing the most topical issues that are currently affecting the advertising and communications industry.
This year's hour-long Cannes Debate will take place on Friday 26th of June at 12:00 in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.
Get it in the diary…

DeptA grab Irwin.

Dept.A the animation wing of HSI has taken on Stephen Irwin for UK and USA representation. A graduate of Central St. Martins College of Art & Design, with an MA in Communication Design, specialising in animation, he received the Best Emerging Talent award in 2005 from EMERGEANDSEE for his graduation film, ‘Dialog’. Since then he has received commissions from the UK Film Council & Film London, BBC New Talent and Animate Projects (Channel 4 / Arts Council England), and in 2008 was shortlisted for a British Animation Award for his music video for Lightspeed Champion.

Stephen continually pushes the boundaries of 2D. The Black Dog’s Progress is his latest showcase for his technical abilities, transforming his hand drawn film into a series of well-timed flipbooks all coming together to make one cohesive and surreal picture.
Check out some handywork here.

Yesterday...UKTV History seemed so far away...

Continuing its successful partnership with UKTV, Red Bee Media, have created a new identity for Yesterday the new incarnation of UKTV History. It is the third and final factual channel to rebrand ahead of the broadcaster’s lifestyle offerings next quarter and draws on a range of awe-inspiring world events, social movements and fondly remembered moments,

Carrying the strapline, “Where the past is always present”, UKTV tasked Red Bee Media to redefine what ‘history’ means by creating a powerful channel identity. Developing six idents and 15 on screen presentations, Red Bee Media had to cover a variety of historical periods including Ancient Rome, World War II, 1980’s, Victorian, Renaissance, Punk and Post-modern. All of the rebrand work is designed to engage viewers with the channel’s factual content, as well as the social and dramatic aspects of the past to make it more immediate and relevant to viewers.

Following the successful rebrand of UKTV’s entertainment portfolio as Dave, G.O.L.D., Watch and Alibi, Yesterday will be the third of the pay TV broadcaster's factual channels to be rebranded, following Eden and Blighty's launches on 26th January and 17th February 2009 respectively. The final wave of the network’s ambitious rebrand to create a portfolio of multiplatform brands will be completed in Q2 2009 with the re-launch of its lifestyle offerings.

Grey Group EMEA announces a reorganisation of its Amsterdam agency.

Grey Group EMEA announces a reorganisation of its Amsterdam agency today, with a concentration on strategic and creative leadership. The no-silos, all-creativity approach focuses on holistic solutions and flexible resourcing to meet the changing communications needs of clients.

As Executive Creative Directors, Colin Lamberton and Seyoan Vela take on new leadership responsibilities to head up Grey Amsterdam, reporting directly to Carolyn Carter, Grey Group EMEA CEO, with immediate effect.

Lamberton and Vela, known for their pioneering work methods as co-founders and Creative Directors of St. Lukes, joined Grey’s EMEA team in London in 2007. They provided the creative muscle behind two successful regional wins, Toshiba and Fortis. In May 2008 they moved with the Fortis win to Amsterdam as Executive Creative Directors, to rebuild the agency as a new kind of creative resource for Grey’s local and multinational clients.

Venue Change for Dubai IAF and LYNX.

The organisers of the Dubai International Advertising Festival and the Dubai Lynx Advertising Awards have announced that both events will now take place this month at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Speaking on behalf of the organisers, Festival Director Steve Lane said, "We had been looking forward to opening this year’s festival at The Palladium and certainly hope to hold it there in 2010. For this year though, and with the event taking place next week, we all felt it would be best to return to the DICEC where the festival was held last year."

The seminars, workshops, exhibitions, Young Creatives Competition and Lynx Academy will now all take place in the Sheikh Rashid Hall of the DICEC, which is located at the head of Sheikh Zayed Road, with the Awards Ceremony and Dinner happening in the Sheikh Maktoum Hall of the DICEC.

Speakers at this year’s Festival include Bob Isherwood, PJ Pereira, Felipe Burgaz and Piyush Pandey amongst others.

Reel Opinion - Flavio Pantigoso

The first Reel Opinion of 09 is from the brilliant Flavio Pantigoso of Y&R Peru, who's top quality creative has been gracing both the website and DVD regularly for sometime now. He has kindly taken the time to cast his expert peepers over some of the latest and greatest work to fly into Reel Towers over the past month.


Flavio Pantigoso

Creative Director

Y&R Peru

Monster - Double Take

Agency: BBDO New York

Production: Epoch / Rattling Stick

Director: Daniel Kleinman


This is a funny idea, although not necessarily brilliant and without the penetrating depth of former executions by monster.com. I’m not sure if the value proposal of the brand gets very clear. The humorous premise that at work there are winners and losers is funny but, perhaps, a bit cruel at this time of layoffs around the world. Maybe, I would expect a greater empathy, a more concrete demonstration of what the brand can do for me at this moment.


Dairy Milk - Eyebrows

Agency: Fallon London

Production: MJZ London

Director: Tom Kuntz



That Gorilla put the bar really high. This execution is impeccable and fun, but looks a little bit more effect-based and puts forth a little bit more effort than Gorilla, which was insultingly daring to discard all premises of what should be "a classic advertising idea based on a clear reason-why." However, this is an execution fully conversant with the internet world, and I like the Cadbury's consistency of continuing to interpret with sublime liberty the concept of "a glass and a half full of joy" as the possibility of giving people a moment of pleasure.

Hulu.com - Alec in Huluwood

Agency: CPB Miami

Production: Pony Show Entertainment Los Angeles

Director: Peter Berg




Fantastic. A cynical, delirious and brilliant look regarding the theories about the alienating powers of television. Baldwin is excellent and the editing is clever. It's possibly the most memorable Super Bowl ad for me. "An Evil Plot to Destroy the world" is about creating a drama around the brand. It's accepting that, hey, this is TV Land. In other words, time to have some fun.


T-Mobile - Change of Routine

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London

Production: Partizan London

Director: Micheal Gracey


It feels neither fresh nor highly original. It's an idea that has been done before. But the problem with this piece is, basically, credibility. I really cannot digest the "naturality" of this collective manifestation of happiness. Everything about it feels like “too much advertising”. In the area of great collective ideas, Nike, Playstation, Adidas ... continue to rule.

Kia Soul - Cabin

Agency: Publicis Toronto

Production: Untitled Films Toronto

Director: Mark Gilbert


I must confess that I went to the website http://www.peerintoasoul.ca/ to help me understand this spot. From that point of view, the goal of this effort might be accomplished. But I had to look at the other two spots from this campaign on the website to assure myself that it was the idea that I truly thought think it was. Excellent production, intriguing, but the "I stopped doing what I thought I was important to do because my attention was caught by a car" is not only an overdone concept, but also makes me question whether or not I want to exchange four beauties for a car like this one.