Thursday 6 August 2009

NewsReel 07/08/09

Hey you! Got news for us? Chuck it at this – editor@thereel.net.


The Sweet Shop gets Rudy and Levene


We love a bit of Sweet Shop action, so the latest news from the tasty production company got us all excited. International hothouse production company The Sweet Shop has just expanded its London operation with the hiring of Rudy Taguri as Director's Representative and Andrew Levene as Producer.

Speaking on the move, Taguri commented, ‘I’ve admired The Sweet Shop’s talent pool and quality of work across the globe for some time now and the chance to amplify its already rapid success in London, is something I’m definitely looking forward too.

The move re-unites Taguri with former colleague Candice Chubb, now MD of the Sweet Shop. Chubb has taken time to pick who she thinks to be the perfect team to help drive the London office forward. She comments; ‘I am thrilled to be welcoming Rudy and Andrew to The Sweet Shop, having them on board cements and furthers the strength of structure in our London office. We are getting interest from some amazing new talent, who see an advantage to how we are doing things differently, the local support we provide along with our global model makes us unique. It’s not hard for directors to see how the opportunities of our strengths beyond the UK base of operations will further their careers. Having Rudy and Andrew with me is further testament to our progression, I am truly excited about the time ahead'.

Great stuff! Looks like Rudy can’t fail (to work for good production companies). Ha ha ha … oh.

http://thesweetshop.tv/

JWT gets PB to DCD


JWT London announced this week the appointment of Paul Banham as Digital Creative Director. Paul brings to JWT 16 years of outstanding marketing experience and is one of the elite few creative directors to have won awards across both the on and off-line worlds.

During his career Paul has worked at world-class agencies such as AIS, Agency.com and WCRS Arnold Worldwide, where he has held senior creative positions, working on a raft of multi-award winning campaigns.

Paul's extensive experience in branding, design, integrated and digital have given him a unique perspective and approach. He has won over 130 creative awards, these include the likes of D&AD, Cannes, Euro Best, The One Show, Clios, Creative Review - The Annual, New Media Age, Revolution, Eyeblaster, IAB Creative Showcase, The Viral Awards and the LIAs.

http://www.jwt.co.uk/

Maxim goes Partizan


Partizan has just signed (to much coo-ing and ahhhi-ing) 23 year old director Maxim Zhestkov. Born in Russia, at the age of six he was given his first computer, a ZX Spectrum, and devoted his time to drawing huge and very detailed illustrations. He was also a keen gamer, and believes his enthusiasm for design and CG effects can be traced back to those days. After high school Maxim undertook a degree in architecture, which he followed by studying graphic design, fine art, illustration and sculpture.

He says: “There are no limits in graphics - everything you can imagine is possible. But I have to say I still love architecture. It all started with 2d illustrations, that smoothly turned into 3d illustrations and spaces. Then I developed a passion for architecture and graphic design. Then I realized that the most important thing is video!”

To check out his latest (frankly awesome) MTV work head to his showreel or look forward to the imminently shipping July Reel DVDs.

And finally…

We’re sure you crazy, web-savvy Reelers are all over this already, but for the uninitiated here is the latest ‘Autotune The News’. Amazing!

Fans Get The Power...

Handing power to your fanbase is not the newest of ideas in the promo world.

Welsh rockers Feeder tapped into the power of their fans way back in 2004 with the promo for ‘Just A Day’.



The video for ‘Just a day’ was such a big hit, it became an inspiration to Jetplane Landing and Canadian rock band the Barenaked Ladies, for their videos to "Brave Gravity" and "Wind it Up" respectively.
A clutch of promos have returned to this concept and placed the all important fan in the driving seat this month. But now, with the rapid advancement of online and interactive technology, the fans are getting a bit more in the way of fun and games to fuel their devotion.

Indie wailers Bloc Party have gone the way of crowd-sourcing content for their latest video. Made up of mostly fan-submitted mobile phone footage, the video for the group’s song Ares (Villains Remix) delivers a brilliant naïve feel and pulls together a wonderful cross-section of different ideas.



FANtastic! (ha ha).


The new video for The Cold War Kids ‘I’ve seen enough’ has been released with an interactive online version of the Promo. Fans can utilise a simple colour co-ordinated toolbar to change the actual audio as well as muting and un-muting drum sections, vocals, bass and keys. In this fashion fans can almost re-mix the song themselves on the fly, playing around with it until they settle on a version that they like.

Go play here.

More interactive-promo tomfoolery comes from Blac Ionica and Agency Devilfish who designed and directed an imaginative augmented reality music video for young new Columbia Records artist Julian Perretta.

Built around his track "Ride My Star", the video is a 3d trip through Julian’s imagination as he searches for his girl. Using a combination of Flash and Papervision to create the 3D scenarios. This was then developed in Augmented Reality, which uses Flash, your webcam and a special printed "icon" (tracker) to create a fully immersive, interactive video.
The pop-up book designs were created by London based directors Blac Ionica. Zerofractal Studios from Colombia programmed the video in Papervision and Flash, developed and created the accompanying interface.



This is the first time that Augmented Reality has been used on this scale in conjunction with a recording artist, and more than likely will spark the trend in Pop Promos. The icon/tracker will be handed out as part of a flyer at dates on Julian's tour supporting Girls Aloud. It will also be available to download Julian Perretta’s website.

BBH labs in NY have also turned invention up to eleven in the new promo for Japanese post rock band Sour in their new promo ‘Hibi No Neiro’. Managing to produce the video around their day jobs at BBH, the production team started by posting on fan forums asking for people to volunteer for the new music video. Incredibly interest sprung from all over the globe – and the fans took the project whilst the BBH team provided the working framework.

A few months of tight planning and a detailed animatic later – the volunteer fans were ready to pitch in on the promo via the wonder of the webcam. The result is some pretty inspiring stuff considering the budget was a massive $0 and the directing team were based in NY and the band live in Tokyo…

Complaining promo directors…

Be horribly afraid… fan power is here to stay…

http://sour-web.com/

For more znazzy techy world-conquering info like this be sure to check contagious magazine's wildfire section (which we occasionally write for as well...).

Its RAD!!