NewsReel 29/08/08

As always, please send any news and press releases to sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to include it here.

Love is Golden

Golden Square has announced the promotion of Dan Love to the role of Head of Production. 34 year old Dan joined the company in 2002 as a humble librarian and has progressed through the ranks via bookings and production. He commented on his impressive rise, ‘Having risen through the ranks at Golden Square, I’m really looking forward to taking this role on and making my mark, it’s very exciting!’

Ewan Macleod, Golden Square’s MD said, ‘Dan is the natural choice for Head of Production. He is respected by his colleagues at Golden Square and very popular with our clients. I’m looking forward to working closely with him in his new role.’

Mainframe moveMainframe, unabated by the current economic climate, has continued a period of expansion which saw them opening a Manchester HQ by investing £1.2million into a new London studio.

The beautiful new space in Clerkenwell will be furnished with £200,000 worth of kit, including and additional 5 Maya seats and new work stations built around Mac and Boxx technologies. Four new animators have been bought in to operate the extra kit.

Adam Jenns, Mainframe’s MD, said of the brave expansion, ‘We feel very fortunate to be expanding like this in such an uncertain economic climate. It would feel like a bit too much of a risk if it weren’t for the steady flow of repeat and new business that’s coming our way.’

Mainframe’s swanky new address from mid-Sept will be Unit 10, The Piano Works, 113 – 117 Farringdon Road, EC1. Building and move updates can be tracked via Mainframe’s new blog: http://www.blog.mainframe.co.uk

Selby has the feel good factor
Feel Films have announced the signing of acclaimed British commercials director Selby. The ex-WCRS creative moved over to directing in the late 90s, achieving recognition for his Palm D’Or finalist BMW ‘Luge’ spot. Stuart Wrigglesworth, Head of Production at Feel, is understandably pleased with the signing, ‘Selby is a formidable creative talent and we believe his reel competes with the best in the market place.’

Spank hit Top Gear
Spank Films have announced the signing of Emmy and Promax award-winning director Richard Heeley. Heeley has previously helped secure Top Gear’s place as one of the best loved programme’s on the box, however, he’s no stranger to the 30-second format, as he started his career making trailers for the BBC. John Golley, MD of Spank, has confirmed that they are already pitching on a commercial for him Heeley already and said of the signing, ‘I have known Richard for the best part of ten years, I have always thought of him as an immense creative talent and what he did to help transform Top Gear was just fantastic. As soon as I knew that he was interested in moving into commercials I contacted him.’

Heeley said of his move into commercials, ‘I'm absolutely passionate about directing and passionate about cars so the chance to combine the two for the commercials market is one that I'm incredibly excited about.' How much would you like to bet they're pitching on a car ad?!

Frankie goes Bare
The lovely Frankie Singler has left Quiet Storm Films to join Bare Films as Head of Sales. All at The Reel wish her luck with her new role.

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 García 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!