NewsReel 04/07/08

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

Not To Scale / Yellow House Paris in Entente Cordiale
London based animation studio Not To Scale has signed an exclusive dual representation deal with Yellow House Paris for them to represent the lion’s share of their UK roster in France. National TV, Coan & Zorn, Ubik, Chris Ketchell and other Not To Scale Directors will all now be available for work locally in Paris with immediate effect.

Not To Scale will also be able produce Yellow House’s eclectic roster in the UK, including the enigmatic DouDouBoy, and Laurent Bebin. DouDouBoy is a director, artist and musician who has secured cult status in France already with his brilliant personally hand built window installation for Galeries Lafayette. He recently achieved recognition farther afield when he gave a speech about his work to a packed auditorium at Pictoplasma’s recent animation festival in Berlin. Laurent Bebin’s Gondry-esque promo for Kaolin; ‘Pour Le Feu’ is a youthful masterclass in clever transitions and slick motion control.

Other Directors at Yellow House will also be available to Not To Scale on an ad-hoc basis and as individual briefs demand. Not To Scale founder Dan O’Rourke explains further, ‘ There’s a creative synergy between the two studios and between the two cities. I’ve long been searching for the right fit in France, and working with Yellow House is an opportunity for both our Directors and theirs to broaden showreels from a culturally different perspective’.

To see work by both DouDouBoy and Laurent Bebin go to:

http://www.nottoscale.tv

The new ad arriving at platform 3 is...
Nestlé, Sky, Magners, Paramount, InBev and Dewynters have signed as the official launch partners of Cross-track Projection (XTP), CBS Outdoor’s revolutionary digital media opportunity on the London Underground – a world first in terms of its screen size and sophistication.

From this week giant cross-track screens (the equivalent of 14 ft TV screens) will beam soundless commercial content in full motion and HD quality at 23 sites at five of the busiest stations in the capital’s centre.

Piccadilly Circus, Bank, Liverpool Street, Euston and Bond Street have all been fitted with the hi-tech projectors and giant screens, each linked to a new digital advertising network enabling partners to remotely update their messages on a 120’ loop, at the touch of a button. The partnerships will run for a minimum of 6 weeks from 30th June.

Tim Bleakley, Managing Director Sales & Marketing of CBS Outdoor, commented, ‘The introduction of XTP is a landmark event for London media – I have no doubt in my mind that it is the single most significant media launch since Channel Five.

‘It’s the medium for the capital – cutting edge, capturing and captivating consumers and offering outstanding flexibility for advertisers. This launch has been three years in the making, working with best in class partners and consulting the industry every step of the way.’

Maybe Philips should have moved a bit quicker with their new revolutionary 3D screens then…

Great Guns and Bikini
Bikini are moving in with Great Guns at their Camden offices over the next few weeks. Bikini will be joining a group that already includes Great Guns, production company Bang and beauty specialist Lipstick.

Great Guns founder and Chairman Laura Gregory does not believe this could spell the end of Bikini’s unique brand, ‘Kate and Andy's (Morahan) team are a perfect fit for where we want to be at the moment - complementary skills but quite a unique offering’…It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to it.’ This story immediately reminded us of a great scene from otherwise quite poor sequel 'Beverly Hills Cop 3' - now that's a lot of fun!

Somers Town wins award
Shane Meadows-directed Somers Town took top honours at the Edinburgh International Film Festival recently, receiving the Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film. It’s a remarkable achievement for what is essentially a piece of branded content. (you may recall a feature on it in May)

Mother 's Head of TV Zoe Bell was joint-producer on the film and was delighted with the award, 'This is such an amazing piece of news. We are so excited that our first feature length work is being so widely enjoyed…It is truly a great example of collaboration at its best.’

The film will open across the UK on August 22.

More Troublemakers
Mato Atom and Dstrukt have been signed to Troublemakers. The UK and France based production company will represent Atom in the UK and Dstrukt in France. To view their work, click here.

Goin' Down To Somers Town

Shane Meadows, top director of Brit-flick classics like ‘This Is England’, ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ and ‘24/7’, has a new film that’s already winning awards and plaudits at far-flung film festivals. It stars the young actor discovered by Meadows for his last movie and is shot in North London in gritty black and white. It’s feature length and has long-time Meadows collaborator Paul Fraser on the writing credits … Oh, and it comes from agency Mother’s newest division Mother Vision and is entirely funded by Eurostar.

Product placement in movies isn’t the newest of inventions, as any Bond aficionado can testify, but the current craze for ‘branded content’ seems to have every client chomping at the bit for a slice of the infotainment. Recently we’ve had some superb shorts from Schwepps and The Sweet Shop and a smart piece for eBay, but with ‘Somers Town’ Mother Vision and Eurostar have opted to entirely eschew the conventional commercial stylings and length and opt instead for a movie that encapsulates the ethos of the brand.

Speaking of the origins of the project, Mother said, ‘Eurostar was getting ready for a landmark in its history - the launch of the UK’s first High Speed rail service, running from a newly built station at St Pancras in London. They were interested in marking the occasion with a piece of communication that had more longevity than perhaps a traditional ad campaign – something that could be enjoyed long after the station opened. The result is ‘Somers Town.’

The Reel were lucky enough to attend a screening of the film and were left extremely impressed. Far from being an overlong commercial, the movie felt like a genuine artistic endeavor, encapsulating the benefits and joys of journeys rather than having shiny train drivers in shiny trains. Indeed in the introduction to the film, Eurostar head of UK marketing Greg Nugent commented that the only way Meadows could be cajoled into helming it was on the guarantee that there would be no ‘thumbs-up’ shots of railway folk.

Benefiting from exceptional performances from the leads (Turgoose again demonstrating the natural charisma evident in ‘This Is England’) and with Meadows trademark stark visuals and earthy humour, Somers Town succeeds in being a genuinely compelling piece of entertainment regardless of its origins. With virtually no brand intrusion from Eurostar, the company’s confidence in both filmmaker and agency is an important guideline to others looking to follow the same path. We’ll be keeping a close eye on Mother Vision’s exciting-sounding output (expect a newsletter/blog feature on the growth of branded content in the very near future), and look forward to a future full of entertainment – branded or otherwise!