NewsReel 03/10/08

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

A short break

We are sad to report that Short and Sweet, London’s only weekly short film evening, is taking a break after 2 years and 5 months of showcasing some of the best short films, animation and music videos twice a week. Julia Stephenson, the event's tireless organiser, assures us that Short and Sweet will be back in some form in the not too distant future, but to enjoy a unique London event for the last time in a while head to Café 1001 on Monday 6th October or AKA on the 7th October for 7.30pm and give Julia and her team a round of applause for promoting short film so successfully over the past couple of years.

de Thame joins Therapy
Therapy Films have revealed the big name signing of Gerard de Thame for worldwide representation (excluding USA where he is represented by HSI). Among de Thame’s high-profile work is the iconic ‘Carl in New York’ ad for Pirelli Tyres. It seems negotiations to capture the signing of the experienced director were protracted, but Therapy MD Barry Hughes is pleased to have finally got his man, ‘Gerard is such a big name…we are very pleased he has chosen us to re-launch his career in the UK’.

Cut+Run NY cut ties
Cut+Run NY is no more. One of two transatlantic siblings of London’s Cut+Run editing house has gone it alone and will now be known as Cutting Room Films. The ownership of the award-winning shop is now in the hands of editors Chuck Willis and Mike Douglas, and EP Susan Willis. Apart from the name and ownership change, all remains the same at the company’s Avenue of the Americas HQ and Cut+Run’s LA shop is unaffected by the changes.

Another director
Another Film Company have added director Katie Bell to their burgeoning roster. Katie, who has previously directed campaigns for Persil, B & Q, Muller and Eurostar, will be produced by Jeff Stark’s long standing producer Cathy Green, who said of the signing, ‘Katie’s work is effortlessly stylish with a solid core of genuine confident performance and I’m really looking forward to working alongside her.’

A Very Small Office just got bigger
New York-based production house A Very Small Office have opened design and animation house Offspring. Co-founders Saffron Case and Mikon van Gastel have appointed newly minted creative director Adam Levite to lead the new venture. Case commented, ‘Offspring is a logical next step for Mikon and myself. We've developed such long-standing, deep relationships over the years it just seemed natural to offer those clients another creative opportunity.’ He continued, ‘AVSO was built on the passion to create highly original, game-changing work and we're taking that same approach and applying it to design and motion graphics.’

YGAward extension
The deadline for the 2008 YGAward has been extended to Friday 31st October at 5pm. The extension applies to both the Professional and Student Awards. Click here to submit your work.

Rushes' new Resolve
Rushes have got themselves a da Vinci, but it won’t be hanging in the Old Compton St offices of the post production and special effects masters, it’s a da Vinci Resolve R250 and it’s an impressive piece of telecine kit - apparently. To go with their shiny new machinery in the telecine department, they’ve got a shiny new producer, Alex Panton, who will assist clients to integrate Resolve into their working practices whilst promoting the existing C-Reality and Spirit suites and Rushes award-winning team of colourists.

BootB-licious
Disaronno have opened up the pitching process for their new TV campaign to all-comers on the innovative website BootB - the site that brings brand builders and creative brains around the globe together. All the information needed to pitch for the business is available here and the deadline is on the 12th October, so get your thinking caps on if you want to have a bash at it.

NewsReel 10.09.08

Due to the all too regular practice of inept builders hacking through mains cables, this week's newsletter could not be sent out on Friday. Please accept our apologies if you were eagerly awaiting for it to drop into your inbox. Next week (fingers crossed) we should be back to normal. As always, please send any news and press releases to sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to include it here.

MTV Switch On
MTV Switch, the MTV Networks International backed project to present messages on global warming and reducing carbon footprints, has launched for 2008. A series of public service announcements created by 180 Amsterdam, Selmore and Cake, and Ecopop, along with five short films by Element form the crux of the campaign. The work will be aired in 162 countries, to a potential audience of 560 million viewers. John Jackson, Director of Social Responsibility, MTV International, said of the project, ‘We are incredibly thrilled and honored to work with such forward-thinking international creative agencies in producing compelling work to continue to engage youth on this extremely important global issue.’

We will be doing a special feature on MTV Switch next week, but if you can’t wait until then to see the work then go to the website.


A Brazilian goes to Work

Work Club are continuing their recent recruitment drive and have added Brazilian art director Rodrigo Lebrun. 29-year old Lebrun has worked across many notable South American agencies, including Ogilvy where he art directed global brands like Coca-Cola, BMW, Reebok and Honda. Work Club creative director Andy Sandoz said of the appointment, ‘Rodrigo’s addition increases our cultural diversity and further strengthens our ideas. He’s disappointing at football though.’

Short and Sweet
Adelphoi Films are taking over Short and Sweet this week, at the usual time and place . Old and new films will be shown from the following directors:

Nick Ball, Freya Elliot, Desperate Optimists, Luke McCarthy, Tokyo Plastic, Tim Haines & Jasper James, Matt Lambert, Ben Whitehouse, Tomas Garcia, and Bruce Haines.

MONDAY: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
Films start at 7.30pm

TUESDAY: AKA Bar, 18 west central street.
Films start at 7.30pm

The musical maestros will also be bringing along some DJs to entertain the crowd. Click here for more info.

YoungGuns
August YoungGun of the Month has been announced, judged by Josh Lancaster from Colenso BBDO, Professional YoungGun of the Month went to Matt Sellars and Cory Bellringer from Y&R Auckland for their Microsoft Anti-virus campaign. The Student Award went to Ana C. Galvez from The Art Institute of California for her Monster.com work.

In other YoungGun related news, the 2008 Award is open for entries and the 2008 Creative Brief will be available to view on the website on Monday 15th September. Click here for more info.

NewsReel 05.09.08

Raindance
Tom Tagholm of Channel 4 Creative Services, who won Best Film and Best UK Short at last year’s Raindance for his ‘A Bout De Truffe’ film, has been charged with the task of creating the trailer for this year’s festival. ‘So I Fell in Love with a Zombie’ brings together the two genres of horror and romance with humorous results. Starring Nathalie Cox and stand up comic Brett Goldstein, the film was shot on a small budget provided by festival sponsors Diesel, but Tagholm was happy working under those conditions, saying, ‘It was a little more of a hustle than usual. It was more like a short film shoot than a commercial - we shot near my flat and used that as a base, and there was lots of zombie make-up crap everywhere. But with that comes a good spirit within the cast and crew and it all came together well, despite no luxuries and a very rainy British summer to contend with.’

The festival runs from October 1^st to 12^th and the trailer can be viewed by clicking here.

Quick on the Draw
Draw Pictures have hired a number of new reps, including a dedicated music video rep on both sides of the Atlantic.

From the 6th of October their new Head of Music Videos & Content in the UK will be Laura Lewis. Laura joins Draw from Sony/BMG where she worked in the video department for many years, bringing an invaluable blend of experience and label insight with her.

In the US, Laure Scott joins with immediate effect. She will take over as New Music Video Rep and will handle all US based requests for any of Draw’s directors.

Kinsale Sharks
The shortlisted work for the 46^th Kinsale Shark Awards is now on their website. The festival will be held in the picturesque Irish coastal town of Kinsale next weekend 11^th to 13^th September. Bookings are still open and can be made via the website.

Short and Sweet
Short and Sweet (London’s only weekly short film evening) will be held at the usual time and place next week:

MONDAY: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
TUESDAY: AKA Bar, 18 west central street

Films start at 7.30pm both nights and entry is FREE.

NewsReel 16.05.08

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

Short and Sweet

After this week’s 2nd birthday celebrations, there’ll be another special week of films at Short and Sweet this week. The Reel has been asked to select some of our favourite shorts and promos from recent issues and we think we’ve kept up the usual high standards of London’s only weekly short film evening with our eclectic selection. So, come along either Monday or Tuesday – or even both nights! – to catch some great work from the likes of Cyriak, Holbrook’s Films, Andre Maat, Jonas+Francois and Friendswithyou.

MONDAY: 19 May
Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane

TUESDAY: 20 May
AKA Bar, 18 west central street

Films start at 7pm both nights!

ENTRY: FREE



Tangerine dream becomes reality

We’re pleased to announce that we’re also supporting the Tangerine short film night in Melbourne. The Guild’s Colette Crespin is running the event which is launching at The Local, 184 Carlisle St, East St Kilda on Tuesday 3rd June and will return on the first Tuesday of every month from then on. Go to www.ilovetangerine.com to find out more.

Straight shooters

Whilst the beautiful people of the film world are hob-nobbing at the Cannes Film Festival, Kate Vogel, Commissioning Editor of Channel 4’s great 3-Minute Wonder slots, has selected four Straight 8s to be aired in place of the usual 3-Minute Wonders from Monday 19th May to Thursday 22nd at 7.55pm. In case you didn't already know, Straight 8s are each made on one roll of super 8mm cine film with no re-takes and no editing - tough. The four films to be aired on Channel 4 are:

Mon 19 May: ‘Springlove’ – set in amsterdam, using stop-motion, two people are seen to hover above the ground as they meet up for a date.
Director: herrjaapmans

Tues 20 May: ‘Looking For Marilyn’ – an intimate portrait, in black and white, of a Marilyn Monroe look-a-like. When the whole neighbourhood dresses up the same, the paparazzi get out of hand and it becomes a clever story about celebrity.
Director: Anna Blandford and Anna Valdez Hanks

Wed 21 May: ‘The Last Trip’ – a charming tale of the wannabe first welshman in space and how the village work together on a home-made space programme to take his ashes up there.
Director: Malcolm Finlay

Thu 22 May: ‘A Piece Of Heaven’ – an epic dark tale from the mexican countryside. A strange eyeglass arrives in the village giving people a troubling snapshot of heaven.
Director: Felix Alejandro Barbosa Vazquez and Yuri Misael Barbosa Vazquez

Moo sign Pamela Hanson

Continuing to expand its talent roster, Los Angeles-based hybrid creative studio MOO, which specializes in animation, commercials, interactive, and talent management, has signed famed fashion photographer Pamela Hanson to their Commercial division.

YoungGuns expand

YoungGuns has announced three new facets to their existing yearly award, monthly student award and creative briefs. Young, talented individuals can now aspire to winning the YoungGun of the Month, as well as enjoy a new-look membership scheme and check out skill development opportunities like the one they’ve currently got with RogenSi, helping people with performance, increasing influence, leadership, pitching and persuasive communication – we’ve been, because we’re great, and if you don’t get your sorry selves there we’ll kick your arse!
To find out more go to their new-look website www.ygaward.com.

Sherbert
Production company Sherbert has moved. Their new address is:

3 St. John’s Path
London
EC1M 4DD
Tel. 020 7253 0200
Fax. 020 7253 0222

NewsReel 08.05.08

John’s content at Anonymous
Anonymous Content has signed director John Osborne. Osborne has previously worked with David Beckham on a two spot campaign for Sharpie, and done extensive work for Converse on their ‘Disruption’ campaign. Dave Morrison, Head of Commercials at Anonymous, is chuffed with the signing, ‘He’s very contemporary and super adaptable to most production situations, which perfectly suits both the evolving integrated market space which we’ve been aggressively penetrating, as well as the traditional commercial space.’ John, on the other hand, is extremely pissed off to be joining Anonymous…only joking, he is understandably chuffed too, ‘It makes the work that much more fun knowing that you have the support of a lot of really talented people.’

A Short and Sweet Birthday
Short and Sweet has been going strong for two years now and they will be celebrating next week at the usual place and times.

MONDAY: 12 May
Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane

TUESDAY: 13 May
AKA Bar, 18 west central street

Films start at 7pm both nights.

There will be a special week of Short and Sweet coming soon as The Reel will be collaborating with the lovely Julia and her team to bring you a selection of some of our favourite shorts.

Tangerine dream
Colette Crespin of The Guild Films is shaking things up Down Under and will soon be launching Tangerine ‘The sweetest short film night in Melbourne’. Tangerine will also roll up the east coast to Sydney. We’ll bring you more information soon.

NewsReel 3/12/07

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.
















Gargette is a drawn to Draw
Ex Academy, Hungry Eye and Union director Simon Gargette is off to Draw Pictures to further expand the London based production company’s burgeoning commercials roster. The experienced Gargette started his career as an agency copywriter for McCann and Vernon’s before moving into stills photography and cinematography, alongside running his own studio. However, he quickly made the natural move into directing and helmed Europe’s first interactive spot for Shell as early as 1987.

Since then he’s been one of the lucky few to direct the best dog in advertising – the Dulux dog mauls the Andrex puppies every time – as well as spots for Ford and the RAC, among others.

Young creatives go for their guns
Young Guns have announced the shortlists for their 2007 awards, and with their ingenious call for entry featuring Alex Bogusky from Bogusky Crispin + Porter we’re sure they weren’t short on entries.

The Reel Team have taken note and the next time we ask for work, one of us will do so wearing white Y-fronts and holding a pink keytar…or perhaps not. (Sadly Alex Bogusky isn’t the one in his pants, holding the keytar)

The short list of young whippersnappers waiting for their ‘first time’ can be viewed at www.ygaward.com and we think you’ll agree that, with the variety of countries represented, the awards really do deserve the title of ‘International’. The winners are to be announced this Friday, 7th December.

Ben returns to The Square after a year in China
Yes, it may read like a headline for ‘EastEnders’ and a – probably utterly implausible - storyline involving the spawn of Phil and Kathy, but it’s not. The Ben is Leyland and The Square is Golden.

After a year away at Profero, in Shanghai, working with clients such as China Central Television, Fanta, Guinness and Samsung, Ben Leyland has returned to Golden Square as creative director of Disqo, their digital design department. Ewan McLeod, excutive producer and co-founder of Golden Square is delighted to have him back and said, ‘…timing is everything and the opportunity to work with Ben again was an enticing one…he not only adds depth but brings a vast amount of talent to Disqo.’ That’s all very well and good, but what will Phil say…oh, sorry, wrong Ben; wrong square.











Meri-bells ring out before Christmas
Entries for the competitions at this year’s Meribel ad festival have long been closed and the representatives from The Reel have been honing their snowball throwing skills (but of course they’d never aim for you) and the beautiful French resort is gearing up for the grand opening next week, on the 11th December. Watch out for our Meribel feature in this month's Reel.










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 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.

This week will feature films from: Robert Samuel, Lynnel Cizo, Jamie Rafn, Jason Reitman, Richard Fenwick, Luis Cook, Max Hattler, and Nicolas Salis

MONDAY: Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane Time: Films START at 19h00 TUESDAY: Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street Time: Films START at 19h00

Short & Sweet will also be having an end of year party on Tuesday 18th December at the AKA Bar in Soho. So put it in your diary, although we will almost certainly remind you next week.

For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv

NewsReel 27/11/07

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.

Jung von Matt
The German publication ‘Manager Magazin’, a magazine for German managers, has once again compiled its annual index of the most creative advertisers in Germany, and Jung von Matt, the home of October’s country feature guest editors Bernhard Lukas and Arnault Lindemann, have clinched the top spot as the best ATL advertising agency and best internet advertiser.

The agency, with offices in Hamburg and Berlin, also topped five out of six categories in ‘Agentur Images ‘07’, a poll of 300 German marketing decision makers, conducted by the ‘Handelsblatt’ newspaper and the trade publication ‘Absatzwirtschaft’.

The awards are particularly noteworthy due to the impressive state of German advertising as a whole, if last month’s country feature is anything to go by, and we’re happy because it vindicates our decision to let them take the reins of our much-loved country feature last month - if you didn’t get to see it, below is an example of the kind of thing you missed out on. Ooh, we do spoil you…

Title: Symphony in Red

Client: Konzerthaus Dortmund

Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg



Jake Wynne-s at Prime Focus
















Prime Focus London (the commercials and broadcast post-production company born of the merger between Clear, VTR and The Hive) have brought in ex-HSI director/editor Jake Wynne as a visual effects director and editor. Jake started his career as an editor and won the BTAA Best Commercial Editing Award for Lucozade’s ‘Mods’ spot in 1999 - click here to view – and as one half of directing duo Jake & Jim (the other half being Jim Canty) he has directed several high profile promos for artists such as Geri Halliwell, Stereophonics and Paul Weller, as well as commercials for Nescafe, Sony PS2 and The Observer.

Simon Huhtala, MD at PFL explains his reasons for bringing Jake on board, ‘I’ve been working with Jake for almost 10 years, he loves the craft of film-making and truly understands the role post-production has to play in it. As a long term client of ours I know he has as keen an eye and attention to detail as our artists here at PFL. I’m keen to offer Jake’s skills to our film clients as well as our advertising clients, especially where the visual effects are particularly heavy or the director can’t always be available to supervise.’

Jake reciprocated the glowing praise by saying, ‘It’s an exciting opportunity to spread my creative wings within a structure that is developing in a very forward thinking way.’

It looks like a match made in heaven and we at The Reel are looking forward to featuring some of the work that results.

Meri-bells ring out before Christmas









Entries for the competitions at this year’s Meribel ad festival have long been closed and the representatives from The Reel have been honing their snowball throwing skills (but of course they’d never aim for you) and the beautiful French resort is gearing up for the grand opening on the 11th December. Watch out for our Meribel feature in this month's Reel.

Weekly short film festival








Due to the unavoidably late distribution of the newsletter we were unable to inform you of the great offerings at Short and Sweet this week. However, in retrospect, the following directors were featured and a good time was had by all (we can assure you we’ll be back on time next week to let you know what’s going on in advance):

Damien Bapst and Dan Creteur, Ken Wardrop, Chris Nolan, George Wu, Martin De Thurah, Florian Grolig, Jamie Rafn, and a special performance from Tim Key.

EVERY MONDAY:
Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
Time: Films START at 19h30

EVERY TUESDAY:
Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street
Time: Films START at 19h00

For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv

NewsReel 19.11.07

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.

2AM in Harmony with Korine




















The Apollo Cinema on Regent Street was the venue for an exclusive screening of director Harmony Korine’s first film in 8 years, last week. The former wunderkind writer of Larry Clark’s ‘Kids’ and director of ‘Gummo’ and ‘Julien Donkey-Boy’ introduced the film to the specially invited audience including some hand-picked figures from the advertising industry and a couple of representatives from The Reel, on Wednesday. The event was hosted by 2AM Films, who are representing Harmony in his bid to establish himself as an ad and promo director. Featuring some great performances, particularly from Diego Luna in the lead role, the film focuses on the lives of a group of celebrity impersonators, including the aforementioned Luna as Michael Jackson and Samantha Morton as Marilyn Monroe, living in an idyllic hideaway in the Scottish highlands. Werner Herzog features in occasional interludes as a Reverend leading a group of South American nuns.

Website Wonder











Digital production company B-Reel and Fallon have come together to create a particularly unique ‘infinite’ website. The site has been built to promote the Sci Fi Channel’s re-imagining of 'The Wizard of Oz', entitled ‘The Tin Man'. It utilises ‘Zoomquilt’ technology, looping stunning flash scenes together, to create a continuous zoom that feels like it’s pulling you deeper into what looks to be an amazingly realised world. If you don’t get too mesmerised by the technology and pretty pictures you can stop and learn more about the mini-series featuring Alan Cumming and Richard Dreyfuss that premieres in the US on 2nd December and will surely be crossing the Atlantic soon after.

To view another remarkable 'Zoomquilt' animation click here

Cristal on ice









This year’s 7th Meribel Ad Festival, which will take place from December 11th to the 16th, will feature a new ranking for the most awarded advertising agencies, networks and producers, called the « Cristal Ranking ».

Following Donald Gunn, who has previously awarded the best in the European rankings of the Gunn Report at Meribel over the past four years, Patrick Collister will present the 2007 Won Report exclusively for the Festival, which will also include cross-media work.

The Won Report is an annual analysis of the world’s best direct marketing and digital advertising as measured by the quantity and quality of the awards won. It is compiled by Patrick Collister and has been published since 2003.


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.
Channel 4 will once again be present this week so an extra special programme has been planned, featuring work from: Laurie Hill, Emily & Matthew, Jeroen Offerman, Ed Roe & Dougal Wilson,
DA Pennebaker, Martin De Thurah, Marc Reisbig and Keith Bearden.

EVERY MONDAY:
Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
Time: Films START at 19h30

EVERY TUESDAY:
Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street
Time: Films START at 19h00

For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv

NewsReel 12.11.07

Donkey Kong scaffolding

In honour of the trailer for ‘The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters’ appearing in this month’s Reel as part of our Moxie Pictures feature, the Computerspiele Museum in Berlin erected a scaffolding and, with a few strategically placed printed canvas covers, turned it into a level screen of the uber video game, Donkey Kong. Alternatively, it could be that the building is undergoing a much-needed facelift and it’s an exceedingly clever way of promoting the soon to be re-opening gaming Mecca whilst utilising the essential but ugly scaffolding. You decide…

LINKS:
www.billyvssteve.com/

www.computerspielemuseum.de/english.html

Jonas&François win at MTV Europe Music Awards

We must be expressing our narcissistic tendencies this week because ‘Star Video’ winners at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Munich on 1^st November, Jonas&Francois, were featured in September’s Reel for their Kanye West ‘Good life’ video. The directing duo from Elnino @ 75 won the award for their clip for ‘D.A.N.C.E’ by the French group Justice. As with West’s video, they collaborated with art designers SoMe and the jaw-dropping result can be viewed below.

LINKS:

www.elnino.tv

www.75.tv

www.irene.fr

http://ema.mtv.co.uk/

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.

This week it features films from:

Tim Hamilton, Sil Van Der Woerd, Romain Segaud, Dave Waters, Keidrych Wasley (cinematographer) and Gergely Cziràki

EVERY MONDAY:

Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane

Time: Films START at 19h30

EVERY TUESDAY:

Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street

Time: Films START at 19h00

LINKS:
www.shortandsweet.tv

For more info contact:

ben@shortandsweet.tv

julia@shortandsweet.tv

Meribel entries closed

Entries for the competitions at this year’s Meribel ad festival have now closed. It’ll be the 11^th December and you’ll be drinking cocktails and chucking snowballs at each other in no time…just remember what your mothers told you and watch out for the yellow snow.

LINKS:
http://www.meribel-adfestival.com/

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!