NewsReel 06/06/08

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

Tangerine dream fulfilled


Tangerine, Melbourne's very own monthly short film festival launched on Tuesday 3rd June with work from the likes of Sean Kruck, Kasimir Burgees, Romain Gavras and Dougal Wilson on show. The ever glamorous organiser Colette Crespin was joined on the night by a host of names from Melbourne's adland including representatives from Publicis Mojo, Leo Burnett and Campaign Palace. The night will be at the Local Taphouse, 184 Carlisle St, East St Kilda on the first Tuesday of every month at 6.30pm from now on and entry is FREE. Anyone that goes along should give a bit fat sloppy kiss from the Reel team to Colette - the one in the fetching grey number below.


Goodbye HKM & Rock Fight; hello Hello & Co.

The two veteran US production companies HKM and Rock Fight have merged to create Hello & Co. Boasting an intimate roster of eight directors - happily derived from four talents from each company - the companies have been partners since 2003 but they feel now is the right time to form one solid entity. Ned Brown, Executive Producer of the new company said of the merger, 'By bringing the two companies together we are putting ourselves in the best possible position to be more powerful and grow in the future.' Fellow EP Carl Swan echoed Brown's statement, saying, 'We wanted to put directors together that we felt complimented each other and would resonate with the ad community as a whole.' The new roster consists of: Pep Bosch, Mark Gilbert, David Horowitz, Jacobsbriere, Michael Patrick Jann, Michael Karbelnikoff, Walter Kehr, and Matt Smukler. For more information and to view the director's reels go to:

http://www.helloandcompany.com/directors/

Onedotzero

onedotzero international festivals have visited over 120 cities in over 40 countries worldwide, reaching a huge and burgeoning digital arts audience, providing a high profile platform for creative talents to gain global recognition for their work, and also a framework to explore the rich sub-culture that surrounds and complements the audio-visual industry and arts scene.

The visual pioneers and beneficiaries of a Reel special feature along with MTV Bloom in the March issue are now extending an international call for submissions to receive visually progressive moving image work for their 2008/09 global touring festival.

onedotzero’s open submissions scheme is one of the few that remains free to enter, enabling the best up-and-coming talent from around the globe to be presented alongside world-leading creative luminaries.

This year’s theme is 'citystates' which will be sure to provide an in-depth exploration of city life, insights and culture. Shane Walter, CEO and Creative Director at onedotzero explained the reasoning behind the chosen theme, ‘More people than ever before are living in cities bringing with it a greater socio-cultural mix, sense of movement and transition than previously experienced. Now more than ever it is important to understand and interact with the broad spectrum of what the city offers us - how we inhabit it, how we engage with its cultural make up, and how we view and influence its future.’

Go to http://www.onedotzero.com/submissions.php to find out more.

Nice fringe
The Cannes Fringe team are out again in force in Cannes. They will have camera teams giving exclusive interviews and access to all the main parties and events around the Cannes Lions 2008 festival. Daily films from Cannes during the whole festival week will be on the website.

Get onto the Fringe and join the creative network: www.cannesfringe.com

Red Bee glee
Red Bee Media scooped two awards at the recent Broadcast Digital Channel Awards for their relaunch of UKTV G2 as Dave 'the home of witty banter'. They were victorious in both the Launch of the Year and Best Channel Marketing categories, with one judge saying, 'a lesson in innovative, original and fresh channel branding. We are all humbled.'

Bugged Out...

We're keen on promos at The Reel.

Really keen.

We would like to move in with them and have their kids.

The promo (unlike the rocky world of the music business itself) is still a healthy thoroughbred in the creative world.

They inspire Directors to really flex their creative muscle whilst stretching the boundaries of what can be achieved on a hugely limited budget. Music promos often reflect the political and economic climates from when they were made, and are a constant source of controversy. In addition they are a true goldmine of simple, brilliant and well executed ideas (especially for lazy ad creatives who aren’t afraid to shamelessly plagiarise).

In the UK, there is one event that celebrates the brilliance and toasts to the art of the promo: BUG.

Ran by David Knight, Phil Tidy, Chris Blakeston and Louise Stevens, BUG has now reached its seventh successive event, and doesn’t look like slowing down. We were lucky enough to attend the 7th ‘Directors Cut’ edition which had the added bonus of being presented by promo legend Dougal Wilson.

For a sold out event BUG is a rather laid back affair, with the directors often being invited to have their say and give a Parkinson style interview in front of the packed audience (a mixture of industry types, students and BFI regulars) who are not afraid to show their appreciation of the work on show. This forum style atmosphere was a refreshing change from the staid ‘awards ceremony’ event approach that creatives and ad-landers are used to. BUG seemed more of a community that was ready to cheer each other on to create, rather than analyse and criticize, and, most importantly, didn’t take itself too seriously, giving it an air of a true directors forum where everyone is, well, excited!

With some fabulous pieces old and new, BUG exhibited the uncanny ability to dig the crates for classics whilst juxtaposing them with great new works. Kicking off with Stephen R Johnson's (of Aardman fame) 80's classic ‘Sledgehammer’ for Peter Gabriel, the bar had been set high, and we're happy to report, was maintained throughout. With some brilliant down to earth interviews (and bizarrely enough, telephone interviews) conducted by the infectious Dougal Wilson littered around the programme, BUG really was a rare pleasure. Finishing with the awesome Brighton Port Authority video ‘Toe Jam’ from Director Keith Schofield (an exclusive showing at that) The Reel has permanently jammed BUG into our event calendar…

We think you should too!

For more info check http://www.bugvideos.co.uk/

NewsReel 30/05/08

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

Comedy Smalls
Time Out Comedy winner and Edinburgh Fringe favourite Stephen K Amos has been announced as part of the judging panel for this year’s Comedy Smalls short film entries. Amos will also host the awards show at the Truman Brewery in June. Long-standing partner Paramount Comedy has been joined by Comedy Central in supporting the event. The full list of judges for this year’s transatlantic talent search is:

Stephen K Amos – Comedian
Kathleen Hutchison – Head Of New Comedy, Paramount Comedy
Chris Hancox – VP Marketing and Creative Services, Paramount Comedy
JoAnn Grigioni – Director Talent, Comedy Central
Christina Lee – Coordinator Development, Comedy Central
Andrew Pulver – Film Editor, The Guardian
Eliza Williams – Writer, Creative Review
Andi Granger – Creative Director, Sky One
Richard Holman – Creative Director, devilfish

This year’s theme is WORK and anyone can enter by submitting a short film of up to 5 minutes at www.thesmalls.com. The deadline has been extended to 6th June, so you had better get a move on. All short-listed films will be screened on Paramount Comedy, the station that helped launch such comedy talent as Sacha Baron Cohen, Simon Pegg and Matt Lucas.

A new sibling for the Brothers and Sisters
Agency Brothers and Sisters have cemented their place as a fully integrated outfit with the appointment of former IPC Digital Development Director and Head of Virgin Media TV, Kevin Brown.

As Digital Director of the fledgling agency , Brown will work with Creative Directors Andy Fowler and Steve Shannon to enhance their digital and interactive credentials, which include last month’s Big Bill McGill campaign for Paramount’s Two & A Half Men, a venture which produced record viewing figures for the channel.

Doritos ads done by doers
The five finalists for Doritos ‘You make it, we play it’ have been revealed and can be viewed and voted for here. The standard of work vying for the £20, 000 top prize and the chance to have their ad aired on national TV is high but our personal favourite has to be the stop-motion ceremonial sacrifice of the ad below.

Plum viewing for babies

Work Club, the new agency from the founders of Agency Republic and former Mother Creative Director Ben Mooge, has launched a series of online short films for the premium baby food brand Plum. The films are aimed at parents with babies in the 10 to 18-month range and include such baby friendly scenes as animals filmed against bright backgrounds, musical sequences of lights and balloons and a natural peek-a-boo.

However, the most striking aspect of the films is the music specially composed by BAFTA-winning composer Laura Forrest-Hay, there’s much banjo, violin, trumpet and glockenspiel playing and we’re sure even the grumpiest baby will be made chirpy by the joyous sounds. Susie Willis, mother of three and founder of Plum Baby, said of the idea behind the 3 x seven-minute films, ‘Great taste for me is about discovery, trying things you have never tried before and developing and exciting the senses. These feel-good films hopefully do just that – and give mums a special relaxing experience with their baby.’



To make the experience as beneficial for parents and babies as possible, the process of creating the films was supervised by Baby Psychologist Dr Pat Spungin, who was very positive about the innovation of Plum Vision, saying, ‘It is so important for mums to have relaxing, quality time with their babies. Plum Vision offers a wonderful experience of the sights and sounds of nature in your very own home. It is so refreshing to see something for babies, which just uses natural images, as opposed to cartoons and computer graphics.’


The whole idea of 'relaxation' means that the films are best viewed on a wireless laptop in a comfortable environment for parent and baby, but either way, the overall effect marks a new beginning for branded content as the brand increasingly enters the periphery and the target audience becomes more widespread and varied, moving away from the previous media savvy demographic.

The films are accompanied on the Plum Vision site with tips for mums and dads on how to interact with their babies while watching the films together, parents can also comment on the films and share favourite chapters with other users. Take a look at www.plum-vision.co.uk.

NewsReel 23.05.08

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

D&ADs
Last Thursday saw 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks' enigmatic host Simon Anstell present this year's D&ADs at the Royal Festival Hall in London. From 25, 000 pieces entered, 143 were nominated, but only 64 were left with a new shiny yellow ornament for the mantelpiece/paperweight for the desk and even fewer, six, took home a much coveted black pencil. Out of the many categories, all of which can be viewed here, there are two big ones that mostly concern us - subscribers can view the ads and see full credits by clicking this link.

There were only two Pencil winners in the TV & Cinema Advertising category. We are especially pleased that Skittles 'Touch', one of The Reel's favourite ads from last year, was given a Yellow Pencil, but only Cadbury's 'Gorilla' sauntered off with a rare Black Pencil - his week completed, getting a mention by a grateful Phil Collins as he collected his Ivor Novello last night, 'I can't go without thanking the gorilla.'

Yellow
Title: Touch
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day New York
Brand: Skittles

Black
Title: Gorilla
Agency: Fallon London
Brand: Cadbury's

There were multiple pencils of the yellow variety for three notable ads in the sub-categories of TV & Cinema Crafts: Brylcreem's 'Effortless' won in Production Design and Practical Special Effects; Vodafone's 'Time Theft' was awarded for Direction and Editing, and the often maligned Sony 'Play-Doh' was victorious in Direction and Animation & Visual Effects.

Production Design

Title: Effortless
Agency: WCRS
Brand: Brylcreem

Direction

Title: Dangerous Liaisons
Agency: Rattling Stick
Brand: Levi's

Title: Play-Doh
Agency: Gorgeous
Brand: SONY

Title: Time Theft
Agency: Academy FIlms
Brand: Vodafone

Editing

Title: Dangerous Liaison
Agency: Work
Brand: Levi's�

Title: Time Theft
Agency: BBH
Brand: Vodafone

Sound Design

Title: Interview
Agency: Dab Hand Media
Brand: Tide

Title: Gorilla
Agency: Fallon London
Brand: Cadbury's

Title: Music Pieces
Agency: Soundtree Music
Brand: SONY

Practical Special Effects

Title: Belonging
Agency: Fallon London
Brand: Orange

Title: Cake
Agency: Fallon London
Brand: Skoda

Title: Effortless
Agency: WCRS
Brand: Sara Lee

Animation & Visual Effects

Title: Play-Doh
Agency: Passion Pictures
Brand: SONY

Title: Wave
Agency: CHI & Partners
Brand: Big Yellow Storage Company

Golden Drums

Eastern Europe's première advertising festival will be taking place for the 15th time from 5th to the 10th October this year in Portoroz, Slovenia. The juries have been announced and are listed in full below:

TV, Press, Outdoor and Radio Jury

Bob Moore, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis USA – President
Jon Granström, Creative Director and Co-owner, Bob Helsinki, Finland
Andrey Iliassov, Group Creative Director, BBDO Moscow, Russia
Yaniv Melinarsky, Creative Director, McCann Erickson, Israel
Daniel Růžička, Chief Creative Director, Young & Rubicam Prague, Czech Republic
Suna Tancig, Creative Director, Original, Slovenia
Victor Tognola, President and Director, Frama Film International, Switzerland
Iwo Zaniewski, Co-founder and Creative Director, PZL, Poland
Alexander Zelmanovics, Chief Creative Officer, Lowe GGK Vienna, Austria

Advertising Campaigns Jury

Per Pedersen, Creative Director, Uncle Grey Denmark – President
Braňo Bezák, Creative Team Leader, Istropolitana D'Arcy, Slovakia
Ralf Langwost, Founder and CEO of IdeaManagement Worldwide, Deutschland
Franco Moretti, President of ADC*E and Group Chief Creative Director, Leo Burnett, Italy
Robin Weeks, Regional Creative Director, Ogilvy Group CEE, Poland

Media Awards Jury

Christophe Cauvy, Regional Digital Director, EMEA McCann WorldGroup, UK – President
Srđan Gulić, Creative Director, Lowe Digitel, Croatia
Lajos Horváth, Creative Director, Laboratory Ideas, Hungary
Anna Lubowska, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mediaedge:cia CEE, Poland
Emil Zakhariev, Creative Director, New Moment New Ideas Sofia, Bulgaria

Interactive Jury
Serge Fenenko, Managing Director, Novocortex, Netherlands – President
Tugbay Bilbay, Creative Director, Grey Worldwide, Istanbul, Turkey
Dieter Weidhofer, Creative Director and Chief Creative Officer, DRAFTFCBi, Austria

TV & Film Promo Jury
Steve Davies, Chief Executive, Advertising Producers Association, UK - President
Anthony Guedes, Executive Producer, Film Factory, Austria
Josef Prouza, Creative Director, Sazka, Czech Republic
Miša Molk, Executive Project Manager, TV Slovenia, Slovenia

Design & Art Direction and Portoroz Piran Advertising Award Jury
Kurt Georg Dieckert, Chief Creative Officer and Member of the Management Board, TBWA, Germany – President
Marius Kasperavičius, Creative Director, designHotel, Lithuania
Marko Vičič, Partner and Chief Creative Director, Futura DDB, Slovenia

It has also been announced that McCann, Publicis, Grey and TBWA will present their thoughts and insights into key topics on the Golden Drum stage. The Publicis seminar entitled 'Is there life after death?' will discuss the changing face of advertising and the supposed death of mass media, and will include a debate among our sister magazine Contagious' Editor Paul Kemp Robertson, Richard Pinder (Chief Operating Officer of Publicis Worldwide), Bob Moore (Chief Creative Officer, Publicis USA), and Paul Marsden, Ph.D. (Freelance Market Researcher). The round table will be moderated by Carter Murray.

The Reel Opinion: Damon Collins

This week marks the beginning of a new addition to our newsletter, as we hand over our precious Features section to a special Guest Editor. Every month a representative from the great and the greater of adland will offer an expert and personal view on five of the most noteworthy new ads from The Reel. For the launch, we're delighted to bring you the knowledge and insight of RKCR/Y&R Executive Creative Director Damon Collins and five ads that we think are certainly worth talking about. Enjoy.

Damon Collins
Executive Creative Director RKCR/Y&R

Cadbury 'Trucks'

Agency: Fallon, London

Production: Blink, London

Director: Juan Cabral

Nine months ago a bloke in a gorilla suit enthralled millions by drumming to the Phil Collins classic ‘In The Air Tonight’. In a similar way to sneezing pandas and hand-holding otters, its random silliness and unfussy production values appealed to the area of the brain known as ‘The Youtube Cortex’.

So successful was that percussive primate that, for the sequel, the client has signed a very large cheque in the hopes of an even higher return on investment. Where last time Cadbury’s relied on a drum kit and a furry suit, they’ve now invested in an airport, chrome laden vehicles, stunt men, camera cranes, rolling rigs and helicopter shots, all filmed at magic hour. They’ve spent a lot of money, and you can see where it’s gone.

Cadbury’s strategy, and an excellent one at that, is to have the brand’s communications give the consumer the same endorphin-like rush they get when they eat the product itself. But despite such lavish production design and cinematography, simply seeing some trucks drive along an airstrip just isn’t that engaging and there’s therefore nothing in it which could truly lift ones spirits in the way nibbling a chunk of the brown stuff might. If the trucks at least span around, raced each other or otherwise seemed to be anthropomorphically ‘enjoying themselves’ it might have done the trick. But it feels that, along the process, with so many nice production toys to play with, a little objectivity may have been lost and therefore, perhaps, the idea.

Audi 'Gymnasts'

Agency: BBH, London

Production: Pretty Bird, Los Angeles

Director: Paul Hunter

Page one of the ‘How to do a cool car ad manual’ states that ‘for maximum awards it is vital to spend as few frames as possible showing the car in its entirety’.

Heeding this advice, in recent years, agencies have given us various automotive ads that feature only the cars’ individual parts. We’ve seen bits of cars played like instruments by an orchestra, arranged by artists to form a dynamic work of art and even baked by chefs. Now Audi have hired an entire troupe of gymnasts to play the part of car parts. Working to the endline ‘Performance from every part’, they join together to take the form of everything from headlights to clutch plates with spectacular effect. It’s beautifully lit and expertly choreographed with some amazing sound design. Whilst not quite up there with ‘Cog’ or ‘Cake’ it’s nonetheless a cool bit of film and with only about 50 frames of actual metal in sight, the jurors would be churlish not to chuck some awards its way.

Sony 'Foam'

Agency: Fallon, London

Production: HLA, London

Director: Simon Ratigan

Fallon seemed to have cornered the market when it comes to creating commercials that are actually more like the historical recording of an amazing event. First they hurled balls down a San Francisco street. Then they shot paint over a Glasgow council estate. Now they’re releasing bubbles in downtown Miami.

This, like the rest of the Sony campaign, is a lovingly crafted and epic piece of film. It depicts a massive wave of foam being unleashed on unsuspecting passers-by and their resulting amazement, laughter, confusion, awe and enjoyment. The ad is for Sony’s range of digital cameras and is summed up by the line ‘Images. Like no other.’ I don’t think anyone would argue that Fallon is yet to produce a Sony ad that isn’t stuffed with amazing, often previously unseen images. So I struggle a little to work out why they’ve decided that these specific images are more pertinent to selling cameras than any others. Admittedly there are some great shots here but nothing quite as worthy of catching on ‘film’ as those in ‘Balls’ or ‘Paint’.

Carlton Draught 'Skytroop'

Agency: Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne

Production: Plaza Films, Sydney

Director: Paul Middleditch

In the Carlton Draught blockbuster a bit of football half-time entertainment goes wrong.

Synchronised skydivers pour from a large metal pod, shaped like of a glass of beer. The skydivers hook up to create the shape of a horse and the word ‘wow’. The pod then falls to the ground wreaking havoc.

Someone’s obviously spent some money here - on special effects if nothing else. In fact all that was going through my head during its 120 seconds was ‘how much did this cost?’ What went through my head after it finished was ‘I wonder if anyone will find it funny?’

I like watching cars and buildings getting smashed up as much as the next man, but does it ad up to anything that would cause me to want to drink lager? In the words of the old guy who gets his house knackered at the end: ‘It wouldn’t make me buy it’.

New York Pizza Company 'NY Pizza'

Agency: Selmore BV, Amsterdam

Production: Comrad.nl, Amsterdam

Director: Willem Gerritsen

The New York Pizza film is a homage to the American gangster movie. In a scene worthy of Scorsese, we open on a warehouse in which a mob boss stands menacingly over a guy squirming in a pool of ‘blood’ on the floor. He explains to the man how ‘disappointed’ he is in him, then proceeds to smash the place up, taking his anger out on various glass jars sitting on shelves. The denouement being that the ‘mob boss’ is actually the pizza company’s procurement director and is not particularly happy with his tomato sauce supplier.

It’s a funny idea, nicely acted and shot. And the strategy’s sound: we take great care in the sourcing (no pun intended) of our ingredients and are ruthlessly fussy about quality.

However, it’s always dangerous relying on swearing for enjoyment and engagement. VW’s use of ‘bollocks’ worked beautifully. Its logic was impeccable and there was a certain element of surprise to witnessing a sweet little girl saying the word repeatedly.

Equally, in the cinema commercial for jewellers The Great Frog a few years ago the endline ‘If you don’t like it, fuck off’ always got a laugh.

Unfortunately, here, referring to the pizza as ‘Damn fucking tasty’ may not be enough to get it talked about or forwarded on.

We'd love to know whether you agree, disagree or even if you are completely indifferent to Damon's thoughts on this month's selection of ads. Please use the comments function on the page and/or email us at editor@thereel.net to share your views.

For full credits for any of the ads featured here log in to the website. If you are not a subscriber then click here to find out more.

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