This is a brilliant bit from Toast Of London, with Steven Toast (Matt Berry) in the sound booth. You can tell Berry has done loads of voiceover sessions as this is uncannily true to life. "Have fun with it" is such a lame/brilliant bit of absurd direction, I've heard it used in real VO recordings more than once. And I think we've worked with that Clem Fandango chap...
Showing posts with label Watch this. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Watch this. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 December 2013
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Indoor League
Another blast of nostalgia to brighten up a chilly day. You can keep your Sky Sports Super Sunday nonsense. Televised sports doesn't get any better than Fred Trueman introducing Shove Ha'penny with pipe and pint in hand. You know he's deadly serious when he says it's "the biggest bonanza of sporting skill I've ever clapped eyes on". See for yourself and watch that bonanza of sporting skill right now.
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Guess The Brand
This is funny, I especially like the two ladies at the end trying to guess who the ad is for.
Friday, 8 November 2013
All This Year's Christmas Ads In One Place
Well, all the ones we can find at least. Have a look, compare and contrast. What do they tell us about ourselves, society, commerce, the companies involved, advertising, trousers and/or turkey giblets, I wonder? In no particular order...
Argos
John Lewis
Morrisons
Tesco
DFS
Cadbury
M&S
Boots
TK Maxx
Argos
John Lewis
Morrisons
Tesco
DFS
Cadbury
M&S
Boots
TK Maxx
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
John Webster: The Human Adman
I agree with Steve Harrison's assertion that advertising people would be well served to be more educated about the work of successful people who have preceded them. He makes the argument that no budding director would set out without studying the work of the great directors, no writer would be devoid of knowledge of the great writers and their works. But every day, hundreds of advertising people go about their business knowing next to nothing about the greats of advertising.
I've heard the argument that your influences should come from outside of advertising - this is a favorite assertion of young creatives and so-called 'cool people'. I agree, you should have a wide sphere of influences - the whole of life, art, film, writing, design, technology, clouds, oranges. But that's no excuse to not study the work of people who have already done what you're doing, and done it better than you. Times have changed, but the essence of what makes things great is still the same.
Anyway, here to help in this regard is this film about John Webster. He needs no introduction from me other than to say that if you work in advertising and you don't know who he is, this can be your first step to enlightenment. The film was made by Nick Werber, Tom Baker, David Carr and Martins Millers, creative students at the School of Communication Arts in London in conjunction with Patrick Collister. It does contain a few people saying the odd daft thing to camera, but that's inevitable in any documentary about advertising – it is well, well worth a watch. So thanks to them for making and sharing it.
There's a site supporting the film, with full credits and background here.
I've heard the argument that your influences should come from outside of advertising - this is a favorite assertion of young creatives and so-called 'cool people'. I agree, you should have a wide sphere of influences - the whole of life, art, film, writing, design, technology, clouds, oranges. But that's no excuse to not study the work of people who have already done what you're doing, and done it better than you. Times have changed, but the essence of what makes things great is still the same.
Anyway, here to help in this regard is this film about John Webster. He needs no introduction from me other than to say that if you work in advertising and you don't know who he is, this can be your first step to enlightenment. The film was made by Nick Werber, Tom Baker, David Carr and Martins Millers, creative students at the School of Communication Arts in London in conjunction with Patrick Collister. It does contain a few people saying the odd daft thing to camera, but that's inevitable in any documentary about advertising – it is well, well worth a watch. So thanks to them for making and sharing it.
There's a site supporting the film, with full credits and background here.
Thursday, 17 October 2013
Friday, 11 October 2013
Africa
"Africa" by Toto. As performed by the Crew of the Bourbon Peridot off the coast of West Africa earlier this year. One scene a day shot over 4 weeks.
Any excuse to get Toto's Africa on the blog.
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Ravel's Bolero like you've never seen it before.
This shiny new website for the London Symphony Orchestra is pretty special.
It's an interactive extravaganza that allows the viewer to watch HD footage of the orchestra performing Ravel's Bolero from lots of different angles at the same time. The functionality lets you flick between them, focus on one, view 4 at a time or find out about the orchestra. All harmoniously in sync with the music.
These things are always difficult to get right. Lots of big, bandwidth heavy media, complicated user interfaces, too many features etc. But the guys at Sennep have smashed it out of the park. I can't think of a better multimedia experience I've had online.
It's utterly compelling, even to the classical music layman. Watching Valery Gergiev's intense focus as he masterfully conducts the orchestra is mesmerising.
Oh, and I'd recommend whacking your speakers up to 11 to get the full Bolero hit.
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
New St John Ambulance ad
Powerful stuff from BBH and Dougal Wilson.
Hope it helps saves lots of lives as well as prompting people to remember to take the washing in.
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
London to Brighton Timelapse Train Journeys
I do like a bit of timelapse.
In addition to the unedifying spectacle of the BBC unnecessarily throwing away shitloads of licence fee payers money, they have also been doing stuff like this.
It's a charming, four minute piece that shows the London to Brighton train journey side by side in 1953, 1983 and again in 2013.
It's interesting to see what's changed and what's stayed the same over a period of sixty years.
Given First Capital Connect's notorious unreliability, I'm surprised that 2013 version actually managed to make it to Brighton without any delays.
Via enpundit.com
In addition to the unedifying spectacle of the BBC unnecessarily throwing away shitloads of licence fee payers money, they have also been doing stuff like this.
It's a charming, four minute piece that shows the London to Brighton train journey side by side in 1953, 1983 and again in 2013.
It's interesting to see what's changed and what's stayed the same over a period of sixty years.
Given First Capital Connect's notorious unreliability, I'm surprised that 2013 version actually managed to make it to Brighton without any delays.
Via enpundit.com
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
The G***** F**** Commercial
Remember that infamous Jonathan Glazer Flake ad that gained notoriety a couple of years ago? Well it has resurfaced on Vimeo (thanks to Ben for pointing it out).
It caused a huge stir at the time, as much as anything because it was quite heavy-handedly removed from around the internet.
Bloggers were threatened with legal action if they showed it, and it became quite a talking point.
Looking at it now, it's funny to think how the company got their nickers in such a knot about it.
This is a really good piece of work, a very good commercial.
The kind that defies rational arguments about messages and take-outs, you just know it would the one thing that people remembered from the ad break.
And it's not that controversial is it, really?
All it's really guilty of is not playing within the safe confines of bog-standard chocolate ads.
It got me to thinking about just how safe and confined commercials are.
They play within an area of tone and style that is just one tight area of film and video style.
Think about the vast range of tone and style of movies, art film, video art, documentaries, TV programmes and music promos.
The range is a broad as any art form or medium.
Yet advertising all seems to play within the same safe five percent area.
It's a crying shame, and I can't get my head around the conservatism.
It makes commercial sense.
Any time you break out of that safe area, you immediately give yourself a huge chance of standing out and being noticed.
We did it with the commercial we made for Drambuie last year.
It doesn't fit within the normal parameters of what people expect from a commercial.
As a result, the reactions are amazing.
It hasn't run in England yet, so you may not have seen it in an ad break.
But where it does run, every time it airs, you see loads people react to it, and talk about it.
I'm not going to lie, some people are saying it's weird, or odd, or they don't like it.
But a huge amount seem to be blown away by it. Someone even described it as art.
Now we're not so stupid or vain as to take the praise any more seriously than the criticism.
But it is heartening (and a vindication of our belief about this approach) that it gets noticed and talked about, and remarked upon so much.
And look, we know, it's not even that different, or that weird.
It's just not the same.
This Flake is one of those rarities that sits outside that normal safe area of sameness.
It's great.
We should encourage it.
Clients should embrace it.
The ad business would be a lot better for it.
Our clients would be a lot better off for it.
And audiences would be a lot better off for it.
It caused a huge stir at the time, as much as anything because it was quite heavy-handedly removed from around the internet.
Bloggers were threatened with legal action if they showed it, and it became quite a talking point.
Looking at it now, it's funny to think how the company got their nickers in such a knot about it.
This is a really good piece of work, a very good commercial.
The kind that defies rational arguments about messages and take-outs, you just know it would the one thing that people remembered from the ad break.
And it's not that controversial is it, really?
All it's really guilty of is not playing within the safe confines of bog-standard chocolate ads.
It got me to thinking about just how safe and confined commercials are.
They play within an area of tone and style that is just one tight area of film and video style.
Think about the vast range of tone and style of movies, art film, video art, documentaries, TV programmes and music promos.
The range is a broad as any art form or medium.
Yet advertising all seems to play within the same safe five percent area.
It's a crying shame, and I can't get my head around the conservatism.
It makes commercial sense.
Any time you break out of that safe area, you immediately give yourself a huge chance of standing out and being noticed.
We did it with the commercial we made for Drambuie last year.
It doesn't fit within the normal parameters of what people expect from a commercial.
As a result, the reactions are amazing.
It hasn't run in England yet, so you may not have seen it in an ad break.
But where it does run, every time it airs, you see loads people react to it, and talk about it.
I'm not going to lie, some people are saying it's weird, or odd, or they don't like it.
But a huge amount seem to be blown away by it. Someone even described it as art.
Now we're not so stupid or vain as to take the praise any more seriously than the criticism.
But it is heartening (and a vindication of our belief about this approach) that it gets noticed and talked about, and remarked upon so much.
And look, we know, it's not even that different, or that weird.
It's just not the same.
This Flake is one of those rarities that sits outside that normal safe area of sameness.
It's great.
We should encourage it.
Clients should embrace it.
The ad business would be a lot better for it.
Our clients would be a lot better off for it.
And audiences would be a lot better off for it.
Thursday, 25 July 2013
The Great Gatsby before & after VFX.
...wow.
I'd heard the Great Gatsby film was a work of art but this short film has blown my mind. The amount of work that has gone into pulling off some of those big set piece shots is phenomenal.
I've not seen the film and having watched this I'm kicking myself for not having seen it on the big screen in all it's glory.
If your interested in the technical details the comments section is worth a look.
Thursday, 4 July 2013
Photography on the BEEB.
It's been a good week for photography on the BBC. We've been treated to not one but two good documentaries as part of the Imagine series.
Firstly 'Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny's Pictures?' – The incredible story of a mysterious nanny who died in 2009 leaving behind a secret hoard - thousands of stunning photographs. Never seen in her lifetime, they were found by chance in a Chicago storage locker and auctioned off cheaply.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0366jd5/imagine..._Summer_2013_Vivian_Maier_Who_Took_Nannys_Pictures/
Secondly 'McCullin' – A powerful documentary portrait of legendary British war photographer and photojournalist Don McCullin.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b036j3fp/imagine..._Summer_2013_McCullin/
Beware though, although the photography featured is astounding, each is quite depressing in it's own right.
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