Hasta La Motion!

Réalisation : Alexis Bouyer

Merci au café restaurant Le Meisia (75010) de nous avoir soutenu en nous permettant de tourner notre vidéo chez eux !

https://fr.ulule.com/sabre-laser/

Animation and Music have always walked together to display the creativity and talent of artists and bands using the advancement of technology. Rock bands and their creations like Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight, Tonight (1996), Queens of the Stone Age’s Go with the Flow (2003) while, artist’s creations like Kanye West’s Heartless (2008) have incorporated the use of varied styles of animation to enhance their songs visually by drifting from the usual live action form.

Creep, Pablo Honey, OK Computer, heard any of these? They are all compositions of the English Rock band, Radiohead, which was born in 1985. And, one more album has been added to their list as Radiohead recently released its  new song Burn The Witch on their YouTube channel.

What fascinates us about this creation is that Radiohead took to animation to come back after a five year break after they released their eighth album The King of Limbs in 2011. In fact, Radiohead had even drawn away from all social media on 1 May 2016 as they deleted all content from their website and social media profiles replacing them with blank images.

And suddenly on the dawn of 3 May, 2016, Radiohead released a four minute stop motion claymation animated music video of their new song Burn The Witch. The video opens with a tiny claymation bird who opens up the song by its continuous chirping leading to the intruding music. It is a stop motion horror story described as “Postman Pat meshed with The Wicker Man”.

According to director Chris Hopewell (who also helmed Radiohead’s There There video), the new animated clip “was conceived, designed, built and animated in 14 days”. Creating stop motion animation using clay in just 14 days is a difficult task as it is an arduous process and requires minute detailing. There is lot of back and forth in this style of animation as the whole film is shot by capturing one frame after the other.

The characters in this animated video are neatly created with the use of distinct colours. Every frame has varied elements in the background like flowers, trees, houses and farm that consume time when created with clay. Even movements of various characters have been worked upon as various gestures and actions are well executed.

The video has already garnered over 3 million views on Radiohead’s official YouTube channel and has become viral on social media. And, the reasons for it being viral at a frantic pace are quite justified as firstly it’s Radiohead’s first song after their five year break and moreover stop motion clay animation has added to its appeasement.

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Since its establishment in 2006, Sparky Animation has gone out to become a reputed name in the animation industry today and has produced some remarkable animation content. Known for its quality and on time delivery, Sparky Animation has turned out to be one of the most sought after animation companies in Asia.

Sparky is an animation company that established itself in 2006. Projects that they deal in, come in a wide range of genres, mostly with an International appeal. The company is experienced in handling co-productions/co-investments, work-for-hire and creation of original content.

They have been consistent and competent in delivering good quality work, precisely on time and have a team each in Singapore, Malaysia and recently in India.

Sparky Animation founder and CEO, Kok Cheong Wong (KC Wong), shares a few thoughts about his company with AnimationXpress. He’s the main person who has waded the company through a successful run, for the past ten years to what it is today.

“We have started operations in Chennai, India as of October 2015. We have serious plans to potentially grow the company to a considerable size, for the long haul, but we are more inclined towards the recruitment of dedicated talents who hold real production experience,” says KC Wong about his plans for India. “Besides being a full-fledged animation company, we also have a dedicated gaming department which focuses on game development for some of our properties. The company also plans on imparting some of our management skills, systems and knowledge to the team in India, in order to manage the production pipeline effectively. We aim to inculcate the team with such traits, in hopes of promoting an international appeal to our Indian counterpart.”  

Sparky Animation, founder and CEO, Kok Cheong Wong (KC Wong)

Starting out as a startup, Sparky Animation has so far produced many shows, some that are already being or soon to be aired on the world’s best broadcasters such as PBS (USA), Disney (UK), TVO, NBC and many others. The shows include co-production projects such as Dinosaur Train, outsourced service projects such as Doc McStuffins, Direct-to-DVD features like Veggie Tales: Huckleberry, and even series’ for TV and the Internet namely, Freej Quiz Show: The Book of Riddles.

With these many shows under its hood, the question of how they’ve managed to wade the company from a startup to where it is now, arises.

A humble KC Wong says, “It is a blend of everything. Hard work, detailed analysis of the market, identifying apt resources, capability of acquiring and marketing work, a good financial backing and the constant effort to maintain professionalism. 

There is always a need to strive for the best, but plan for the worst. This is where a solid financial backing comes in play. It is imperative to strike a balance between IP investments and service work. IP investments tend to promote higher returns with service work, although we don’t get to enjoy the back-end profits, they certainly do lighten the load from our daily costs.”

KC Wong believes that there’s a growing potential for animation studios in South East Asia. Over here, there’s the advantage of hiring affordable resources from a decent pool of talents. As far as productivity and creativity are concerned, there are a handful of studios in SEA that are comparable to the likes of players on the international platform.

“The culture and practices in South East Asian countries give them more exposure to interesting epics, myths and ancient manuscripts, which gives us an equal standing in creating interesting concepts.”

Many animation production houses eventually plan to venture into producing a feature film. Sparky Animation too has business plans for that, however “it will take time, as we need to carry out meticulous planning in terms of an artistically aesthetic appeal and a viable business proposition, for the theatrical feature, especially since it will be our first venture.”

KC Wong further elaborates and goes on to mention that for an animator to lead a successful career in this field, he/she should know their job well. More specifically, animators should be proficient in the software they work on and should be able to address issues and glitches easily. Of course, it comes with experience, but the constant urge to acquire knowledge will help them get there faster.

Creativity and observation are a couple of other important factors. He further adds that any good animator should know how to strike a balance between artistic demands and business practicality. The artist needs to be conscious in terms of genuinely believing the rationale behind what needs to be pushed, and what needs to be held back, based on the show’s requirements and not on the artist’s personal preferences.

The animation field, by itself is a stressful field, with enormous work to be churned out in close deadlines, which can hamper creativity to a certain extent. “There is no work without stress. However, at Sparky we look to identify and recruit only those who are extremely passionate towards the field,” adds KC Wong. “When you work based on passion, your craft would simply be enjoyable. The more you enjoy your work, the less stressful you feel.

In addition, as long as the artists have a strong support system from the company (from the executives, management and production teams), stability and the knowledge that their job is secured, it’ll definitely boost their confidence and this will transform their stress into a positive energy instead.”

Where there is a positive approach, there is always an opportunity for success and with that lesson for the budding entrepreneurs, KC Wong wishes luck to the artists and we hope he achieves greater heights with his new studio in India.

The post When you work based on passion, your craft would simply be enjoyable: Sparky Animation, CEO, Kok Cheong Wong appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Knorr, the US-German food brand, is attracting viral attention with “Love At First Taste”, a filmed experiment in which strangers matched only by flavour meet for a surprisingly intimate first date. To make the dates even more intense, when the contestants meet for dinner they are told that they can only eat by feeding each other. The resulting interactions were filmed by director Tatia Pilieva and cinematographer Andre Lascaris, the team behind Wren’s viral sensation ‘First Kiss’ and Showtime promo “Undress Me“. Behind the Knorr Love at First Taste film is the online Knorr Flavour Quiz, providing profiles for deep sea dreamer, earthy idealist, gracious grazer, meaty warrior, melty indulger, mustard maverick, roasted romantic, salty adventurer, spicy rebel, sweet seeker, or tangy dynamo.

Knorr Love at First Taste Thinking

Age, sex, location… flavour? New research from Knorr reveals flavour compatibility is one of the most important factors when it comes to finding lasting love. Flavour is at the heart of everything Knorr does, and the brand is passionate about inspiring a new generation of millennial foodies, weaned on pop-up restaurants, supper clubs, superstar chefs and bloggers-turned-cookery-writers. How? By creating new compelling, shareable content that is rooted in people’s personal experiences of flavour and food.

To inform the campaign, Knorr asked 12,000 people in 12 countries what flavour means to them, to get a genuine understanding of the crucial role it plays in everyday life. One of the key findings of Knorr’s research was that three in four people (over 78% in fact) are more likely to be attracted to someone who enjoys the same flavours. To test this theory, Knorr conducted a social experiment with a twist – pairing complete strangers on a surprisingly intimate first date. The couples were matched only by their love of the same flavours, discovered using the Knorr Flavour Profiler, to see if a shared passion for certain flavours would create chemistry between the couples.

This campaign is part of a wider drive to develop a more contemporary approach to communicate with Knorr’s consumers and sees the launch of a new brand evolution for Unilever’s largest brand. Knorr aims to grow the brand by targeting this new generation of food-obsessives who see social media as the place to share recipes, pick up tips from bloggers and vloggers, upload ‘#foodporn’ dishes onto Instagram and share their foodie discoveries.

Ukonwa Ojo, Senior Global Director for Knorr, says: “Knorr is taking a lead in this exciting moment, where food culture really has become pop culture, where chefs are the new celebrities and foodie bloggers can pull in millions of followers. Flavour is at the heart of everything we do at Knorr and we are delighted we share our passion with so many around the world. Our provocation to consider flavour in the quest to connect with others is a fun way to put its importance to the ultimate test.”

Knorr Love at First Taste Credits

The Knorr Love at First Taste campaign was developed at MullenLowe US, Los Angeles, by chief creative officer Mark Wenneker, executive creative director Margaret Keene, global creative director Tom Hudson, senior art director Bryan Carroll, senior copywriter Aroon Mukhey, managing partner and strategy Rebecca Morgan, global business director Richard Ellis, global account manager Izzy Falcon, agency producer Nicholas Kurs, production assistant Camille Hanish-Oakes and strategist Jenny Barthe.

Media was handled at PHD and Mindshare. PR was handled at Edelman.

Filming was shot by director Tatia Pilieva via Pulse Films with director of photography Andre Lascaris, executive producer Casey Engelhardt, producer Neil Andrews, production designer Mark Connell, casting director Charnel Cochrane, editor Garret Price.

Post production was done at Framestore by colourist Beau Leon, producer Laura Penta, production assistant Megan De Wolf, Flame artists Tim Osborne and Steph Mills.

Audio post-production was by Nathan Dubin at Margarita Mix. Music was by Joel P West.