Director/animator Jeff Le Bars has an impeccable eye for composition and color, as his Emile Cohl 2012 graduation film “Carn” proves.
But the real magic of “Carn” is its story — an aspect of filmmaking most young directors struggle with. Built on a simple, fable-like structure, “Carn” ticks along with satisfying, grim precision until its fateful conclusion. The pacing, like the layout, is spare and artful, brimming with tension achieved through subtraction, not addition.
The music and sound design from Spectral Approche beautifully underscore the film’s emotional power.
Paris based designer Curtis Baigent has re-imagined the sandscapes and dusty cliches surrounding archeology for this new opening title sequence for the France 5 programme “Archéologie”.
Time and again I have been moved by the sense of solidarity that comes across from various discussions on Motionographer about protecting the rights of designers and artists (i.e., How do we look out for one another?). This is why when I came across this piece, I simply had to share it with you. It is gorgeously arresting in its simplicity, and informative. It’s been a while since I saw typographical-pictorial animation handled so well. So, enjoy!
According to Pierre, “The ADAGP is the French collective rights management society in the field of the visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography, multimedia, etc.). It represents almost 80,000 artists. They asked for a film that explains what the resale right is.”
Directed by Pierre-Emannuel Lyet, and made at French animation studio doncvoila.
Full credit list can be found on the Vimeo page.
We thought you might like to check out the latest stunning animated spot for Areva through Euro RSCG C&O. Directed by H5 through Addict Films, this jaw-dropping visual treat takes you on a whistle-stop tour of the evolving history of energy production with typical H5 flair.
Visit the Areva site for the video in context.
Credits and making-of video after the jump…
Making Of Featurette
Advertiser: AREVA
Agency: Euro RSCG C&O
Advertiser Managers: Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier, Vincent Allemand, Paul Macheret, Marie- Raphaelle Robinne, Nathalie Métivier, Elsa Renault
Agency Managers: Laurent Habib, Agathe Bousquet, Lucie Fayard, Juliette d’Arcangues
Executive Creative Director: Jérôme Galinha
Copywriter film: Georges Picaut
Art Director film: Stephane Franck
TV Producer: Virginie Meldener
Copywriter print : Sylvain Louradour
Agency Producer: Christine Meneux
Director: H5
Production Compagny : (ADDICT) Stéphane Kooshmanian, Delphine Rodet
Post-Production Compagny: BUF
Sound Production: Rémy Péronne (La Maison de Production)
My first introduction to French duo Gangpol & Mit (Guillaume Castagne and Sylvain Quément) was through their music. It wasn’t until recently that I learned they are as involved in the creation of animation as they are in concocting their unique blend of electronica.
Their latest DVD, Faits Divers (Pictoplasma Publishing), is a collection of 18 audio-visual offspring from Gangpol & Mit’s collaborative relationship. According to Pictoplasma, “Guillaume emails some graphics to Sylvain, who then composes a melody and sends it back – or Sylvain coughs up a tune and has Guillaume translate it into animated worlds.”
The introductory essay for Faits Divers from Peter Thaler and Lars Denicke builds an interesting context for the DVD, albeit in the affected language of an art exhibition. The thrust is this: “Eat technology before technology eats you.” This cultural wariness underscores much of the DVD’s contents: Gangpol & Mit are clearly in command of the technology they use to create their audio-visual works, and yet they seem to hold it at arm’s length, choosing to exercise only a certain level of sophistication, never more. in this, they remind of the Amish, who have decided that wheelbarrows and ovens are acceptable technologies, while everything else is regarded with suspicion.
As with all of Gangpol & Mit’s music, the soundtrack is a precise melange of meticulously crafted electronic hooks that mixes a staggering array of retro-flavored synths with Baroque fugues and campy musical devices. Melodies run and jump like Super Mario himself, and warm analogue pads wrap around your head with nostalgic charm.
The visuals, while equally controlled, are comprised of rudimentary vector shapes and gradients, animated in simple, mostly linear movements. If 8-bit Nintendo characters could reproduce and evolve, they might have grown into something like the cast of Faits Divers. In terms of its intentionally sophomoric execution and its left-field content, the animation reminds me of cut-scenes from the Katamari Damacy franchise. Colorful, simple and weird.
Gangpol & Mit juxtapose cultural ephemera like well-traveled DJs, mashing up new and old, familiar and obscure, high and low. Aztec warriors hurl cell phones at each other in a video game brawl, a James Bond-esque hero ingests a psychoactive plant, and a man riding a flying armchair considers cutting off his own arm to rid himself of an evil hand-puppet. Every moment of seemingly cheery sentiment is undercut by a quiet violence, a disturbance of some sort.
The contents of the DVD are grouped into loose categories: Clips/Stories, Activities, Art with Heart and Archives. Clips/Stories are loosely narrative sequences focusing on the misadventures of a motley cast of characters. Activities are stand-alone vignettes that often combine spoken word and music. Art with Heart is a series of three “interviews” with fictional artist characters, each of whom suffers from a unique form of narcissism. Archives contains three animations from the back-catalog of Gangpol & Mit: “Chinese Slavery,” “A Few Elements of Vocabulary” and “How to Play Ping-Pong.”
The accompanying 32-page booklet is handsomely produced and re-presents some of the DVD’s films as sequential art, complete with typographic annotations that shed a little light on the sometimes elusive narratives.
My only complaint: I wish the audio was available separately, either as an optional download or on a separate disc. While I appreciate the visuals, I want to listen to Gangpol & Mit so I can create my own stories to accompany their delightfully twisted tunes.
Note: Faits Divers is a PAL DVD. For more information and to purchase, visit Pictoplasma.
I’m very pleased to announce that two news films have been added to the Challenge Your World 20/20 project.
What’s Challenge Your World 20/20?
Each year, 20 video artists create 20 wild, whimsical, and unconventional machines that solve environmental issues. These videos reject the status quo, explore crazy ideas, and blast beyond boundaries.
The latest two additions, “Potato” and “Want|Need” come to us from Paris’ Moustache and Trango Interactive in Pakistan. Check them out on the Challenge Your World page or visit the Challenge Your World website for more information and to learn how you can get involved.
2nd-year Gobelins students created five jaw-dropping shorts to introduce each day of screenings at this year’s Annecy festival. All of the films except Jelly Sunday are presented in the YouTube montage above. You can check out each film individually here:
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A. during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
