Hasta La Motion!

Verizon literally goes to war with its touch-screen competitors in this new spot for Droid. Brought to you by “author of epicness,” Rupert Sanders and VFX heavy-hitters, Asylum; this piece is a call-to-arms more than it is a commercial. Sure, we expected something like this with Rupert’s recent work for ODST. However, this treatment is unexpectedly refreshing for a phone.

I’m personally glad to see a brand whose image counters to the safety, lightness and warmth of some of our other recent hand-held devices. Congrats to mcgarrybowen for being bold enough to take a little risk with this launch in a time where everything is so safe.

Agency: mcgarrybowen, New York
Executive Creative Director: Mark Koelfgen
Executive Creative Director: Warren Eakins
Copywriter: Tiffany Smith
Art Director: Michael Cannova
Head of Broadcast Production: Rosanne Horn

Production Company: MJZ, Los Angeles
Director: Rupert Sanders
Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Director of Photography: Alwin Kuchler
Line Producer: Laurie Boccaccio

Editorial Company: Spot Welders
Editor: Neil Smith

Visual Effects: Asylum
Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
Visual Effects Supervisor: Robert Moggach

Music: Q Department
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich

Sound Design Company: Trinitite Studios
Mix: Lime
Mixer: Loren Silber

Posted on Motionographer

Hailing from the land of the rising sun, this quirky independent short film is about the confession of Fumiko. It’s a simple plot but, extremely well executed and will be sure to raise a smile. I’m not entirely sure on what the girl says at the end, but if you are able to understand Japanese then we’d be super grateful for the translation.
The dialog at the beggining and at the end is the same. The girl asks “Would you like to go out with me ?” The boy answers “Sorry, I have to focus on baseball training …”

For more information and staff translation check out Catsuka.

Be sure to check out their amazing Making of to see all the storyboards, character development and research.

Credits:
Animation / Artwork / CG / Audio: Hiroyasu Ishida
Artwork / CG textures: Yuko Iwase, Kazuhiro Murakami
Anim: Tatsuro Kawano
CG Modeling: Yusaku Nagata

Posted on Motionographer

The Father is a new short film by Sticky Monster Lab, a collective of three artists from Seoul, South Korea. Presented in a split-screen format as if it is the pages of a book, it simultaneously tells the story of a father and son growing up and getting older, struggling with the pressure to succeed. The Father project also takes the shape of an actual book, poster, and vinyl figures of the main characters. Sticky Monster’s ongoing characters, The Monsters, also populate more of their work – including an epic sci-fi short The Monsters and The Runners for a little shoe company from Oregon.

Posted on Motionographer

Watching Un tour de Manège (Merry Go Round) is like flipping through the pastel drawings of a child—but coming away with clean fingers. Directed by Nicolas Anthanè, Brice Chevillard, Alexis Liddell, Francoise Losito, and Mai Nguyen, this latest Gobelins short is an impressionistic tale of being lost and found, as experienced through a child’s eyes.

Saying so much by doing so little, Un tour de Manège gets it right. It’s tactile: full of tonal and shading effects, chalky, and sprinkled in baby-powder. It’s innocent: tapping into the existential dramas of childhood, and like many works from the Gobelins school, crystallizing emotions like fear and loneliness in graphical simplicity. These moments are brief, but define a coming of age for the character, and help to humanize the inherent flaw by providing an escape from reality. Liberation by imagination.

The narrative is simple, buttressed by the fundamentals of good storytelling, and follows the same three-act structure documented at the turn of the 19th century. Much is left unexplained. The audience is left to fill in the blanks, without papering over the poetic nuance.

Posted on Motionographer

Updated with Credits List and Info from Press Release

Amautalab, who brought you ‘Tokyo Now’ and ‘Fernet 1882′, has teamed up with Flamboyant Paradise to bring you this series of fun promos for MTV Nitro Circus: ‘Mountain’, ‘Snow’, ‘Desert’, ‘Canyon’, and ‘Lake.

Nitro Circus is produced by the creators of ‘Jackass’, and features daring stunts performed by Travis Pastrana. According to the Amautalab, the plasticine material was a perfect match to reflect the resilient nature of stunt performers: ‘even while suffering these kinds of painful blows, he gets up and continues as if nothing had happened‘.

Beautiful and darkly humorous, they’re the perfect treat for your mid-week slump. They make me want to run out there and buy a dirt bike, helmet and life insurance against everything under the sun (and sea)!

Also check out the rest of their work here, especially the range of their quirky love-projects (under ‘Broadcast Independent’ category). However, be warned, the first three are NSFW.

Campaign: Nitro Circus

Client: MTV Networks

Product: Nitro Circus

VP Creative: Sean Saylor

Creative Director: Juan Frontini

Copywriter: Nico Sommer

Art Director: Nacho Gil

Manager WDS: Josefina Marfil

Producer: Delfina Chiesa

Director: Martin Jalfen y Javier Lourenço

Production Companies: Amautalab y Flamboyant Paradise

Stop Motion Animation: Pablo Turcatti

Art Direction: Gabo Gesualdi (Amautalab)

Director of Photography: Juan Maglione

Executive Producers: Guido Rutenberg, Antonio Vallarta

Post Production: Pablo Izaguirre (Flamboyant Paradise)

Audio: Noroeste Música y Sonido.

Spot 1: Mountain

Spot 2: Snow

Spot 3: Desert

Spot 4: Canyon

Spot 5: Lake

Posted on Motionographer