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.
Head over to the CYW 20/20 page for full credits and more info on Mainframe’s project, along with all the other films released so far.
What can you say about this title sequence that will do it justice? There is so much beauty in its stop-motion bizarreness. Having said that, I wouldn’t expect anything less from acclaimed Japanese director of horror and strangeness, Takashi Miike. All I can suggest is that you let go of regular conventions, take a look and get ready for a roller-coaster ride!
On a side note, if you have a spare weekend, rent out some of Miike’s movies, in particular Audition, and my personal favourite, Ichi the Killer (in which the titles involve various male-only fluids!).
I gotta be honest, the real reason I was first attracted to Mesai’s “Alarm,” was for its beautifully soft lighting and rendering. On second pass, I noticed some of subtle character animation. But the story, I felt, dragged.
After talking it over with fellow Motionographer Greg Herman, though, I realized that was exactly the point. We’re pulled into this world where everything is punctuated by alarms, where every moment of stillness is just a preamble to the spine-wrenching squeal of a bell. Thus, the near real-time toaster sequence feels excruciatingly slow, the long ride in the elevator feels like a devilish trick.
Watching it a third time with this in mind, I found myself grinning wildly, enjoying the entire experience immensely.
You can download a 720p version of the film from Mesai, the animation partnership of Moohyun Jang and Jungoo Choo that created “Alarm.” You’ll also find some pre-production stills and a bevvy of test renders in the Alarm Introduction area of the site.
Back in 2007, as students at the Savannah College of Art and Design, William Campbell teamed up with Anh Vu to create The Lemon Tree, an experimental short film that went on to win awards and launch Will and Anh’s careers with a bang. (Anh graduated to work with Psyop as a staff designer, while Will went to work with Superfad in LA.)
Will’s latest short film, The Nature Between Us, is a surreal tale of personal relationships told in a style that is uniquely his own. The film premiered at Sundance 2009 and screened at SXSW 2009, charming audiences with its mysterious narrative and off-beat bubble gum visuals.
Will and producer Jett Steiger graciously took some time to answer our questions about the project. Read on…
Universal Everything’s recent refresh for MTV’s 64 international channels is notable for what it DOES NOT do. As opposed to MTV’s long-standing tradition of constantly reinventing and playing with it’s logo, this time the logo itself appears only at the end – in black and white – and is not stylized or customized at all. The refresh also introduces a flexible new navigation system with onscreen graphic information about current or upcoming programs as well as a secondary set of messages on the lower third of the screen. As usual with projects from Universal Everything, the work is a blend of the maximal and the minimal, very graphic, very pop and very up-to-date.
RB: Roberto Bagatti / VP Creative MTV Networks International, Creative Director MTV World Design Studio (Milano)
DG: Dylan Griffith / Creative Director – MTV North (Amsterdam)
MP: Matt Pyke / Creative Director – Universal Everything (Sheffield UK)
1. This refresh for MTV’s international channels seems remarkable for applying a consistent use of the MTV logo. MTV’s previous IDs have been known to stylize and alter the logo differently for each one. Why did you choose to change that around for this project?
RB: The intent of the refresh is to embrace change and express what MTV means today. The new look and feel’s main intent is to solidify the channel’s position as a dynamic intersection of music, creativity and youth culture. Our aim is to establish greater creative consistency across platforms and geographies, while still maintaining the local relevancy and attitude at the heart of MTV’s success.
We weren’t asked to redesign the logo so we thought it would be appropriate to start defining it instead of leaving it open to infinite interpretations – which has been the route the brand has followed for over 25 years.
DG: In terms of the logo itself we’ve simply cleaned it up, paying homage to our original old skool logo. I’ve never thought of it as a beautiful high end piece of design, (it’s almost beyond a conversation about design), but it has become one of the most iconic logotypes of late C20th youth culture. Therefore we just felt that we’d respect that, (treating it as sacrosanct), and we’d use it in a different way – essentially letting the idents ‘do the talking’ whilst signing them off with the logo. Maybe it’s just that the logo has grown up by now and is confident enough to ‘shout’ less.
Our onscreen graphics and layouts have all been re-designed around the logo – we’ve shifted it from top right to top left of the screen for starters, so that all communication on screen starts with the MTV logo. The logo will dictate and direct all on-screen activity: the ‘EPG’ inspired timeline will be anchored by the logo, (in this case the station bug), frame wipes will emit from it, idents will react to it and our music beds will dance along to it…
2. What were the main considerations in designing the navigation system?
RB: The flexible navigational typographic system, including elements such as speech bubbles, on-screen editorial, programme or music video progress bars and upper third programme guide alleviates the need for information-laden promos. Essentially we wanted to convey promo information through on-screen graphics in order to free promo space for heavier rotations of channel priorities; at the same time emphasizing two different tones of communication – a schedule-based line of information in the upper third of the screen, and a more informal and ironic tone in the lower third.
DG: We employed a colour coded palette, (cyan to denote current programming and yellow for up-coming or promoted shows), and the primary house font is Pharma Bold Condensed. The minimal qualities of Pharma are offset by our choice of 8 secondary fonts. These are more chaotic and anarchic, sitting in offset containers that act pretty much as digital fridge magnets, shattering the uniformity of the grid – almost harking back to a raw ‘cut and paste’ Jamie Reid style attitude. They allow for a more informal narrative or voice, and together with the more ‘business like’ EPG they inform the viewer of where they’re at in MTV time – a digitally fluent identity that mixes minimalism and maximalism, connecting to today’s multi-tasking audience.
3. Your core group of collaborators have many divergent styles, but all share a similar sensibility. How does collaboration with external studios for the IDs work? What rules or guidelines did you give them for these IDs?
RB: The brief’s main requirements were
• To align creative output with the brand’s content and to establish an international brand language that is relevant and enticing for a new generation of users.
• To re-evaluate and re-establish the iconic MTV logo and the way in which it is applied.
Our role was to ensure that this criteria was realised and embodied in the subsequent idents. Some of the proposals required additional direction, (especially trying to push them towards the conceptual requirements of the brief), whilst others didn’t need to be touched at all because they were on brief and spot on straightaway. Continuous dialogue between the core team made it possible to deliver everything on time, and feedback from the various creative directors around the network helped us address local issues, specific to language or cultural sensitivity.
DG: Ensuring continuity and a shared attitude between the idents was pretty simple as the core team consisted of Roberto, Philip, Matt and myself. Less people = more focus. Basically we threw a load of names (of international directors and studios that we’d previously worked or would like to work with) onto the table and took it from there. Matt would make initial contact as an ‘artist to artist’ approach often works best in our experience. If the initial reaction (of directing a video that would be watched by 520 million viewers across the globe!) was positive then we’d send our potential collaborators a simple brief. Key words such as wonder, joy and desire – feelings which resonate across borders, cultures and languages – were identified as the project’s common threads and so set the tone for the brief. These, in turn, were underpinned by the project’s mantra – POP X 1000%. We realise that even the most seasoned creative can suffer ‘creative paralysis’ when handed a blank sheet of paper so in order to get the best out of our collaborating directors we laid down a few basic creative parameters. The idents to date have all been directed or co-directed by Universal Everything ensuring continuity in terms of their attitude and also setting the standard for future commissioning rounds.
4. The IDs also seem to be conceived of in the same way as your Advanced Beauty project. Was this intentional? Do you prefer a curatorial approach?
MP: Advanced Beauty was held together by creative parameters observed by all directors involved and we took a similar approach in defining the playground walls for the MTVI project. Having restrictions to bounce off and react against squeezes the best out of people, whilst ensuring we gain a coherent family of films. The MTV parameters were:
• Visuals driven by the Music.
• React to the shared MTV Rhythm.
• Visualise Emotions.
• Abstraction with a connection to life.
• Make something never seen before…
5. I think my favourite ID is Mad Drummer. It’s very playful and seems totally in tune with the music: joyful, silly. Who was responsible for that piece? Do you have a favourite?
MP: Mad Drummer was designed and produced directly by Universal Everything, (i.e. me!) – I had a big desire to make something hands-on, all alone for a change – back to basics. It’s 100% powered by the music, every shape is actually a waveform, collaged into mosh pit heaven. My favourite is Mister Furry given the reactions of people’s faces when they see it – it touches hearts immediately.
RB: For me it’s a tie between Sweetheart and Mr. Furry – I like them for different reasons: I love the strong pop immediateness of both but on one side I feel the empathy that a character like Mr. Furry seems to emanate and on the other I love the sweet storm at the epicentre of Sweetheart’s explosion: here the relationship between music and visuals seem to be extremely tight, the saccharine and crystal nature of the sound seems to perfectly compliment the twirling world of candy we’re inviting the viewer to experience.
DG: Mad Drummer is my favourite too. It’s immediate, super simple and never fails to put a smile on my face. Oil by Maxim Zhestkov comes a close second – it has the ‘wow factor’ and makes me want to party…
6. These first six IDs are really varied, almost random in their technique and content. What are the plans for the ten additional ones?
RB: To continue along the same route, with a wider stretch of emotions and techniques, and to attract an even more diverse community of talent from all over the world that wants to contribute to the project.
DG: The plan is to go around the globe inviting our international creative directors to contribute ideas and to identify rising talent in their countries. This will further the international feel of the idents and should promote MTV’s role as curators of ‘motion design wowness’…an international visual jukebox that keeps on growing.
Allow me to introduce the work of Philippe Grammaticopoulos, a French director working with the somewhat mysterious production company Mr. Hyde in Paris. Philippe has also somehow managed to evade the Motionographer radar until now, which comes as a massive shock to me after seeing the long list of his wonderful animations. His stylistic approach and animation techniques are truly unique, but for me his off-beat, strange storytelling is what makes him stand apart from the rest.
His newest animation, Les Ventres (”The Bellies”) caught our attention when it hit our inboxes last week. Take a look at this bizarre four minute tail four minute clip from the 18 minute short about snails, glut and self-consumption.
Seeing how we missed out on all the great work the this fine director has released over the years, here’s more of his work, all of which is worth viewing. In fact, any of these could be full posts of their own.
Warning: These films are not safe for work (NSFW).
We got the scoop on these deliciously macabre promos from Mainframe last week, but we’ve been holding out for a Q&A. Well, the Q&A is here, so feast on all three promos before getting the lowdown below.
Created in collaboration with Ministry of Sound’s “brand innovation group,” MSHK, and illustrator Neal Murren (Breed London), Mainframe brought to life the viciously dark novel, Tomas, written by Ministry of Sound co-founder James Palumbo.
Q&A with Mainframe’s Mark Warrington, Director:
How hard was it going from Neal Murren’s illustrations to full motion? Did you feel boxed in it all?
This did cause a few problems, as the characters weren’t really drawn for animation. It just took some careful cutting out, painting back in the hidden areas and also sourcing or drawing similar imagery. I think using black and white really helped everything to amalgamate. I tried to create each scene around the angle the characters were drawn at so I didn’t have to force them into any un natural positions, this was the only real limitation, as for what was going on around them was left to me.
Were there technical challenges that resulted from this arrangement?
I wanted to match the detail of the animation to the detail of the drawings, which was quite daunting; animating enormous breasts, a dripping penis and exploding heads was all new territory, but I always found a means to an end. The most ambitious was the first shot in cocks away where we are flying through the night sky of French Riviera amongst a squadron of cock bombers. Due to time limitations, I created the whole thing in 2.5D, building the bombers out of flat ribs like a toy balsa wood plane. Once in silhouette, they looked right.
On the whole, I tried to get the most out of camera moves and background detail. Also I had about two weeks to complete each one, so redrawing characters was out of the question.
I’d love to know what the brief was and how they ended up here!
I was given TOMAS to read and they highlighted the three scenes which they wanted animated, as well as showing us Neal’s illustrations. Then through the course of a few meetings with the client, we nailed down what we would like to focus on, how the SFX and music would work and most importantly, how the animations were going to create publicity for the book.
The client gave me a lot of creative freedom, and I knew that for this to work it would have to be shocking. I think it’s great that anyone who sees the animations and then reads TOMAS will have these strange scenes ingrained in their mind’s eye. When I read the book, I found myself seeing the story in black and white, which is quite interesting.
In an attempt to brand itself as the source for a wide range of cultural and educational programming, Australia’s SBS hired Mighty Nice to push the envelope a bit. The most recent fruits of these labors are a series of slapstick IDs that originally aired during Ashes 2009, a long-standing, wildly popular cricket series between England and Australia.
Slapstick is hard enough to pull off in live action, but to manage it with composited animation is a feat worth applauding. The comedic timing between the actor and his unseen props is perfectly in line with the cartoonish spirit of these spots—a cartoonishness brilliantly offset by the elegant end tags.
For a much more abstract take, Mighty Nice also created a set of idents that interpret SBS as shifting tableaux of form and color inspired by the sounds of SBS.
Although created for the same client, the visual and conceptual distance of these idents from the Ashes spots is a testament to Mighty Nice’s flexibility as a studio.
Although the end falls just a little flat for me, I’m still in love with Baptiste Sola’s “L’échange.” It’s a brilliant testament to a kind of Mondrian-esque minimalism, showing just how much can be said with so little.
The main drivers of narrative here are the sound design; slight variations in animation (the square’s ever so subtle hesitation is loaded with meaning); and, of course, the introduction of the pink square. Everyone who’s had a pink square in their lives know how they can so happily upset your routine, how they stick with you, how they keep you up at night.
L’échange reminds me a bit of Grant Orchard’s “Love Sport” series, which used a similar minimalist approach.
Destino is a short film written and storyboarded in 1945 by Salvador Dali and Walt Disney that was shelved for financial reasons, but then re-discovered and completed in 2003 by Dominique Monfrey. It was released in a limited run theatrically with the Triplets of Belleville, and may have a 2010 release on DVD. Wikipedia entry here.
How long this will last on YouTube is anyone’s guess, so take a peek before it’s gone.
Edit: The video was removed on Youtube. We’ll all have to wait for the DVD now …
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.
