The aerial idents of Al Jazeera English.

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An incredibly simple use of aerial footage, combined with the familiar beats of music that screams “you’re watching a news channel” create a surprisingly effective collection of idents for Al Jazeera English.

They express the kind of simple dignity that an international news channel broadcasting to over 100 million people should command, as opposed to say this.

– Big thanks to Sean for the videos.

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, on the BBC.

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Here’s a challenge for you: condense a 400-year-old, 100 chapter Chinese novel into a two minute animated trailer for the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

Actually, don’t worry, the BBC have already done it…

That’s right, they’ve abandoned the traditional “gold-infused slow-motion footage of athletes” Olympics imagery in favour of something a bit more creative.

Animated by Gorillaz creator Jamie Hewlett with music by Damon Albarn, this video of Monkey and his friends made its debut last night in the UK at 7:27pm with a simulcast across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four and BBC News, and will form the centrepiece of the BBC’s Olympic coverage branding.

The ABC takes “TV out of the box”.

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The ABC has been teasing its viewers lately with the tagline “TV out of the box”. Well, this evening the ABC announced that its BBC iPlayer-esque service initally dubbed ABC Playback is now open to the public, and has been rebranded as ABC iView.

The BBC have been very succesful in establishing iPlayer as a brand despite its ordinary name, but really, iView was the best they could come up with?

Anyway, derivative name aside, the just launched ABC iView service is fairly similar to the beta version of the ABC Playback service that I reviewed earlier this year. And while the video quality is fine, and the content has increased to include news among other things, the interface still bugs me badly, and the whole thing doesn’t come close to the user experience of the newly launched BBC iPlayer 2.0.

Ten News changes its look, now even noisier.

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Channel Ten have rejigged their news branding, with before and after videos above, I’m sure you’ll be as dissapointed as me with the new look. And in case you can’t tell which is the new look, its the one with all the not so subtle Sony Vaio laptops and abrupt music transitions when they start talking about sport.

And you wonder why people make so much fun of broadcast news these days.

The Stanley Kubrick season on More4.

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Last week Channel 4’s digital sibling More4 launched the Stanley Kubrick season, a ten day film festival of some of the celebrated directors work. This stunning promo was shot in one long take, and is a look behind the scences of Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining, all from the perspective of the director himself.

The spot produced by Channel 4 Creative, was meticulously researched and was even shot using the directors favourite lens. Truly fitting for such a influential filmmaker.

British television seems to love the idea of programming “seasons”. More4 won an award for this promo used for their State of Russia season a few years back, and earlier this year BBC Four took its viewers on a trip into the Medieval mind.

Discovery discovers High Definition.

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Discovery HD rounds out the new HD channels from the recently launched Foxtel HD, it joins National Geographic HD, BBC HD, and Fox Sports and ESPN HD.

The network is yet to adopt the new look Discovery branding, which is a shame because although this is an HD channel it looks like it just stepped out the nineties.

Jericho Fans Want A New Home – File Under Longshot

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Check out this snapshot of a billboard in Studio City, Ca. It seems that all the Jericho fans that have so kindly responded to my post detailing the effects I did for the Season 2 finally have saved up there pennies to buy some public ad-space to further there cause. Seem crazy? Well, it might if the rabid fans hadn’t already brought the show back from the dead once already with a well coordinated write-in campaign. Who knows if this works out I could be on the call sheet for Season 3.

LINK to my previous post on Jericho VFX

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Radiohead Video – Cool Laser Scanners Out-Franky Franky Goes To Hollywood

The video proves once and for all that CGI and Radiohead are two great tastes that taste great together. The basic idea is this, screw the cameras 86 the lights scan everything and make the whole piece out of realtime streaming data. The result is imagery so deep in the uncanny valley that it’s cool. This behind the scenes gives a great overview of the technical and creative issues involved. I love the image of Lidar scanner on a dolly. The only problem, “Ready, and, SCAN!” just doesn’t have the right ring to it.

LINK to the full video
thanks to JC for the link

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Darkly dreaming of the dearly devoted Dexter.

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Did you know there was an Emmy for best main title design? One company that knows all about it is Digital Kitchen, who in 2002 won for their stunning work on the Six Feet Under opener, and scored big again last year with the titles for Dexter.

Dexter made its free to air debut in Australia this week, but both seasons were already over with on subscription television, with Foxtel’s new Showcase channel launching itself on the back of everyone’s favourite serial killer.

I watched both seasons of Dexter over summer, and became enthralled with the adventures of the dysfunctional Dexter Morgan, which brings me to my question..

Why didn’t Ten just pick this up in the first place? Free to air television isn’t exactly proving its relevance by letting Dexter (and others) make their debuts on pay TV.

How-To Go Retro

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Ever wanted to use a really expensive super-fast modern computer to create a logo design that looks like it was airbrushed on the front of a 70’s T-shirt? Well you’re in luck! Freelance designer Harry J. Frank has posted a nice little tutorial that’s all about the chrome logo and glowing grid that floats in space for no reason (don’t forget the cheesy star filters). All you need is a couple hours of spare time a copy After Effects and an unhealthy nostalgia for electric pink and blue.

LINK to the full tutorial on graymachine.com

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