Colin the Umbrella

So, now that this blog is no longer confined to the strict rules of a university brief, I can use it for shameless self promotion! Hurrah! Thinking about it though, shameless self promotion could end up deterring the (very) tiny number of loyal followers this blog has accumulated thus far. So don't worry, I won't be bigging up my own work too regularly here, after all, I have my own website for that. Although that's in dire need of a redesign, so at the moment I'm actually more proud of the blog than I am of the portfolio site (oh dear!) but hopefully that will change if I ever find the time to make it happen.

A piece of work I did want to put up here though, was my response to our One Week Project. For anybody reading this who doesn't attend the University of Leeds Graphic & Communication Design course, or isn't a friend of family member (unlikely that's anybody then), the brief was as follows:

You are required to propose a creative solution for one of the following:

Celebrate the invention of … either, the drawing pin, the zip, barbed wire, cats eyes, the coat hanger, concrete, the credit card, elastic, the lawn mower, nylon, Phillips head screw, scissors, sliced bread, spark plugs, the umbrella, Velcro.

You can utilise any media or approach, you could treat it like an advertising campaign, or produce a magazine article or book, make a video or a series of photographs or illustrations which investigate a particular functional or aesthetic quality of this everyday object. It could be purely typographic or a piece of copywriting. Maybe it’s a Radio ad or utilises ambient media. You decide the best way to celebrate those things that we all take for granted. Create an element of surprise, shock us, make us laugh, allow us to contemplate beauty, inform us, intrigue us do whatever you can to make something that gets our attention and holds it. This is your opportunity, by utilising all your creative energies and abilities, to make the ordinary, extraordinary.

I chose the umbrella as my item, as a sort of gut instinct. I did loads of research into umbrellas (they're more interesting than you might think actually!) and then set to work trying to come up with good ways to celebrate such an ordinary object. I considered making a nice hand bound book, and I considered some sort of umbrella sculpture, even some sort of umbrella based twitter application crossed my mind, but in the end I decided to make an animation, as animation is something I really enjoy doing, and, as Alan Oliver once told me, animation/film has the potential to convey so much more than just one image on it's own.

Although we had seven days to do the whole project, as well as the finished 'celebration', we also had to produce a Creative Log, which took up a good half of my time, and I'd shot myself in the foot a bit by choosing to make an animation, which was by far the most time consuming of all the ideas I could have chosen. In the end the whole animation had to be created from start to finish in just three days. During those 72 hours, I got just 10 hours sleep, and I think the only things that kept me awake/alive were an indispensable girlfriend who helped wherever she could, and a small supply of 'Pro-Plus', although I hate taking those tablets, they really are a last resort. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make, is that I think I probably worked harder on this than I have on any other piece of work in my life.

Did it pay off? Well, I bloody hope so. If I don't get a good mark for this project I'll be devastated. However, when I showed my animation at the crit, it got a great response. I was really worried about it being shown on the big screen, and even more worried about the voiceover being heard at a loud volume ("nobody likes the sound of their own voice"). But thankfully everybody laughed (more heartily than I had expected!) in all the right places, and they even gave a round of applause at the end, which definitely made the sleep deprivation seem worthwhile.

Anyway, shameless self promotion over. The last few posts have been somewhat different to normal, what with the rationale/self-assessment and now this, but I'll get back to blogging as usual about good/bad design again from now on.

Also, last thing I promise. I feel obliged to give credits for the film, as not all footage was mine. Just incase you hadn't noticed, it was all my own work, except for:
- Footage from 'Singing in the Rain' (1964)
- Footage from 'Umbrella' by Rihanna (2007)
- Music from Collateral Damage by Muse (2009) (If you're wondering "where is that?" it's the music at the end when Colin dies)

Spot the Title Sequence

Some more motion graphics goodness today, following on from last weeks feast of animated wonders. Just like the video for 'DVNO' by Justice pays homage to vintage eighties logos, the video for Dan Black's 'Symphonies', acts as a tribute to classic title sequences from films.



The video sees Dan Black jumping, driving and falling through every classic style of title design since the 1930s, with clear references to iconic opening sequences from films such as Se7en and Goldfinger, and of course the legendary title designer Saul Bass, amongst many others.



The video was created by Parisian design duo Chic & Artistic, and I found an interesting interview with them over on The Art of the Title Sequence blog. It's clear that a lot of effort went in to recreating the look and feel of each era of design, and the attention to detail is superb.

"We viewed a large number of title sequences by genre and time period. We needed to reproduce the image and original graphic design through lighting, film grain, color grading, costume design, accessories, as well as typographical choices."

The typography in particular I feel is spot on, and adds a lot of credibility to these well executed parodies. The result is a captivating music video combined with a nice slice of nostalgia, which should make interesting viewing for film fans as well as music fans. It's good to see that some music videos still try to achieve something interesting and unique, rather than simply giving us three and a half minutes worth of scantily clad dancers.

Procrastination...

We are all guilty of it. I am especially. So far, during the time I dedicated to sitting down in a quiet room and getting on with writing my blog, all I have done is check my emails and re-organise my 'iCal'.



This general lack of productivity reminded me of one of my favourite ever pieces of animation work, the brilliant 'Procrastination' video by the ridiculously talented Johnny Kelly. I first saw the video featured in the September 2007 issue of Creative Review, and have come back to it countless times since, and each and every time i watch it, i get that 'I wish I'd thought of that first' feeling.

If you like this, you should also check out his latest animation, 'Seed', which was commissioned by none other than Adobe to promote their CS4 suite.

Adventures in Motion

When you go to a music festival, you don't usually expect to end up attending an award winning short-film festival as well. However, that's exactly what happened to me this summer when I went to The Big Chill festival, hidden away in the hills amongst the lovely Malvern countryside. It is common for music festivals to have a cinema tent of some sort, but they usually just show a selection of the latest blockbusters; the kind of films that will keep the masses entertained, just in case several hundred bands, a handful of top comedians and a fairground (not to mention gallons upon gallons of alcohol) isn't enough to keep them occupied for a whole weekend.

At The Big Chill however, I was surprised, (not to mention delighted), to see that Onedotzero's 'Adventures in Motion' film festival was on the lineup. For anyone who is not already aware of Onedotzero (pronounced '1 dot 0'), you should be. They showcase and celebrate the best contemporary moving image work and encourage innovation across all forms of film and animation. Their annual film festival now tours the world, and this summer they brought it to a couple of music festivals for the first time.

At The Big Chill they showcased about a dozen different films, most of them being innovative music videos of one sort or another. All of the films were interesting to watch, and they kept the audience captivated for a good 80 minutes, but I've picked out a few that really stood out for me:



This first film, by Chris Milk, tells the story of a broken heart, which yes, has indeed been done countless times before, but this music video offers a rather unconventional take on the scenario. The clichéd 'ripping ones heart out' visual has been taken as a starting point and turned into something completely unexpected, and darkly humorous too. I can't quite decide if I find the film brilliant or just a little bit disturbing - decide for yourselves.



This film is brilliant. It's been knocking around on numerous music and design blogs for a while now, but if you've not seen it yet, I recommend you check it out. If you like typography or logos, this video should tick all the boxes. It's an "Insane collage of (seemingly) vintage eighties logos" designed by So Me and Machine Molle. And for the hardcore typography geeks out there, over at FontFeed they have identified all the typefaces used in the video.



Next up is Bjork's animated video for Wanderlust which you can view in 3D if you've got the necessary red/blue spectacles, or just in plain old two dimensions, over at the Encyclopedia Pictura website. The music video took nine months from conception to completion, and uses a style of animation unlike anything I've ever seen before. There's an interesting 'Making of' video with director Damijan Saccio over at Vimeo if you're interested in finding out more.



Finally, one of the films I enjoyed the most was Albert's Speech, a short comedy produced in conjunction with Onedotzero and commissioned by the BBC Film Network. It tells the tale of Albert, a nervous introvert, who is desperately trying to avoid having to stand up in front of 100 people to deliver the best man's speech at his friends wedding. The acting is combined with short segments of animation which support the story and provide an insight into Albert's thoughts, and they showcase a range of different styles from talented animators such as Jan Urbanowski, Mark Hough, Trunk and Peepshow. The film is 15 minutes long, but if you've got some time to spare, you can watch Albert's Speech here.

These are just some of my favourite films shown by Onedotzero during their slot at The Big Chill festival, but there were many more. Other notable examples include Better than Prince by Jonas + Francois, and Myriad Harbour, created by Fluorescent Hill.

Onedotzero have also just launched their 2009/10 Adventures in Motion tour at the BFI Southbank in London. I haven't been able to catch any of the films yet, but one which looks particularly interesting is Logorama by French animation team h5. Apparently, "Logorama features spectacular car chases, an intense hostage crisis and wild rampaging animals: created exclusively from hundreds of infamous brand logos". Intriguing.

Restricted Article - For Humans Only

Image from Tony Worrall Foto on Flickr

Movie adverts on phone boxes rarely, if ever at all, make me want to go and see the movie they're advertising. I'll usually choose what I watch at the cinema based on the film's trailer, and the reviews in the paper or on the radio. Although, to be honest, more often than not my film choice is simply dictated by what my friends want to go and see.

I suppose that these adverts on phone boxes are simply there to raise our awareness of the film, remind us that it's out there, and make us want to find out more about it. The approach just seems so formulaic though: action shot of the film's main character, whack a logo over the top, and finish it off with a release date and an ambiguous, out of context quote from a critic. I was pleasantly surprised then, when I saw this advert for District 9 adorning a local phone box last week:

The 'human only' phone box

At first first I didn't even realise it was advertising a film, as the eye is immediately drawn to the big red circle with a line through it, and it's not until you look down towards the bottom of the phone box that you see the logo. You'll also notice that there's a phone number too, a hotline which you can apparently use to report "non-humans". It's not often that you see a message like this on a phone box, so out of curiosity I rang the number.

"Thank you for calling the Multi National United hotline. Please listen carefully to the following options. Non-humans have escaped from District 9 and are deemed to be violent and unpredictable. Press 1 to report any non-human sightings in your area..."

There are various other options, and depending what button you press you get different outcomes, one of which results in your call being interrupted by a 'non-human' who informs you that it's actually the alien's that are being mistreated and encourages you to visit the MNU Spreads Lies blog. Visiting the blog in turn leads you to various other websites promoting the film in one way or another, and before you know it you've spent half an hour looking at propaganda for the latest Peter Jackson funded blockbuster, all because of an advert on a phone box.

The advertising is part of a wider campaign by London based agency Spinnaker, and ties in brilliantly with the issues raised in the film. Apparently the advertising isn't just limited to phone boxes either. In America they've been using similar tactics on benches, staircases and highways, all to drum up hype and curiosity about the film.

As for the film itself, I really enjoyed it, but I'm not a film critic, so I won't bore you with my clumsy description of what happens. If you want a proper review check out Edward R Burge's blog, it's quite good.