hand of blackjack?

Definitely an iPod inspired ad here for the Samsung BlackJack. But doesn't it look lovely. The phone is shuffled like a stack of cards and as they are fanned you get to see the five main areas of functionality that this phone has to offer. Set on black (it being the BlackJack) really sets it off with its glowing blue accents. I actually have made some ads for the Cingular BlackJack in our last Microsoft campaign and unfortunately we did not get one of these devices to play with. That being said I think this is a great entry from Samsung and a worthy adversary to the Blackberry.

silent knife

The Knife here with their incredible track Silent Shout. And with it comes this hypnotic nightmare of a music video. Done in the best tradition of youtube inspired stop-motion trickery. It starts out as a pulsating animation and then seems to pan out of its locale on a monitor to reveal a desk with marching figures and in the distance a shadowy reflection. Done in the best Lynch/Cronenberg mash-up style this really is a nightmare of a video. But ever so suited to this song. Huge fore-headed creatures sing to us as the horror continues. Low-fi visual eccentricity. Love it.

ps3 off

Utterly creepy: sci-fi horror. It draws on a scene from Trainspotting where the baby crawls along the ceiling. This ad also channels much of 2001 with the PS3 standing as an obelisk that sparks evolution into the doll by breathing life into it. The PS3 then uploads it's imagery and interactivity into the animate doll sparking emotion in it. The ad ends with the baby seemingly lifting the unit up with the power of it's mind, all this whilst taking place within a starkly-lit, white room. The parallels to 2001 continue right at the end of the ad as the baby's reflection is seen in the black facia of the PS3. Links to the obelisk scene from 2001 here and the end sequence here.

This ad is genius although a little inaccessible to most. I would definitely go a different route for promoting this product given the PS3's spate of bad press of late (late being the operative word here).

body popping

So it starts with two kids on stage and it all looks very amateur and school talent show until this gangly geek comes onstage and starts off with a little dance that you might do at a school disco. And then his body dislocates and it seems like all his bones turn into rubber. This really does have to be seen to be believed. Brilliant.

take 606

Just lovely. Made in 2003 by Wieden & Kennedy this film features what looks like one long take as various parts of the Honda Accord are made to interact with each other in ingenous ways. It is in fact two pans stitched together and although a small amount of CG are used they are only to enhance the lighting at various points. It took 606 takes to get it right and the results are spectacular. It reminds me of those remarkable domino stacking stunts that you used to see on Record Breakers

2001: A Space Trailer

Still as jaw-droppingly insipiring today as it was back in 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a landmark science fiction movie. From a novel by Arthur C. Clarke and turned into a screenplay by both himself and the legendary Stanley Kubrick this movie is epic. Spanning the dawn of time to the far flung corners of the universe we must now recognise the year 2001 to be more symbolic of a future age than an actual date. It seems that science fiction was overly optimistic in the 60s as to how fast the human technology would progress.

To a casual viewer this movie is tough to say the least. It deals with notions of evolution, technology, artificial intelligence and alien life. And not in an altogether obvious way. What stands out for me is that the effects are as current today as anything cg can achieve. The space exterior shots are filmed with an understanding of the medium. There are no sounds in space as space is a vacuum. This often leads to disturbing silent images as a space walk goes wrong and the hero tumbles off into the void. Underpinning the action is the score primarily by Johann Strauss and most notably the Blue Danube.

It won the Best Effects, Special Visual Effects oscar in 1969 and quite rightly so. It was a pioneer of the front projection technique whereby background images of scenery and landscapes could be projected onto a camera lens within a studio envionment to achieve a realistic exterior effect. The movie was also filmed in Cinerama a process whereby 3 35mm projectors are pointed at a widescreen curved screen. The DVD release of 2001 also includes the original interval complete with score which really is a mark of times gone by. A stunning classic worthy of multiple views.

free running

The art of free running or le parkour. If you get a chance check out the full 8 1/2 minutes of this viral. If you thought that Madonna's dancers were athletic you have seen nothing yet. These guys are like spider monkeys who can climb and scale Russian urbania with ease. Bounce off walls. Back flip down flights of stairs. It all looks incredibly dangerous and yet they are so effortless and graceful it seems easy. Just goes to show that the Russian gymnastic program really is second to none. Great French hip-hop track really sets the edgy feel of this short.

xmas light show

This has got to be one of the best stop-motion virals I have seen. An enormous amount of work has obviously gone into this little production. And epic it is with it's orchestral rock soundtrack. (Awesome dude). Judging by their site they build their light tracks on rigs that are set-up with controls so it is a 'simple' matter of using stop-motion techniques and firing off different lights in order to achieve this effect. I think what is most impressive about any stop-motion viral is the scale of the production and this one truly is monumental. Enjoy the video below.

moto colours

Stroke of genius by motorola here. This is a gorgeous flash site designed to showcase the many colours in the moto range. You are presented with a floating colour palette whereby you can select one colour at a time. You then paint an animated selection of shapes and designs onto the canvas. The texture of the background is subtly a paper texture. The designs are bold and random and done in stunning vector art. Once you have created a design you get a chance to save and share the design. Or as a matter of navigation you get a dock of phones in all their colours at the bottom of the page which you can cycle through as you move your mouse to each end. Simple, elegant and entirely addictive.

meditainment

This caught my eye on my last trip to the Clapham Picturehouse. It is meditation taken to the next level. You enter the cinema and enjoy this interactive experience with the rest of the audience. Using glow sticks you vote for different aspects to the guided visuals. You then sit back, relax and go on a journey. It sounds incredible. It must be amazing to be immersed in an audio visual environment and be consumed by waves of relaxation. It all starts on the 4th of January and may well be a great way to unwind after the last couple of weeks of craziness. Check it out here.

tron mode

I just found this great mash up of clips from Tron mixed with Depeche Mode singing Suffer Well. It is a lovely little trip down 80's memory lane. This movie had a huge impact on me when I first saw it. It was around that time that Disney was experimenting with new ideas and darker plots: they were branching out into new forms of animation. Tron (1982) was the first film to feature computer generated animation and this truly was a landmark in the movie making world. They used a technique whereby all the live action was filmed in black and white and colorized later using photographic and rotoscopic techniques thus giving it a distinct look and feel. Snubbed at the oscars for a visual effects award: the reason being that it supposedly cheated by using computers. It wasn't until 7 years later with the release of The Abyss that the academy finally recongnised this emerging technology.

The word TRON comes from a BASIC command short for 'trace on' which is a debugging tool used to trace a program line and weed out the bugs (the opposite of TROFF or trace off) although it is also said that TRON comes from the word electronic.

joseph barbera dies

The death of a legend today as Joseph Barbera, one half of the legendary Hanna Barbera duo, who made such classics as Tom & Jerry, Scooby Doo and the Flintstones, dies aged 95. Growing up in the 80's you were sure to hear this little snippet (see movie clip below) several times a week, ingrained in my memory as it is. It was always apparant to me that these toons were a little darker and more subservient than the Disney stable and thus more enjoyable. Here's a run down of some of some of my highlights: The Jetsons The Banana Splits Dastardly and Mutley Josie and the Pussycats Charlotte's Webb Hong Kong Phooey Captain Caveman Godzilla Black Beauty Popeye The Smurfs and The Powerpuff Girls.

all I want for Christmas....

Brilliant! In a far more trusting and innocent time gifts like these were available to buy for the kiddies. Loved ones would sportingly trek out on Christmas eve and fork over their hard earned shillings to buy wonderful and educational gifts for their brainy kiddies. The kit comes complete with a Wilson Cloud Chamber (to see paths of alpha particles). Watch as the kids ooh and aah as they create mini mushroom clouds in the front room. Packaged as containing harmless radioactive materials but "exposure to the same isotope—U-238—has been linked to Gulf War syndrome, cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma, among other serious ailments". Nice.

pan's labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is a stunning fairytale set in post war Spain. Guillermo del Toro (of Hellboy fame) has really immersed us in this dreamy world where fantasy meets reality. Guillermo Navarro is at the helm as cinematographer and it seems he has a great crew working for him. Loads of visual effects by cafeFX ensure that the fairytale world of this young girl melds with the real world Spanish Civil War era. I was really impressed with the look of the movie. As with many of these great stories they dive into existing lore, take that and spin it into something even better. Here we have a labyrinth patrolled by a faun (or pan). Almost nightmarish is the character design and yet it never delves into horror. Not so laiden with FX as Hellboy was and yet intoxicatingly enchanting as the line becomes more and more blurred between the nightmare of the real world and the enticing universe beyond. Check out a great review of the movie here.

happy feet

What a joy this film is. A fantastic kids movie with loads of adult appeal. The animators have nailed the look of the penguins perfectly and it is obviously a movie inspired by March of the Penguins . It is a story of belonging and a rite of passage but also a message about the state of the planet. Often shots pan out to reveal the earth spinning viewed from space - a reminder seemingly of how small the planet really is and how humans are interfering with the balance.

What is so joyous about this movie are the musical numbers when the emperor penguins belt out their heart songs. All the songs are covers so for the adults we can all sing along :) There are some really breathtaking scenes. The art direction is incredible. The frozen scape; piercing blue seas; arora borealis are all melded into this tale. As little Mumble (who is the star of this story) finds out he has no heart song but he can dance like a god, he must embark on a journey of self discovery that will lead him ultimately to the saving of his penguin race. Favourite quote: "Gimme some fin" as one penguin goes to high five the other.

Go see this movie and bring the kids 9/10

Jed's Poem

I have seen this video a while ago but I just sent it round the agency and it was a hit. I thought it was worth a revisit. This is made in code on an Apple II. Genius. Enjoy!

GMFA

I started volunteering for GMFA today by attending one of their meetings in London Bridge. It was great although due to Christmas many people were absent. We spent two hours looking at five different approaches to their upcoming HIV prevention campaign. This run of ads is targeting both HIV positive and negative men and will show different people's reasons for having safe sex. Ranging from a want to keep your partner safe to preventing the spread of the disease.

It was great for me to be involved in the more conceptual side of things and have a say about what works and what doesn't before it goes to the design phase. It is of course also great to feel part of something and to feel that I am in some way contributing to the community. Watch this space as we develop our ideas into something more tangible. Feel free to visit the website here where there are links and the ability to donate should you so desire.

Battlestar Galacticsimpsons

I just had to share this little ditty. Quirkybird at PantSketch did these Simpsonesque cartoon characters of the BattleStar Gallactica crew and has totally captured the spirit of the show. Check out the full set here

iPod the next generation

So it is holiday season and Apple look set to clean up AGAIN. I was in the London Apple Store today buying gift certificates for my cousins and lo they have an express lane for buying an iPod (and thankfully gift certificates). Seriously they have lined them up like sweets in a sweetie shop and with all those sugary colours it was difficult not to walk out with a paper bag full of goodies.

It looks likely that Apple will be updating it's line of mac products in the very near future and to be honest I think a total refresh of it's brand is wise. Now that Vista is just about released and looks like a clone of Aqua (2 releases ago) thus today the rumours started flying about a total revamp to it's interface named Illuminous . This iPod demo is something I would be very excited to see as I think it really pushes the boundaries of interface design. Now couple that with a phone and decent camera and you really are talking :)

post it motion

Check out this great video here It is stop motion trickery with LOTS of post its. Stop motion videos seem to be in vogue of late with bored twenty somethings who have a camcorder and a free weekend to hand. But this one really makes a good attempt at synching with the music and leaves you marveling at the time spent to create this movie. Inspires me to waste a weekend trying something like this myself. All I need is an extra pair of hands, a great story board. Oh and a free weekend of course :)

star wars lego

Ha ha I finished this game at the weekend....yes the one I got for my birthday.... a WEEK ago. Now either I am a sad git and have played this non-stop, it is furiously addictive or it is a bit too easy. Well a little of all three. It is fantastic fun and I just love those cute little figures anyway :) To have them battle it out is awesome. The game play is great and you soon get the hang of jumping around and weilding your light sabre. It is a mac game so I was able to play it. I just hope they get round to releasing version 2 which has the original trilogy storylines. Brilliant

300

Ok so the acting is a little Brian Blessed in Flash Gordon but visually this movie is stunning. This is the second online trailer and far superior to the first. This actually gives you chills as you slide into the overly stylized scape of ancient Persia. Be warned there are a lot of 'aaarrrggghhhs' in this trailer ("diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive") but that can be excused. Frank Miller's graphic novel is the inspiration here as he has been for various other ventures (Batman Begins, Sin City etc) and that style is definitely captured here although in no means as starkly as was visioned in Sin City. Colour here is used as a tone and not an accent. There is some serious post-production work going on here. Can't wait to see the final result.

moo moo

Loved this concept so much. Thanks to Jared for this one (he sends round a weekly round up of the best of the web at work). Basically the premise is cheap printing of small business cards. But here's the thing...you gotta see these cards because if you do you will want them. They are soooooo cute :) I ordered 100 straight away. And at £10 who's to argue. You can either have your flickr photos on the front or you get to do some nifty skype related covers. On the back you put all your contact info with a caption on the front. I just can't wait to give them out to unsuspecting people. hahahaha watch out.

Trick my mac

I saw these guys at the Mac World Expo back in October. The have a lazer etching device that can scan any vector artwork onto your devices. They had iPods and mobiles on display. But the most incredible work they showed was with a mac laptop where they had burned an image of a turntable decks. I really want to get my laptop tricked out like this but it does cost £200. Hmmm decisions decisions. They are at O2 on Oxford Street until Dec 24th. I may well treat myself :)

Angels and Demons

Just finished reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. It is one of those rip roaring reads that works really well if you are on a holiday and need a quick read. Brown defines the page turner genre. He constructs his chapters in no more than two pages at a time and each chapter ends on a cliff hanger. As he often has three story lines on the go you are left straned for a couple of chapters and find yourself reading ahead to find out what happens. This technique can at times make you feel like you are being treated with kid gloves. What Brown does well is to research his story so in this you learn a lot about the vatican and religious practice which is a fascinating insight (in the Da Vinci Code it is art history). There are definitely some historical eye openers to be had in A&D BUT my overall feeling having finished the book is that this was another overly fantastical tale that will not work very well on the screen. Much how Da Vinci Code failed that leap. 6/10

To all new arrivals

Faithless have done it again. Just weeks after their greatest hits album was released and only a few months since their stellar dj mix album (Renaissance 3D). Comes To All New Arrivals. Bombs is the stand out track. It is classic Faithless. Gorgeous poetry and haunting beats. I love the video that comes with it. Awesome blend of imagery and really powerful. The rest of the album is sophisticated Sunday afternoon listening (which is usually when I want to listen anyway...usually after a heavy night of clubbing). Kind of loungy but in a good way. There is definitely a heavy influence on the birth of Nate one of the band member's babies I presume (hence Nate's tune). Don't expect any thumping dance classics here. Faithless have moved on and matured into chilled breaks. Love this album. Check it out on...

World Aids Day revisit

Madonna had this up on her blog and I had to share it here too. Great 3D anime and effectively gets the point across. Use a condom people. I'm sure we can all relate to this in some way....enjoy x

shortbus arrives

Just out of seeing Shortbus which is John Cameron Mitchell's latest spurt into the movie industry. For those of you who know not who he is think Hedwig and the Angry Inch. If you know not of what I talk then do yourself a favour and rent it.... NOW. Shortbus is everything I love in a movie. This is movie making magic. If you can get past the first five minutes which is essentially full on porn, you will be in for a treat. JCM is a master at characterisation. He really invests himself into these characters which seem to be all versions of himself and each you can relate to in a different way. Melded to this is a great 3D render of New York city starting with an almost erotic pan up the statue of liberty. The movie culminates in a crescendo of emotion...epidsodic. The build up to this moment which is realised in the movie by the blackout of the east coast USA as each of the characters storylines come to a head. And then he takes you onward to experience what happens next. Drama, sex, relationships, nightlife, therapy all melded into this joyous piece of movie making. Love you JCM. Thank you for this beautiful film.

world aids day

HIV and AIDS has touched all of our lives in some way and this pandemic is set to only get worse. Africa is hit the hardest but there are communities of people in this country who suffer as well. I have just signed up to do some volunteer work here in London for the GMFA which was originally the Gay Men Fighting Aids charity but is now branded as GMFA or Gay Men's Health Charity as they have branched out into other areas. I will most likely be helping them on their advertising campaigns and with their pride fundraisers and the like. So look out for further news on this. Please consider donating to this worthy cause by clicking here or else buy one of those red ribbons wherever you see them.

VHM design

Alex Cherry is one of my favourite digital artists at the moment. I constantly revisit his work for inspiration and very often set his work as a desktop. I love the way he melds a grungy graphic style with his vision of the world. Check out his music tastes as he takes a silhouette of a favourite band member and uses this outline to direct a page of lyrics. I also love his take on politics and his use of awesome textures to get across his thoughts. If I could ever get round to doing work like this I would be happy. I have an ongoing art project at the moment which features a guys mouth in the bottom right corner of the piece and planes flying out that turn into birds. I really want it to be as graphical as Alex's work but I guess it is just about finding my stride and grappling around with Illustrator. Inspiring his work is.

Battlestar Galactica

So if you aren't already watching Battlestar Galactica the new series do yourself a favour. Sign up for Love Film and get them to start by sending you the mini-series followed by season one. This show is absolutely brilliant. It is consistent each episode in that it delivers a dark and realistic vision of the future. I know this sounds a bit trite and for those of you who hate sci-fi fear not, this show is accessible to all. What this show features are intense character studies underlined by an overall story arc. Without wishing to give too much away the focus is on a bunch of people who work on the Battlestar Galactica and who get to watch as their home world is destroyed by a nuclear attack. They are the last of the race of men and are being hunted by a sinister alien force. Their only hope is to find a new home and this becomes their quest. If you know no more than this consider yourself lucky and go along for the ride.

Itsu good

I got the chance yesterday to venture out into the cold streets of London on my lunch break and try out Itsu a new chain of sushi restaurants opening up in central London. I had seen their soho branch before but never gone in. The Picadilly branch is a lot closer to work so off I trotted. What is great about this place is the way they have packaged their product. Everything looks achingly yummy. The fish really is beautifully fresh and their selection of togo sushi looks all too tempting. I grabbed the omega 3 salmon sampler which had three salmon rolls, 3 chilli salmon rolls, 3 veggie rolls and a beautiful glass noodle and herb salad. The dressing for the salad was sweet and spicy and the usual pickled ginger and wasabi went well with the sushi (although thinking about it I couldn't open the wasabi packet). The restaurant itself has a small amount of seating along bars so you can dine in if need be. Everything from the logo design to the interior decor to the staff uniform is clean and crisp which is totally the message they are trying to get across. They also sell things like boxes of noodles; packets of wasabi peas; jasmine tea; bowls of exotic fruit sliced lengthways (which really does make fruit look more tempting). On the whole I think their product is spot on. I will be back (when my budget allows....yes it is expensive). This is by far the best fast food sushi in London at the moment and the place was suitably packed.

Steer well clear of Bulldog

This is my recent letter to OFCOM regarding my shockingly poor treatment by Bulldog Broadband.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to inform you of my shockingly bad treatment by the company Bulldog Broadband. Having arrived back in the UK after a 6 year hiatus I was eager to take advantage of the great deals available to new customers and the marketing of Bulldog lured me in with their promise of 16meg broadband. I signed up on the 23rd May 2006 when I moved into my new flat and the waiting began. The first thing to arrive after a week was the modem. Fine. A few days later an engineer arrived to transfer the line from NTL to Bulldog. I was then able to plug in the phone. The phone line worked exactly one day before it simply stopped working. My modem did not work at all.

I phoned Bulldog and had the frustratingly bad time trying to get through to their various departments. They were obviously inundated with calls at that time as the wait times were painful and I was often on the phone for an hour or more on hold. In the end they agreed to send out another modem. This did not arrive. By this point I had been waiting for service for two months. We were well into July. I was stranded in a new country with no phone and no internet which was very frustrating for me trying to keep in touch with family and friends and impossible for my partner who was trying to find work in London. I phoned Bulldog eight times in this period speaking to different people and departments. I was extremely upset.

On July 27th I got through to their complaint department where the person there listened to my story and agreed that Bulldog had failed at every step to provide me with service. They could not tell me what was wrong with my phone line, how long it would take to issue me a new modem or when I would get service. The woman I spoke to apologised profusely for my poor treatment and agreed that they had broken the contract and would cease the agreement. I asked if I owed any monies and she said no. I took that at face value but did ask for it to be put in writing. I did not hear anything back from them.

Two months later I started to receive online bills. The bills showed that I now owed money for each of the months I had signed up with them for. This happened in September and October. Both times I phoned and was put through to their various departments after excessively long wait times. Each time I was reassured that this was an administration error. That my account had been closed and cancelled and that I would receive an email confirming the closure of my account. Nothing arrived.

A few days ago I received a final bill from Bulldog for £450 which was the bill for the twelve month term of my contract. After speaking to various people they decided that I now owed them for the full contract. I am disgusted by this.

This new company which has gone through a huge change of service provider from C&W to Pipex in the time I was a customer there, cannot even provide enough communication between it’s departments to sort this matter out. Their initial teething problems have not allowed for the fact that they could not cope with their initial demand for their service and could not release the customers they failed.

I have not had a single day of internet or phone service in my time with Bulldog. They had two months to provide me with service and they failed. I was told by them that they had broken the contract and that I would be released with nothing to pay. Had they told me otherwise I would have stayed with them because frankly I cannot afford to pay this sum to them.

I am absolutely disgusted by their treatment of me. As an IT professional and someone who works in the internet industry I will be strongly recommending to everyone I know that they should not go with Bulldog Broadband. I would really appreciate some advise from OFCOM as to my next move. I will be seeking legal council however I fear that this will be more costly than the overall bill I have received.

Kaboodle

So I was rummaging through my amazon wish list the other day at the request of my family (birthday is coming up this weekend and Christmas is around the corner) when I thought....hey wouldn't it be nice to have a wish list that wasn't so amazon centric. So I did a little digging and I found Kaboodle. It really is a superb app. It is cross-browser friendly which is good. But the gem to this app lies in the buttons that you create. These are basically links which you save as a bookmark. On the mac I save them as tabs (if you haven't discovered tabbed browsing yet you are simply living in the dark ages). I have labelled my tab "+" so effectively I have a button that whenever I come across something I want I click on this plus tab and it adds the info to my kaboodle wish list. You get a chance to see if the info is correct by selecting the correct image and price but usually it is very good. Not only does Kaboodle do wish lists but it also does top movies. I spent a little time doing mine and here it is.... my top movies If you want to see more click on the title of this post and the link should take you to Kaboodle. Let me know if you like and use it.....

Casino Royale

Well I finally got to see the much anticipated (for me anyway) Casino Royale the new James Bond (kind of) pre-quel. The movie opens with a blue tinted and de-saturated Bond (a.k.a. Daniel Craig) explaining how and why he is a double O namely that he has and will need to kill two people to achieve his status. In the scheme of super-spy dom two kills seems a bit lame. And has this ever been mentioned or explained in another Bond? Not to my knowledge.

And then NO BOND MUSIC just straight into the opening title sequence which was absolutely stunning...
sorry for the bad quality of this link but you get the gist. To be honest I was pretty disappointed with the movie. It delved into love story a little too much for my liking. The plot held it back in many ways as the focus became a few disjointed card games held together with some action. Daniel Craig is a good Bond and will be fine to carry on the franchise (he also looks great in a speedo !!) But the movie just seemed a little too long. Sorely missed was Q and his gadgets. There was no super villain only a well acted and ultimately flawed villain who you end up kind of sympathising with, namely Le Chiffre played by Mads Mikkelsen. Also missing is the big set pieces and villain hide out. Oh and a big Bond Theme was amiss. The main Bond theme happens at the end (phew) and I can see why they put it there as he has earned the music by the end.

I think being such a big Bond fan went against me with this movie. Perhaps time will let me warm to this movie. We shall see.
6.5/10

Goodbye to a legend :(

Sad day yesterday as Robert Altman dies. He truely was a legend. Some of my personal favs of his were Gosford Park, Cookie's Fortune, Short Cuts, The Player and of course M.A.S.H. His first movie was in 1970 and he died yesterday at the age of 81. So he started directing films at the age of 45. Gives hope to us all that anything is possible at any age of life.

Ok my first post. Welcome. Not sure how you found this blog. I'm guessing you have done a search for this kind of thing. Well here I am new to the digital world and ready to learn at an exponential rate. I am settled at my work which is great. I'm not going to reveal which digital agency I work at (for now at least) and I can't tell you which campaigns I am working on...but once they are trafficked and live I will of course post links to them :) I think the main aim to this site is to have a platform to connect with the digital community and to share tips and tricks that will help us all.