Click here to view the embedded video.

The promo for Dels’ “Trumpalump” looks at the space between fantasy and reality and very cleverly focuses on a line from the track, as the directors behind the promo explain it:

“Our process of generating ideas always starts with the lyrics. With Dels it helps massively that his lyrics create such vivid images, for example in Trumpalump we took inspiration from his line ‘do we dream in colour or black and white?’..” ….ooh, how very Inception.

It’s directed by us, AKA Christopher Barrett & Luke Taylor, double D&AD award winners, who also run their own multi-disciplinary graphic design and branding studio, alongside shooting promos and commercials with Academy Films.

You must watch the promo through to the end, as the more it goes on, the cleverer it gets. Shot on a shoestring, made possible by using mates (the twin girls are friends of Dels) and by doing everything in-camera…no possibility of an Inception-style post prod budget in the promo world these days! And that’s precisely what makes the piece so exciting and inventive. Out goes budget; in comes creativity.

If you like this, check out the Making Of too:

Mintsource is BBH’s internal initiative to provide BBH with an opportunity to seeing fresh, alternative and up and coming talent.  A kind of director’s showcase for the ‘unusual suspects’ in the film directing and animation world.

And here’s a little more info on Instant, if Bob’s demo leaves you slightly confused. Apparently Google Instant will save 350 million hours of user time per year.

“The best camera is the one you have with you.” (Chase Jarvis, see: http://j.mp/ad29YM)

Powerful technologies and tools for creativity and filmmaking used to be exclusively in the hands of professionals. The cost of entry was high and the learning curve steep. With the recent launch of Apple’s 4th generation iPhone, consumers can now carry in their pockets a device fully capable of capturing, editing and publishing HD videos. This is an exciting prospect – no more grainy, pixelated, thumbnail-sized videos of our funniest or most beloved moments or the latest breaking news story.

Imagine what Gordon Gekko could achieve with this.

Only a few short days after iPhone 4 hit the marketplace, an exceptionally impressive example of the film-making potential of the device surfaced. This film, “Apple of My Eye” directed by Michael Koerbel, was shot and edited entirely on an iPhone 4 in under 48 hours.

“Apple of My Eye” – an iPhone 4 film – UPDATE: Behind the scenes footage included from Michael Koerbel on Vimeo.

The gap between professional and consumer production quality is narrowing and we’re excited to see what people will create with these new tools. Even just a week after the new iPhone4 launched we’d started to notice a new strand of film-making emerging using the new technology. Following a quick Twitter exchange between Craig Elimeliah at Freedom & Partners, Ben Malbon and myself, F&P were able to quickly design and develop a platform to showcase our appreciation for the power and creativity that the iPhone4 offers in the area of movie-making.

We’re calling it The iOScars.

In the spirit of leading by example, here’s one I shot during a weekend trip.

So do you have an iPhone 4 and a story to tell? Let’s see what you can do.

http://www.theiOScars.com

@TheiOScars

CREDITS

Craig Elimeliah (@craigelimeliah)

Seth Weisfeld (@seth_weisfeld)

Ben Malbon (@malbonnington)

Rina Miele (@honeydesign)

Brian Kadar (@briankadar)

BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

direction and animation by BLU
blublu.org
production and distribution by ARTSH.it
artsh.it
sountrack by ANDREA MARTIGNONI

“Do what we can, summer will have its flies:

if we walk in the woods, we must feed mosquitoes:

if we go a-fishing, we must expect a wet coat.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was lucky enough to meet Jeff Scher this weekend, a ridiculously talented & leftfield painter, animator and experimental film maker from DUMBO, in Brooklyn. Jeff’s works are in MoMA, and have been screened at film festivals around the world. He also teaches at the School of Visual Arts and at N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts. I knew we were going to get on when – within 10 seconds of meeting, literally – he was walking me through his top 10 photography apps for the iPhone. I had no idea my collection of apps was so conservative. (One ‘app’ consisted entirely of wobbling the iPhone violently during the shot, creating a weird kind of trippy effect as the camera’s software corrects for the distortion – try it; it’s cool how the iPhone tries to make sense of it).

A selection of his films, “The Best of Times,” was just published as an iPhone and iPad app.

Anyway, take a look at this, below. It’s beautiful, emotive and perfectly captures the magic of my favourite time of year: summer. More details about the film, in Jeff’s own words (as originally published in the NYT) are below the film on the NYT site. (click to play). Music is by Shay Lynch.

Take a look at all Jeff’s work – http://fezfilms.net/

This is one of my favourites of his previous films, ‘L’eau Life’.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And if you’re into it and want to find out more about Jeff, here’s a 5 minute documentary piece on YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

]]> http://bbh-labs.com/summer-hours-a-short-film-about-warm-sun-cool-water-a-few-mosquitoes-by-jeff-scher/feed 0 http://bbh-labs.com/we-know-chrome-is-fast-but-is-opera-faster-than-a-potato http://bbh-labs.com/we-know-chrome-is-fast-but-is-opera-faster-than-a-potato#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 16:17:55 +0000 Ben Malbon http://bbh-labs.com/?p=5233 We enjoyed the new spoof of BBH New York’s / Google Creative Labs ‘Speed Tests’ films for Google Chrome.

We particularly like the casting of two ‘Scandinavian’ looking gents as the main protagonists; perhaps a gentle reference to our own ECDs on the project, Calle and Pelle Sjoenell.

Here’s the original, in case you missed it.

And here’s our film about how we made them.

Finally, a few snaps from the shoot.

]]> http://bbh-labs.com/we-know-chrome-is-fast-but-is-opera-faster-than-a-potato/feed 9 http://bbh-labs.com/violently-elemental-yet-beautiful-time-lapse-of-eyjafjallajokull-erupting-may-2010 http://bbh-labs.com/violently-elemental-yet-beautiful-time-lapse-of-eyjafjallajokull-erupting-may-2010#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 11:52:46 +0000 Ben Malbon http://bbh-labs.com/?p=5077 During the eruption of the volcano that no one can pronounce (or barely even spell) Sean Stiegemeier took his Canon 5D Mark II out and produced this rather ace short film, set to music sung by Jónsi (lead singer of Icelandic band Sigur Rós).

We like the ethereal music mashed up with something that is, essentially, destructive. Violently elemental. Yet beautiful.

For best effect set to HD and then go full-screen. Turn it up.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

He notes on his Vimeo page (full of other very cool projects – check it out):

—

“So I saw all of these mediocre pictures of that volcano in Iceland nobody can pronounce the name of, so I figured I should go and do better. But the flights to get over took forever as expected (somewhat). 4 days after leaving I finally made it, but the weather was terrible for another 4. Just before leaving it got pretty good for about a day and a half and this is what I managed to get.

Wish I had more time. I missed all the cool Lightning and the Lava of the first eruption. But I figure this will just be a trial run for another day.

I am of course accepting sponsors to send me back there for more please…!! haha

Music: Jónsi – Kolniður (jonsi.com)
Canon 5d mkII
HUGE thanks for the Motorized Dolly via MILapse (vimeo.com/milapse). Details are to come soon so stay tuned…

© Sean Stiegemeier
in-perfidia.com

—

Many thanks to @finnbarrw for the heads-up.

The first film is for Chrome Extensions, and demonstrates how users can personalize their browser. The music used is Fats Waller’s (Do You Intend to Put an End to) A Sweet Beginning?

The second film is for Chrome Translate, the range of translation features that are built in to Chrome, and that enable users to seamlessly translate Internet pages from one language to another.

Both of these films are quite unlike most other tech product demos. They use lo-fi, hand-made elements and simple metaphors to show how the products work. There’s no hype. No extravagant claims. We instead try and keep everything simple.

As with our previous work for Chrome at the end of 2009, we worked with the extraordinary production team at 1st Avenue Machine in New York. The films were directed by 1st Avenue Machine’s Aaron Duffy & Tim Brown.

We hope you enjoy them. They look particularly great in HD on YouTube (click through the videos and then select the HD button).

And watch out for more new work for Google to come in the next few weeks.

Credits

Client: Google EMEA

Titles: Google Chrome Extensions/Translate the Internet with Google Chrome

Agency : Bartle Bogle Hegarty New York

CCO: Kevin Roddy

ECD: Calle Sjoenell, Pelle Sjoenell

AD/CW: Maja Fernqvist

AD/CW: Joakim Saul

Head of Broadcast: Lisa Setten

Senior Producer: Melissa Bemis

Business Director: Ben Malbon

Acct. Manager: Rossa Hsieh

Production Company: 1st Avenue Machine

Director: Tim Brown

Co-Director: Aaron Duffy

DP: Zak Mulligan

Exec. Producer: Sam Penfield

Line Producer: Keely Gould

Editorial Company: Lost Planet

Editor: Charlie Johnston

Assistant Editor: Christopher Huth

Exec. Producer: Krystn Wagenberg

Producer: Meagen Carroll

Telecine: Company 3

Telecine Artist: Billy Gabor

Online Facility: Black Hole

Online Editor: Tim Farrell

VFX Company: Black Hole

Producer: Tim Vierling

Audio Facility: Plush

Audio Engineer: Rob Fielack

Music: Extensions

Music Supervisor: Sara Matarazzo, Anna Lasxurain & Stephanie Diaz-Matos

Title: (Do You Intend To Put An End To) A Sweet Beginning Like This

Artist: Fats Waller

Music: Translate

Music Supervisor: Sara Matarazzo, Anna Lascurain & Stephanie Diaz-Matos

Title: Plastic Sunshine

Composed by: Steven Stern and Stuart Hart

The Sandpit from Sam O’Hare on Vimeo.

This is a stunning piece of film, shot by Sam O’Hare in NYC, in miniature and using a shallow depth of field. Worth noting right at the outset that the tilt-shift effect was faked in post (but the overall effect is far from lessened because of this).

For best results hit HD and watch in full screen. And turn it up.

There’s a really great interview with O’Hare here, on the Aero Film site. Here’s a sample, in which O’Hare talks about the equipment he used in putting this together. It involved over 35,000 stills.

The music is perfectly matched. It was specially written by Rosi Golan and Alex Wong, and composed by Human.

If you watch carefully there are some priceless moments, usually involving tiny characters doing things that look other-worldly when viewed in this way (I particularly like the scene in which someone sneaks out on their roof – this is shot in the height of the hottest part of the summer of 09 – to have a quick cigarette). One of the slightly odder things about the film is that despite seeing hundreds of people across the five minute piece, we don’t see a single face. This adds to the surreal, almost fake quality of the film.

Thanks to @finnbarrw for the heads-up.

Everything about it is right. Awesome.