Director Lea Esmaili Joins Blinkink for UK Representation
November 21, 2024
High concept, low budget: a disarming and charming combination of balloon skin and pointy stuff conceived and executed in-house by the Dollar Shave Club with their go-to helmer, LA director/photographer Jeff Minton, in charge.
[Watch]
The real-world smartphone zombie phenomenon is proving a deep and rich vein of comic-tragedy for animated filmmakers. Here’s a round up of three of the best we’ve seen over the last 12 months: “Life Smartphone” by Xie Chenglin, Stromae “Carmen” by Sylvain Chomet, and “Way Out” by Yukai Du. [Watch]
Easily the strangest and funniest PSA you will see this year, “Stop The Roadkill” finds Hornet director Peter Sluszka and his six puppeteers trapped in the wilds of Forrest Park, Queens for a three-night shoot on behalf of the Humane Society and German auto parts maker Bosch. [Watch]
At 9:30pm on Christmas eve 1966, New York TV station WPIX debuted a three-hour program comprised of a single 17-second, 16 millimeter looped clip of the Gracie Mansion fireplace with carols as a soundtrack. Then… [Watch]
Striking new spot for Lipton’s T.O tea machine from Rogue director Saam Farahmand features Cirque du Soleil talent performing all manner of aquatic gyrations while dressed in costumes rigged to release dye and streams of bubbles augmented by a team of 35 VFX artists at The Mill. [Watch]
The bad news: we’re all part of the deforestation economy. The good news: Forest 500 tracks how key companies, investors and governments are performing in the race to remove deforestation from global supply chains. [Watch]
Turner Sports’ Bleacher Report leaps from the clutter with their maiden ad campaign, leaving no animation style unexplored in this manic, two-minute character romp created by Gentleman Scholar thru agency barrettSF and powered by a remixed track from CA hip-hop duo Blackalicious. [Watch]
New York director Kris Mercado talks to Stash about smashing together dot matrix printers, cel animation, found footage, live action, and stop motion to conjure a certain low-fi chaos he calls “retro funk weirdness” for rap legend Kool Keith and young hip-hop producer L’Orange.
[Watch]
Now in its fifth year, the fast-rising Berlin Fashion Film Festival offers you a unique and prestigious showcase for all your design and style-heavy projects including lifestyle, fashion and beauty work for the travel, hotel, food, drink and automobile industries. [Watch]
Turning rock stars into motion-captured dancing apes will cause both snickers and shudders in some quarters, but UK director Mat Whitecross lets fun trump any and all artistic concerns in his new Coldplay video with Andy Serkis in charge of MC and Mathematic creating the CG chimps and their jungle environment. [Watch]
Otto, the European online retail behemoth, joins this year’s parade of heart-tugging holiday spots with this wonderfully lit character work from Psyop directors/co-founders Marie Hyon and Marco Spier thru Stink and Berlin agency Heimat. Check the making-of for more from Marie and Marco. [Watch]
Directing collective CANADA mix live action, hand-drawn animation and VFX, into a riveting hormonal cocktail for Tame Impala’s latest single “The Less I Know The Better” thru Universal Music Australia. [Watch]
StoryCorps’ mission to “record, share and preserve the stories of our lives” gains momentum this holiday with the release of their app (iOS and Android) designed to help us all make history by interviewing a grandparent or other elder for the Great Thanksgiving Listen. [Watch]
National Geographic Channel’s Emmy-nominated series Brain Games punches out of the broadcast clutter with this whimsical and intensely detailed CG promo from the master of such things, Roof director Vinicius Costa. [Watch]
