Reel of the Month Club (Dec. 2024): Coat of Arms
December 21, 2024
The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark continues to incubate a broad range of impressive student work including this VFX stunner from a team of six 3rd year Character Animation and CG Arts students: “The fibers of our being are what we seek to control. Through dance, do we fight the chaos or let it go?” [Watch]
Intriguing live action and CG trailer for Polish sci-fi writer Jacek Dukaj’s new novel “The Old Axolotl” from director Maciej Jackiewicz and Warsaw’s 3D powerhouse Platige Image who also handled all the visual content for the e-book and key visuals for the promo campaign. [Watch]
Animation director Luiz Stockler at Agile Films in London leavens Australian surf veteran Rob Bain’s incredible story of a tsunami-induced near death experience with a subdued comic edge in the second of a series for Red Bull Media. [Watch]
Paris motion designer and art director Raphaël Bluzet just dropped us his newest animated short called “IN”: a quick stream of consciousness nightmare based on the illustrations of Yohan Quintar and starring an alternate-universe Buster Keaton re-imagined by Franz Kafka on a rough day. [Watch]
OFFSET, Dublin’s multi-disciplinary creative festival, opened their 2015 presentation on Friday with a title sequence jammed with cheeky felines and freeform typography created by London animation prodco Golden Wolf and hometown audio house Echolab. [Watch]
Blinkink directing duo Tom & Nicos create a striking in-camera mash-up of replacement stop-motion techniques including plasticine, felt and colored wool, plus projections and UV paint in this trailer for the “Cannibis on Trial” episode of Channel 4’s controversial Drugs Live doc series. [Watch]
Swiss minimalism slams sideways into glitched pixels in Sebastian Onufszak‘s seizure-inducing music video for “Laid Out” by Funkstörung feat. Anothr. which he calls “an artistic retrospective of Funkstörung’s discography inspired by the colors, symbols and typography used in their cover artworks.” [Watch]
Joseph Kahn broke the internet and the patience of two large media companies (looking at you Saban and Lionsgate) with the recent release of POWER/RANGERS, his hardcore update of a certain action franchise inexplicably dear to many otherwise sane people.
The 14-minute film was pulled down and then reinstated and has now spawned this BTS clip (shot and cut by Renn Brown with music by Brain and Melissa) showing just how the self-funded project happened from tech scout thru to cast/crew screening. [Watch]
Vancouver’s master storytellers Giant Ant take on the challenge to “communicate an environmentalist message to a right-leaning audience” in this warm and welcoming clip for Costa Sunglasses and their #Kickplastic campaign. [Watch]
Toronto’s Tendril showoff their full in-house toolbox in a interactive music video combining live action, haute design, animation and VFX to intro Molson Coors new Altitude lager thru Rethink. [Watch]
Barcelona studio Manson create the next installment of the animated first-person “California Inspires Me” series from Google Play and California Sunday Magazine: a surprising and insightful peek into the childhood of musician/composer/painter and DEVO co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh. [Watch]
Passion director Jon Saunders follows up his epic Nike “The Last Game” World Cup spot with another massive CG romp. The :60 spot is one of 14 produced thru Ogilvy & Mather, Paris to celebrate the 100th anniversary of arguably the most recognizable package design all time. [Watch]
If you’re as tired of cooler-than-thou skater videos as we are, you’re ready for Keith Schofield‘s new take-the-piss clip for “Somebody New” from Rochester’s Joywave. Make it past the first 50 seconds and things get weird, then progress into absolute madness. [Watch]
NYC freelance designer/animator Naoko Hara chooses an understated, abstract and painterly motion treatment for a powerful message from NYT best selling author, editor and transgender activist Janet Mock. Commissioned by the Fusion Network for their online series called Self Evidence. [Watch]
