Reel of the Month Club (Dec. 2024): Coat of Arms
December 21, 2024
Paris illustrator/director Jean-Michel Tixier’s light touch and clean draughtsmanship ease the delivery of a serious message in this spot for Agefiph, a French organization helping the handicapped to find work. Produced through international talent agency and production company Lord of Barbès. [Watch]
Blinkink directors Joseph Mann and Andrew Thomas Huang lead a massive crew into a three-week shoot of 16 live-action puppets and animated stop-motion models for Cravendale thru Wieden+Kennedy London. [Watch]
…in a TV Spot Goes to: The agency team at Propeg in Salvador, Brazil for this VFX-free head-shaker called “Almost” produced for The Association of Transplanted Patients Bahia (BA-ATX), a Brazilian nonprofit. [Watch]
I’m not a huge fan of low-fi low-brow culture but I do like laughing (and cringing) so have a look at this NSFW music video for rap-parody duo Buckwheat Groats with VFX by Joseph Fennimore who claims: “I do a lot of motion graphic, VFX and animation work in my free time.” File under guilty pleasure. [Watch]
Good thing most of you’ve been creating music videos with no budget for years otherwise this new automated music video generation tool called Rotor could be very depressing. From the Rotor site: “Rotor is the next generation music video creation tool. It’s been handcrafted by award-winning music video directors [Watch]
On March 13th the media world erupted with news of Wonder PL, a new online video platform aimed directly at Vimeo and YouTube. Like Vimeo it offers an ad-free experience for viewers and subscription-based hosting for video creators ($300/year for unlimited streaming) plus monetization tools.
We believe the upside of Wonder is the opportunity for content providers to reach a wider (non-industry) audience like they can on YouTube while maintaing the uncluttered viewing environment of Vimeo.
Yes, it will take time for Wonder to build that reach and for the motion industry to tug free from Vimeo’s near-monopoly, but there’s no denying the reality of a serious and thoughtfully designed alternative video platform is exciting.
Now that the initial Launch euphoria has eased, we asked Wonder founder Sofia Fenichell three questions:
Stash: What was lacking in the current online video world that inspired you to start a new platform?
Sofia Fenichell: A carefully thought out video platform that unearths and makes it easier to discover and share quality video content. Quality content is sitting on the shelves globally everywhere. There is the wrong perception that high quality content isn’t worth watching because it is not necessarily viral. That’s not true. Also, we believe the 30+ demographic has largely been underserved when it comes to online video. We are very focused on lifestyle categories across Knowledge, Food, Culture & the Arts, Home & Family, Entertainment and Wellness that might appeal to this demographic.
Stash: Currently all your content is curated. When will Wonder allow uploads from new users?
SF: We will be allowing uploads from new users at the end of April. We can’t wait! However, if you have great content, write to us because we are selectively bringing on new content providers.
Stash: Wonder looks poised to compete directly with Vimeo. Tell us the top three reasons content creators should switch to the Wonder platform.
SF: We have invested considerable resources in making sure the Wonder Platform is the best platform on the market:
1. Through our partnership with Ooyala, we built a custom player that enables the fastest video loading and high quality streaming. We want the viewing experience to be perfect.
2. We have created a set of tools to enable content providers to monetize their content via commerce, and soon VOD and PPV.
3. Our platform offers the best consumer experience across mobile and web giving content providers a means to reach consumers they were previously not able to reach and also to target them by demographic profile and interest graph. No one is doing this in the same way we are.
Contact Wonder at hello@wonderpl.com [Watch]
Czech-born digital artist/photographer/filmmaker/composer Murat Sayginer embarks on another acid-soaked trip down the 3D rabbit hole with his new clip called “Zodiac-Evolution.” While Murat’s earnest tone and exuberant use of CG tropes have a polarizing effect on audiences, we choose to file his work under [Watch]
Effective parody is hard to do and harder still to make it work for your brand. All the more reason to love this promotional film for stock footage house Dissolve based on a poem by Kendra Eash first published on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (read the poem after the jump) and all held together by Dallas McClain channeling Sam Elliott in a perfect VO. [Watch]
Julien Vallée and Eve Duhamel‘s claim to “favor a playful and experimental approach toward work” rings true in this whimsical clip for luxury brand Hermès Paris thru agencies Digitas France and Publicis Et Nous. Check the behind the scenes vid to watch the Montreal duo and their crew shoot everything live in-camera. [Watch]
UK audio and visual engineer/producer Harry Martis (aka Denial of Service) unleashes a fabulously dense and ominous abstract CG piece he describes as “another chemically-induced self-initiated project. All visuals completed in 3ds Max (utilizing some seriously intense PFlow scripting for the sound-reactive 3D [Watch]
The Kwan half of Daniels’ Kwan/Scheinert directing duo finally reveals his true inner self in this surgically choreographed jaw-dropper of frenzied testosterone. Pacing, casting, edit, VFX (by Zak Stoltz) all add up to 3.5 minutes-o-genius. Production: Prettybird, DOP: Larkin Seiple, edit: Paul Rogers, VFX: Zak Stoltz. [Watch]
Wonderfully eccentric hand-drawn animated festival trailer from German director/animator Merlin Flügel for the 2014 edition of AFTER SCHOOL CLUB, a free week-long art and design festival organized by students in Offenbach Germany “all about getting in touch and having a good time together.” Director/animator: Merlin Flügel Sound Design: Jonatan Schwenk Music: Felix Krapp [Watch]
Head of CG Andy Nicholas and the Rushes team in London create a strategic mix of 2D, 3D and live action for this fun in-house piece. “A key creative decision we made early on, was how to approach the various effects (smoke, water splashes, explosions, etc.) when dealing with a world being shown at such a small scale [Watch]
CDs Shaun Collings, Curtis Doss and the BBDG team in Santa Monica collaborated with Carl Sagan’s widow Anne Druyan and “Pulled from every talent in the shop” to create this vast, elegant and inspiring mix of micro and macro to open Fox’s re-launch of the ‘Cosmos’ series, including “shooting live action, creating [Watch]
