Blogbook
Director Steve Cutts’ latest short film, Happiness, is about a rat trying to find happiness and fulfillment in modern society. Via Short of the Week:
In contrast to the thematic similarities that tie together his work, Cutts’ art style has shown remarkable diversity. His early ink style has evolved in disparate directions: from bright and flat (Any Time is Ice Cream Time) to darkly graphic (The Walk Home). Where They Are Now, a satirical imagining of retired cartoon characters gone to seed, and his award-winning Moby video show a nostalgic subversion of vintage cartooning styles. Throughout it all he has experimented with limited 3D objects in his largely 2D worlds, as well as mixed-media composites. His most recent Moby video, for In This Cold Place, is a perfect summation of these interests, as he is able to consolidate all these styles into one piece, using television as a thematic lens.
Happiness adopts the graphic style of The Walk Home, but marries it to the familiar vertiginous scale of his early work that compositing in his digital workflow enables. It is marvelous art, with a multitude of shots that deserve to be framed. Each scene is overflowing with information, from detailed backgrounds, to the cacophony of rat characters layered on top, and is, to my eyes, Cutts’ most mature and impressive work visually.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lGHZ5NMHRY
Holiday ad season is here, and Apple has released a gorgeous ad, Sway, with professional dancers acting as its protagonists. Via Adweek:
The story picks up when she slams into a handsome stranger, who catches her mid-twirl. As they gaze into each other’s faces, lives transforming and whatnot, the woman puts one of her AirPods into his ears, creating a connection that enables them to move together.
The stars of “Sway” are actually married professional dancers, who met while auditioning for a dance company in New York City.
You can feel their affinity as they dance through the glistening foundations of their relationship. The choreography is deceptively light-footed, orchestrated to feel like spontaneous intimacy; some moments are breathtaking, like when the man boosts the woman into the air for a flip.
“Sway” ends with a classic trope: As the couple draw near for a kiss, the magical darkness gives way to the raw light of reality. None of this has happened. They are simply strangers who bumped into each other, but who feel the tug of what could be.
“Move someone this holiday,” the piece concludes.
Apple likes to think of its holiday films as “a greeting card from the brand to the world,” which is an apt description: They give Apple a chance to tell stories that diverge from the codes that inform its work throughout the rest of the year. The results are often surprising.
Other Apple holiday season ads include the acclaimed Misunderstood (below), which took home an Emmy:
Son of Jaguar is a Google Spotline VR 360 short by Jorge Gutierrez of Book of Life fame, about an aging Mexican wrestler who lost a leg. Via Hollywood Reporter:
Google Spotlight Stories offered a preview of The Book of Life director Jorge Gutierrez’s first virtual-reality/360 short, titled Son of Jaguar, this week at CG conference SIGGRAPH. A release date hasn’t yet been announced.
“I was a VR skeptic, then I saw Patrick Osborne’s Pearl. It made me cry, and I had to do this,” the helmer confessed.
The result is a “super personal” eight-minute animated short with the themes of family and tradition.
Occurring on Mexico’s Day of the Dead (as did Book of Life), Son of Jaguar’s emotional story is set in the Mexican wrestling world and follows a family man and the son of famous wrestler Jaguar, who is going into the ring against Lord Calavera, despite having lost a leg in a prior match.
“Mexican wrestling is very much a tradition passed down from generation to generation, and there’s a legacy to live up to,” Gutierrez explained, adding that his original story was also inspired by traditional tales that his own father told him as a child.
Of the title character (whom he voiced), the director said, “In a weird way, that was me — I had autism, and my son has autism. The perception was, now life is going to be more difficult, and we have to make sacrifices. I wanted to take what is considered a weakness and make it a strength and use this as a positive.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EoJmi7npU0
Classic Specs x Milton Glaser of ‘I ❤ NY’ fame: Milton has moved from graphic design into designing sunglasses, and the results look good. Via DesignTaxi:
It’s almost impossible to be in graphic design and not hear of Milton Glaser. The renowned designer is responsible for the ‘I ❤ NY’ logo you see on shirts everywhere, and not just in New York; and who could ever forget the psychedelic Bob Dylan poster?
This time, Glaser has transcended from the realm of graphic design into unchartered product design territory. Expectedly, the transition seemed effortless.
In collaboration with New York-based eyewear brand Classic Specs, the notable figure has designed two sets of sunglasses that challenge the concept of “seeing.”
“Looking is not seeing” is the message Glaser hopes would reflect in the ‘Milton Glaser X Classic Specs’ collection. This is possibly in line with his beliefs of why art (seeing) and design (looking) are completely different disciplines.
His first creation, ‘FOLDO’, is an innovative pair with handles that extend to create a flat surface. Glaser designed this piece as an “exploration of shifting dimensions—2D and 3D.”
The second, ‘BOLDO’, features circular frames with expressive shields on each side. According to the site, “the clean modern lines of the ‘BOLDO’ are magnified by its sleek matte black finish.”
Yes there’s an environmental cost to free shipping – or at least, free two-day shipping. Vox examines the impact of online shopping and ways to make it more sustainable. Via i-D:
It won’t come as a huge surprise that fashion and beauty sales account for a significant proportion of the multi-billion dollar online shopping industry. With e-commerce growing at around 25% annually, right now there will be thousands of individually wrapped items of clothing and make-up tubes flying around in the air making their way from a giant warehouse to the home of whoever happened to log onto the internet and click ‘buy now’.
Buying online is integral to the modern shopping experience and most of us engage in it with little-to-no thought of its environmental impact. It’s difficult to argue with the luxurious novelty of buying a pair of discounted Alexander Wang sandals in the middle of the night from your remote country home miles away from the nearest store. Even better given there’s little risk involved as returns are typically accepted without question. With people all over the world regularly buying, trying and returning, this means your pair of shoes might make four or more long-haul flights before they find their Cinderella. It’s undeniably convenient but what impact is this having on our planet?
And this is where it gets tricky. If you’re not getting your outfit from an online store which relies on a relatively efficient, centralised warehouse for storage then you’re likely driving in your non-fuel efficient car to the store with all the bright lights and pretty bags to buy what you need. Both methods have their environmental pitfalls. And while research suggests that around 23% of online shoppers are going into stores less often and saving energy that way, there are so many variables in the fashion supply chain – from the types of vehicles used, the distance travelled, the cubic volume of individual shipments, failed deliveries, returns and so on – that to argue for one form of shopping being more planet friendly than another is actually very difficult. What we, and the companies making and selling the clothes, especially the producers of fast fashion, can do is be more mindful generally.
That Long and Lonesome Road to Grandma’s is a delightful grad film by Felipe Di Poi Tamargo of Rhode Island School of Design. Via Short of the Week:
Whenever trying to explain exactly why I’ve picked a film for Short of the Week, I often go back to our submission guide and check that a film matches the criteria we lay out in our ‘What We Look For’ section. Boiling it down to three attributes; Originality (Head), Emotion (Heart) and Craft (Hand), for me That Long & Lonesome Road to Grandma’s is a near perfect example of what makes a Short of the Week film.
In terms of originality, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the road trip narrative was one that had already been traveled too many times, but it’s to the director’s credit that That Long & Lonesome Road to Grandma’s feels fresh and distinct. Sure, the crux of the narrative is a little derivative, but it’s the quirks that makes this feel so damn original. From the character design to dialogue, Writer/Director Di Poi Tamargo has laced his short with so many imaginative touches, they all add up to one unforgettable viewing experience.
When you mention emotion in films, the default response is to expect to be left curled up in the fetal position bawling your eyes out and this certainly isn’t what you get with That Long & Lonesome Road to Grandma’s. Instead the sensation I had swirling inside of me after watching this film was one of pure happiness. Despite its absurdity, this is a surprisingly relatable short that is full of characters easy to connect to. Yet on a more basic level, it’s just a joy to watch! It’s playful, frivolous demeanor is infectious and this is such an under-appreciated response to filmmaking, it’s certainly one worthy of championing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAzX-PEMAD0
NASA veteran Cady Coleman helped to write this Volvo ad about an astronaut’s trip to space and back. Via Adweek:
Grey executive creative director Matt O’Rourke told Adweek that the Coleman connection came about when a music producer working on the campaign in its conceptual astronaut-and-husband phase said, “I have a cousin who’s also an astronaut. Do you want to talk to her?”
Coleman and copywriter Marisa Milisic ultimately collaborated to write the astronaut’s speech at the center of the film.
“I’ve hired consultants on other projects, but they’ve never been so involved or influential over the story we’re telling,” O’Rourke said. “It’s hard not to be inspired when you’re on the phone with an astronaut.”
The protagonist’s experience in the ad is not unlike Coleman’s own 20-plus-year stint as an astronaut. “I wanted to say it’s normal to have a family and be an astronaut,” she told Adweek. “You can be you and do the job that you dream of.”
O’Rourke said this spot most likely marks the end of this particular experiment with nonlinear narrative, but that he wants Volvo to keep exploring new forms of storytelling.
“My guess is we will be shifting gears, trying something new,” he said. “The [auto] category has gotten more into creating universes as opposed to single spots, and I want to keep pushing it,” he said. “It’s cool to see more brands and agencies exploring that model, because it makes TV more interesting to watch as opposed to 30 seconds of us talking about ourselves.”
Did you know – in between films, Keanu Reeves actually designs and builds custom motorcycles in a company that he co-founded. Via Wired:
This week, Reeves has abandoned Hollywood for Milan. The Italian city plays host to the Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori, or EICMA. He’s not at the world’s preeminent bike convention to gawk at the wares, however. He’s unveiling three new motorcycles he has spent the past years of his life designing and building.
“It’s international, it’s all the journalists and enthusiasts,” Reeves says. “For us, it’s let’s plant our flag. Let’s go to EICMA with three models, and hopefully people will really love what we make.”
By us, he means Arch Motorcycle, the shop he founded with his business partner and friend Gard Hollinger. They teamed up in 2007, when Reeves, a two-wheel enthusiast, asked Hollinger, a well-known bike designer, to make him a custom ride. He was so impressed with the final product, he convinced Hollinger to start building and selling a version of the bike to rich but discerning riders. The KRGT-1 is designed, bespoke, for each customer in Arch’s workshop just south of LA, for a price of around $78,000 and up.
For years, creating variations on that one model kept Reeves and Hollinger creatively content, and Arch hummed along. Now, the young outfit is expanding its scope with three new bikes. One is an updated version of the original KRGT-1 for 2018, with tweaked looks, upgraded suspension, better brakes, and EURO 4 emissions compliance, so it can be sold on the other side of the pond. The Arch 1s is a single-sided swing arm that offers a sportier, more aggressive ride than the average cruiser. Rounding out the trio is the “ultra-exclusive” Arch Method 143. Reeves and Hollinger will only make 23 of these “concept production” bikes.
Blizzcon 2017 rolled around, and Blizzard reminded us why they’re still the king of game cinematics with a new slew of short films, including another Pixar-level Overwatch cinematic (above) involving the character Reinhardt from Overwatch, as well as two other cinematics, for World of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm:
Behind the Cinematic had an interview with Jeff CHamberlain, Blizzard’s cinematic director:
Bailey: What’s it been like to watch the team evolve over the years?
Jeff: It’s been really fascinating. When I started here I would say there were probably around one hundred people, for the company in total. And in the cinematics department, I was the eleventh person. It was interesting. It started out as a small group. We all went to lunch together. We were all really young at the time, so we all hung out. Even after work we’d all go out together. Over the years we’ve gotten bigger and bigger. Back then we all did everything; we were all generalists in the trade. We all did modeling, animating, rigging, effects, lighting—all that stuff. But as we got bigger and bigger, we realized, obviously, we can’t have a group of two hundred people that do everything. So, it split off into all the different groups that you would expect to see in a movie studio. We had a group of animators, a group of riggers, and all that stuff. So, it’s changed a lot in that way.So, in developing those groups you create these sub-cliques. I think our department’s about two hundred people right now. I think it might be a little bit over. And so with two hundred people, you can’t all go to lunch together. So, it’s a little different that way.
But the benefit of having that many people is that we can create way more content. Back when we did stuff with a group of twelve people, we’d spend years on one project. Whereas now we can crank out multiple projects in a year. So, there are pros and cons. I prefer both for different reasons.
Tom Teller’s Icarus is a short film about a mother-son astronaut partnership, along with their quirky robot Kevin, with great VFX. Via Short of the Week:
There may come a day when I get tired of human-robot banter, but until then, I will take great joy in films like Tom Teller’s Icarus, a suspenseful live action-VFX hybrid about two astronauts (mother and son) and their quirky robot Kevin.
The plot is a routine one—one of the characters gets into trouble, and the others set off to save them—but the short is no less enjoyable for it. The impressive VFX work and high grade production values of Icarus are worth your time, and are supremely impressive, especially considering that the director was in film school at the time of production.
When the film came our way however, we were not surprised at the film’s stellar fusion of forms. Teller is no stranger to Short of the Week, or the short film world at large; we featured his last short Hum, and before that, he made a film called Harley about a strange, adorable fish that was Staff Picked by Vimeo. What all of these films have in common is small, realistic-looking creatures brought to life with superb VFX. I like how each of his animated characters fits into the world in a real way, and in Icarus, Teller challenges himself with a bigger budget, better actors, and a longer runtime.