Blogbook
This crazy ad about the creative process by the Royal Danish Theatre is amazing (What did we just watch!?). About the theatre:
The Royal Danish Theatre has been located at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen since 1748, originally designated as the king’s theatre but with public access. The first edifice on the site was designed by court architect Nicolai Eigtved, who also masterminded Amalienborg Palace. In 1774, the old theatre seating 800 theatregoers was reconstructed by architect C.F. Harsdorff to accommodate a larger audience.
During the theatre’s first seasons the staffing was modest. Originally, the ensemble consisted of eight actors, four actresses, two male dancers and one female dancer. Gradually over the following decades, the Royal Danish Theatre established itself as the kind of multi-theatre we know today, home to drama, opera, ballet and concerts – all under the same roof and management.
An important prerequisite for the theatre’s artistic development are its schools. The oldest is the ballet school, established at the theatre in 1771. Two years later, a vocal academy was established as a forerunner for the opera academy. A number of initiatives were considered regarding a drama school, which was established much later.
Credits
Client: Royal Danish Theatre
Agency: Wichmann/Schmidt
Production Company: New Land
Director: Casper Balslev
These hilarious Organic Valley ads are a riff off hipster coffee culture. “We’re going to need one of those modern logos with an x in it!” Via Adweek:
“It’s pretty obvious coffee culture has become a parody of itself, considering how seriously it takes itself,” David Littlejohn, creative chief at Humanaut, which crafted the campaign (as well as Organic Valley’s earlier lauded efforts), tells Adweek. “The truth is, Organic Valley dairy farmers have the same amount of craft and passion for their product, but they would never talk about organic milk with the same level of pretension. We knew there was a funny tension between farmers and baristas we could play with.”
In the store, the coffee itself was placed off to the side in stainless steel carafes, and available free of charge—just like milk, cream and, yes, half-and-half are in more traditional cafes.
“What surprised us most is that people didn’t seem that thrown off or confused by a coffee shop that only sold organic half-and-half,” says Littlejohn. “No one had a problem paying $2 for a pour of organic half-and-half. In the end, the idea wasn’t as crazy as we thought it was.”
Credits
Client: Organic Valley
Agency: Humanaut
Chief Creative Director: David Littlejohn
Chief Strategist: Andrew Clark
Copywriters: Liza Behles, Andy Pearson, Tyler Sharkey
Design Director: Stephanie Gelabert
Designer: Coleson Amon
Account Director: Elizabeth Cates
Production Company: The Bindery
Director: Eric Ryan Anderson
Executive Producer: Greg Beauchamp
Director of Photography: Josh Goleman
Producer: Bo Armstrong
Production Manager: Lee Manne
Editor: Tyler Beasley / Fancy Rhino
Post Producer: Katie Nelson / Fancy Rhino
Music: Carl Cadwell / Skypunch Studios
Store Design: Pink Sparrow Scenic
Blizzard Entertainment’s Pixar-esque Overwatch short films remind us that it is still the king of game cinematic animation. There are four short films in this season, each featuring a few different characters from Blizzard’s upcoming Team Fortress style pvp shooter ‘Overwatch’. The above film is ‘Dragon’, about the Shimada brothers. Via Inverse:
Like the other videos released so far, the fourth trailer in a series of cinematic videos stars a specific Overwatch character in his own independent, one-shot adventure. The other characters who have starred in their own cinematic trailers include fan favorites like Winston, Tracer, Widowmaker, Hanzo, and Genji.
Light on any actual gameplay information, these trailers instead focus on the lore and characterization of their large roster of playable champions.
With the final cinematic trailer, Blizzard might as well be teasing an entire cinematic universe based around their universally appealing characters. These stories are crafted with immense attention to detail and design that rival some of the best animated films currently released in full. This is only one avenue that is available to Blizzard if they’re looking to expand their Overwatch brand beyond their video game.
The other films in the set:
and of course the main cinematic trailer:
As part of its brand roll up leading towards the game’s release this week, Blizzard linked up with Droga5 to create a set of public installations globally, including a Tracer statue on Hollywood Boulevard, a Genji statue in Paris, and a third yet-to-be-seen statue in Busan, South Korea.
Rocket scientists attempt to re-engineer the stiletto heel for high performance, comfort and fashion. If they can make a stiletto heel comfortable… feels like black magic to me! Preorders will soon be available via their website, for the hefty price of $350-$925 USD. Via Bazaar:
On some days, Dolly Singh could easily walk three miles across the hard, white floors of the sleek 550,000-square-foot headquarters of SpaceX, the place founded by billionaire genius Elon Musk that plans to colonize Mars. As lead recruiter from 2008 to 2013, Singh gave roughly 5,000 tours of Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX — almost always in heels — to show jobseekers where they might work.
While her company aimed for the heavens, the 37-year-old Singh was keenly aware of her feet. A lover of heels, she noticed that shoes easy to wear in her twenties were becoming painful in her early thirties. There was late-in-the-day foot fatigue and painful friction from shoes cut too narrow in the toe bed. Instead of trading down to flats, however, Singh considered the painful irony of her situation — and sought a solution.
“You are concurrently walking one of the most advanced engineering facilities in the world, where the impossible is possible every day,” she said. “Then you’re like, ‘This is a stupid problem, and somebody should fix it.'”
A supernova fragment explodes – this is the first film of Tycho, collated from astronomers’ observations via many telescopes. From the video:
When the star that created this supernova remnant exploded in 1572, it was so bright that it was visible during the day. And though he wasn’t the first or only person to observe this stellar spectacle, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe wrote a book about his extensive observations of the event, gaining the honour of it being named after him. In modern times, astronomers have observed the debris field from this explosion – what is now known as Tycho’s supernova remnant – with many telescopes including the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Since much of the material being flung out from the shattered star has been heated by shock waves – similar to sonic booms from supersonic planes – passing through it, the remnant glows strongly in X-ray light. Astronomers used Chandra observations from 2000 through 2015 to create the longest movie of the Tycho remnant’s X-ray evolution over time – the first such movie of Tycho ever made. This movie shows that the expansion from the explosion is still continuing about 450 years after Tycho Brahe and others witnessed the event. By combining the X-ray data with some 30 years of observations in radio waves with the VLA, also producing a movie, astronomers have used these data to learn new things about this supernova and its remnant. So grab some popcorn and enjoy this early summer movie. It will be unlike any you’ll see in the theater!
Run & Gun is an unusual mock film trailer made by actor JD Walsh and a crew filming with ‘extras’ who are random people found off the street. While many refuse, some end up pretty game for it, and the result is a surprisingly intense thriller ‘trailer’ about a cop looking for his son.
About the Director
JD Walsh was born in 1974 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA as John Walsh. He is an actor and producer, known for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Love Liza (2002) and Bad Boys II (2003). He is also the founder of Ultimate Improv, an improvisational comedy club located in Westwood, Los Angeles, California responsible for the spoof of Les Misérables’ “One Day More” called “Les Misbarack“, which has over a million views on YouTube. Via his site:
JD Walsh is a graduate of UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. In 1999 JD became the Artistic Director of Ultimate Theater in Westwood CA. Ultimate was founded on the belief that theater does not need to be fast, loud and soulless but instead takes patience, risk and heart. He has been a visiting instructor at the Globe Theater in San Diego as well as lecturing in Chicago, New Zealand, Boston and New York.
Sailing a Sinking Sea is a feature-length experimental documentary about the culture of the Moken people of Burma and Thailand. From the excerpt:
The Moken are a seafaring community and one of the smallest ethnic minority groups in Asia, traditionally spending eight months out of the year in thatch-roofed wooden boats. Wholly reliant upon the sea, their entire belief system revolves around water. Sailing A Sinking Sea weaves a visual and aural tapestry of Moken mythologies and present-day practices. As a viewer you will swim under the sea past fishes and mermaids, sail boats across turquoise waters, land on 13 different islands, step inside sea shanties on stilts, delve into the minds of shamans, become possessed through the worship of sea gods, dance between lovers and emerge drenched in Moken mythology.
Some notes from the director:
Almost every single Moken survived the Tsunami of 2004, thanks to premonitions from their shamans and ancestral wisdom gained from generations of living intimately with the sea. Numbering less than 3,000 they are the nomads scattered throughout the Andaman Sea and the Mergui Archipelago of Thailand and Myanmar. Living symbiotically with the sea they have a relationship seamlessly integrated with one of the most powerful forces in nature that it has manifested in living myths. In the wake of the tsunami, the Moken have come under unprecedented pressure to assimilate into the mainstream and the mainland.
Via creative agency SoulPancake, people from all ages answer the question “What is your purpose in life?”. Participants ranged from aged 6 to 105, and had a range of different opinions and perspectives, from adorable to philosophical.
SoulPancake was founded by actor Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Schrute from the Office) and his fellow Baha’i friends Joshua Homnick and Devon Gundry in 2008, though it was “never a Baha’i thing, but it is a Baha’i inspired thing.” One of Fast Company’s 10 Most Innovative Companies in Video for 2015, SoulPancake is also ranked #114 on the 2015 Inc. 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America List. Their popular video series include Kid President and The Science of Happiness. They were also involved a viral brand stunt for Purina, Kitten Therapy:
Their YouTube channel has 1.5 million subscribers and more than 210 million views. From TechCrunch:
The idea behind the platform is to get us thinking about life’s deeper meanings on love, faith, and death – and it resonated with Oprah Winfrey, who asked the site to start making video content for her. “When the queen of television asks you to do something, you do it,” CEO Shabnam Mohgharabi told TechCrunch on a recent visit.
Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter stars in an interactive billboard in Disneyland – livestreamed from a studio, as part of a marketing drive for the upcoming sequel to the financially successful 2010 film, which grossed over $1 billion worldwide. First appearing as a still image, Depp’s Mad Hatter interacted with Disneyland guests via a video camera hidden at the top of the display cabinet as he was recorded live from an undisclosed studio described as “somewhere in Wonderland.” The second film opens worldwide on May 27, and is based on Lewis Carroll’s book “Through the Looking Glass”. Via IMDB:
When Alice wakes up in Wonderland she must travel through a mysterious new world to retrieve a magical scepter that can stop the evil Lord of Time before he turns forward the clock and turns Wonderland into a barren, lifeless old world. With the help of some new friends, Alice must also uncover an evil plot to put the Queen of Hearts back on the throne.
This film marks Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s ninth collaboration together following Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Dark Shadows (2012). This is also their first collaboration wherein Tim doesn’t direct, but produces.
Mat Maitland’s surrealist work for Komono watches is inspired by the art of René Magritte. The Belgian watch company’s campaign ad pays homage to the artist, a Belgian 20th Century master of surrealism, in a collection of 6 watches. According to Komono:
His deceptively simple juxtapositions of day and night, of ordinary things in an exceptional context created a unique visual language that remains instantly recognizable and unparalleled to this day.
Komono feels a kinship to Magritte that extends beyond their shared geographical birthplace: we are also fond of ignoring the ‘rules’, placing the common fashion accessory in an exceptional context, creating unexpected combinations and blurring boundaries between high art, fashion and design.
The dream-like, surrealist style of Magritte is translated into six unique watch designs. All watches have a unique printed wristband with leather details of an embossed Magritte signature. Each piece depicts a different detail of a particular Magritte painting and comes in a unique, limited edition Magritte packaging.
The entire capsule collection will be available starting May 4th 2016 at selected online and offline retailers.
Born in 1898, René Magritte was best known for his often witty surrealist paintings such as “The Pilgrim”, and has influenced pop, minimalist and conceptual art.