Some of the Prime Minister’s “key moments” since 2010 are celebrated in a new Facebook-style compilation from the Labour Party…
While applying ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ to party politics might suggest a rather simplistic approach, this spoof video hits the mark pretty well.
Soundtracked by a well chosen and whimsical piano track, A Look Back at a Tory Government features photos spotlighting several moments from the coalition’s years in power.
From “your first moments” and “your most unliked posts” to a brilliant “photos you’ve shared” gallery of shame (George Osborne is very much ‘that guy’ here), the film apes the tone of Facebook movies very convincingly.
It also ends nicely with a block of FB photos recreating Ed Miliband’s observation last week that the coalition front bench was an all male bastion. And then, well, there’s a big ‘thumbs down’. Not exactly subtle, but quite amusing nonetheless.
UK studio Universal Everything has designed an immersive app for Radiohead using artwork by Stanley Donwood and music from the song Bloom. We spoke to UE’s Matt Pyke and Mike Tucker about how it was made.
Polyfauna is free to download on iPhone, iPad and Android. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke says the concept was born out of an interest “in early computer-life experiments and the imagined creatures of our subconscious,” and provides “a window into an evolving world.”
The app guides users through a series of different landscapes, from vast forests to mountainous regions in daylight, darkness and at sunset. Visuals are set to expanded versions of Bloom and sounds from the band’s 2011 album, King of Limbs, composed by Radiohead and producer Nigel Godrich.
Users are greeted with a different virtual world each time they open the app, which they can explore by tilting their device to look up, down and around. They can also interact with it, creating lines, shapes, spiny creatures and plants by touching or swiping their screens.
Universal Everything has been working on Polyfauna for around six months and was first approached by Radiohead in 2011. “I received a mysterious email from Yorke under a pseudonym – he said he’d seen some of our work [an installation in Paris and a website for Warp Records], and would like to collaborate on an app,” he says.
The app was to be “an audio visual expression,” says Pyke. Donwood, who has created artwork for Radiohead since the early 1990s, had produced a series of sketches and paintings of trees, woods and landscapes, and the band were keen to bring his artwork to life.
Working with the artist and the band, Pyke and Universal Everything developer Mike Tucker created a series of 3D worlds that can be explored from all angles. “It’s not supposed to be used at a desk but while you’re stood up and moving around, like you would with a pair of binoculars,” says Pike.
Users can also take snapshots of the various scenes and shapes they have created and upload them to Radiohead’s new website.
“We wanted to add a nice layer of interaction so users weren’t just passively looking around. Stanley’s work has strong evidence of being created by hand, so we wanted to allow users to create life, too,” says Pyke.
The code which allows users to create these 3D creatures was generated using mathematical formulas that calculate the geometric pattern of a spine or fern growing in the wild.
Each user’s shapes will be unique, and Pyke says he hopes the ability to take and share screen grabs will create a sense of discovery. “It’s like users are taking on the role of an explorer and documenting a new place they’ve found. Every place will be different, so they are all undiscovered,” he says.
The number of scenes in the app is, in a sense, infinite, as each time users enter, they are met with a different combination of light, weather, landscape and moon phase, says Tucker.
“There is a disposable culture surrounding phone apps – people tend to download one, give it a play for a few minutes and subsequently delete it if they aren’t impressed. With Polyfauna, we created an experience to be completely unique each day, making a reason to come back and enjoy it days or months later,” he says.
The overall effect is designed to simulate a sense of living inside the band’s music, says Pyke – Godrich and Radiohead’s atmospheric compositions include snippets from throughout the King of Limbs album, and are exploded, distorted versions of tracks rather than traditional remixes.
There are 31 sound track mixes in total and each is broken into four individual channels, which Tucker says are “physically located in the 3D environment. This means as you physically turn your body, each channel will shift, as if you are hearing instruments from afar,” he adds.
It’s an impressive piece of work from Universal Everything, and Radiohead’s most intriguing digital experiment to date.
“It was a really nice collaborative process,” says Pyke. The band has such an experimental ethos – allowing fans to pay what they wanted for their album, Rainbows, for example – and they were all really interested in creating an experiential process, one that stretches the traditional structure of music,” he adds.
Nexus animation director Celyn has created a lovely film using hand drawn 2D animation to promote the Map Table, a new product from furniture brand Vitra and designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.
The Map Table is a flexible system that can easily re-configured: multiple tables can be stacked or connected in a range of formations, and Vitra says the product is designed to meet the ever-evolving needs of studios, offices and homes.
To highlight the product’s versatility, Celyn directed and designed a film that follows the life of a young designer who sets up her own studio. As the film progresses, the company grows and so does the number of Map Tables she needs:
The simple shapes and bold colours are inspired by picture books from Celyn’s childhood – in particular, Satomi Ichikawa’s A Child’s Book of All Seasons, which he recently re-discovered in a box in his parent’s attic.
“The beautifully illustrated book was elegantly unassuming. [It] captured the transition of the seasons in subtle detail, with a composition that implied limitless space, even within the confines of a room,” he says.
The film was commissioned with children in mind before market research revealed an older target audience, but Celyn says the picture book visuals remained a fitting concept, capturing “the process of joyful play for artists and children alike. We are all big kids at the end of the day,” he adds.
It’s the second film Nexus has produced for Vitra – Jonny Kelly used stop motion animation to create a film promoting the Tip Ton chair in 2011, below – and the latest in a series of charming productions from Celyn, who has directed music videos (including Wagon Christ’s Chunkothy, below) and spots for WWF, Coca Cola and the Guardian. See more of his work here.
Credits Concept – Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby Direction and Design – Celyn Producer – Beccy McCray 2D Supervisor – Dave Walker 2D animation – Stuart Doig, Maki Yohikura, Manav Dhir & Luca Toth Composer – Dan Arthure
A new music video from Michel Gondry is a rare thing these days, so it’s a treat to sit back and watch this promo for new Metronomy track Love Letters.
Fans of the director’s previous work will not be disappointed with this video: with the band playing inside a hand-painted set, it feels like classic Gondry. It might not be quite a masterpiece in the mould of his past glories for Daft Punk, The White Stripes and Björk, but it’s eminently watchable and perfect for the song.
Gondry will be taking part in a Google Hangout with Metronomy’s Joe Mount tomorrow at 5pm GMT, which will be hosted by Adam Buxton. The talk will be streamed live on the Metronomy YouTube channel, here, and viewers will be able to submit questions in the comments section of the video using the hashtag #loveletters.
Perrott Bespoke Printing in London has been in business since 1926 with four generations keeping die stamping, blind embossing and lithography alive. The printers has just released a short film to celebrate the family’s ongoing commitment to the trade…
“Being involved in the family business has always been something I have wanted to do,” says Catherine Perrott, a graphic designer and the daughter of the press’ current owner, Stephen Perrott.
“It is important to me to keep our tradition going, as well as the printing process itself. I’m currently being taught by my dad, trying to be as involved as I can in the business.”
“Everyone involved in the film feels that die stamping especially is a very beautiful and bespoke process which is slowly fading due to the rise of digital,” says Perrott. “We can only hope that this film helps to depict the skill and craftsmanship needed for a process like this and that it is important we stop it fading.”
Perrott Bespoke Printing has also produced a pack of stationery and print examples (including the cards featured in the film) which will be sent out in the coming months.
Director of photography: Guy Gotto. Original score: Evan Gildersleeve. Sound design: Greg Niemand. Graphic design: Catherine Perrott. Thanks to The Roundhouse & Stephen Perrott. Perrott Bespoke Printing is based at 2-4 Southgate Road, Islington, London N1 3JJ.
Inspired by toys and board games from their childhood, directing duo Dent De Cuir have produced a musical Gif site playing animations timed to a custom track by French DJ SebastiAn.
An odd but highly entertaining site, PLAY displays a sequence of 17 Gifs designed to match SebastiAn’s 48-second composition.
Each features a cover image or advert for a classic game or toy brought to life with hand drawn animations: Hungry Hippos become man-eating Angry Hippos and GI Joe, a soldier blasting hearts and rainbows. Guessing game Guess Who has also been given a sinister makeover, and Battleships is now a picture of friendship.
Dent de Cuir – Jean-Philippe Chartrand and Benjamin Mege – came up with the idea after being commissioned by fashion trade show Who’s Next to create a video about the theme of this year’s show, toys.
“We decided to approach it as a mini music video. We collaborated with SebastiAn and asked him to create a custom track based on sound samples from toys. On completion, however, we felt like [it] wasn’t properly suited to that media, and came up with the idea of an interactive web platform with musical Gif sequences,” they say.
SebastiAn was given “full creative freedom” to produce the track and after receiving the final edit, Chartrand and Mege selected visuals and created animations based on the sounds and toys sampled.
The pair have directed several music videos for electronic acts, including Evil Twin for Modeselektor which made the official selection at last year’s SXSW festival and one for electronic duo Neosignal featuring Barbie dolls and Star Wars figurines.
They met while working as graphic designers and describe their process as a mix of “hands-on creativity and experimentation.”
“We are very inspired by popular culture…being both kids from the eighties, it was a treat for us to go back to our childhood toys chests and have a second thought about these objects we were raised with,” they add.
Love animated Gifs? Then you’ll love the .GIFYS, a new awards show that aims to determine the all-time best Gifs ever. Yes, ever.
The brainchild of ad agency CP+B LA, the .GIFYS brings together Gifs from all over the internet and places them into various categories – including WTF?, Can’t Look Away, and, of course, Cats – which the public can vote on.
The shortlists were chosen by a panel of ‘internet experts’, including contributors to Buzzfeed, Gawker, Tumblr, Mashable and more. All the nominees can be viewed at thegifys.com. Below are some stills of some of the categories, but obviously you’ll need to visit the site to see the gifs in all their animated glory.
As you might imagine, many of Gifs featured are very funny indeed. But it’s not all about giggles, people. According to the founders, the .GIFYs aim to “immortalise the best Gifs, a medium that otherwise is generally viewed only once before it’s lost in the abyss that is the internet…. Gifs that receive a .GIFY will become permanent fixtures in an internet hall of fame, to be celebrated forever.” So head over to thegifys.com and get voting, and become part of this important mission.
This week, Damon Albarn announced the release date for his first solo album. Titled Everyday Robots, it is out on April 28. To whet our appetites, Albarn has released the video for the album’s first single, and the cover artwork, both created by artist and designer Aitor Throup. We talk to Throup about what inspired the project.
Running through the work is the theme of portraiture, with Throup keen to show the different sides to Albarn, and the various expectations the public have of him, which are all being brought to this first solo release. The video for the single, also titled Everyday Robots, is an unexpected portrait of Albarn, created in CGI.
Throup had previously collaborated with Albarn on the DRC Music project that was created for Oxfam, and the Africa Express project. For this new work, he spent a lot of time with the musician, to get under the skin of the album and its ideas. “I’ve been hanging out with him for the past year or so just absorbing the process of making the album and trying to absorb what his ideas were, and trying to resist the temptation to put [my own ideas on it],” Throup explains. “To be 100% informed by the work, rather than my own aesthetic.”
The resulting artwork and video reflect Albarn’s interest in the tension between nature and technology, as well as the significance of him releasing his first ever solo work. “I think the idea of identity with him is a really interesting one because he is so identifiable, but all his projects have never been solo in a traditional sense,” continues Throup. “So the idea of giving him an identity, as a brand almost, is quite challenging. But it was throughly enjoyable.
Preparatory sketches for the video
“It had to be really personal. In some ways, all the albums he’s done are solo albums, and none of them are, even this one, because they’re all collaborative. But this one is about him – that’s the core difference. He’s the subject matter, so it was important to me to do portraits. I just wanted to do a few portraits in unconventional ways.”
The video for Everyday Robots was created using the CGI programme ZBrush. Used to create life-like 3D images of people, it is popular in the gaming industry and in Hollywood. Rather than the finished result though, it was the process that particularly captured Throup’s attention, and it is this that is featured in the video, where a portrait of Albarn is slowly built, from the skull outwards. The image is designed to unfold in perfect synch to the music.
“When I saw the programme being used for the first time, I was fascinated by the interface of the programme itself, and the process of creating a final product within it,” says Throup. “I was more interested in the process that the programme offered than the eventual result. So that’s what we’ve captured – we’ve screen captured an authentic digital sculpting process that wouldn’t normally be seen as an animation. It’s not an animation as such, it’s just captured process.”
The imagery from the video forms the artwork for the first single too, though for the album cover, shown below, Throup took a more minimalist route. The photograph used on the cover shows Albarn sitting on a stool lost in thought.
“I really wanted to capture him in isolation, surrounded by nothingness,” says Throup. “But I really wanted to capture him, I didn’t want him to pose. So when I did the photoshoot, I created different scenarios where he would think I was shooting him and then in between shots when he wasn’t aware I was shooting, that’s really when I was taking the shots.”
The look of the shot is deliberately rough and ready. “When we shot it, I proposed it as a test shoot so everything was purposefully not polished,” continues Throup. “So it was just to try out a few ideas – we were planning on doing another shoot as well but I was secretly hoping we’d get the shot then as I wanted to keep the tape on the floor and the scruffy stool – all those things weren’t really considered. Because everyone was thinking it was just a test shoot, it wasn’t precious, it had less pressure on everyone.
“I think it really does capture him, he kind of looks like a little kid whose been told off or something. But at the same time he’s empowered because of that, he’s ready to take on the world.”
Sketch for the album cover
Everyday Robots is released by Parlophone on April 28, and features contributions from Brian Eno and Bat For Lashes. More on Aitor Throup’s work can be seen at aitorthroup.com.
BBC News’ Instagram account is a relatively untested platform, but its last five posts have revealed a new way that the broadcaster is creating short-form news packages. The Beeb is calling the service, Instafax…
It’s early days for the BBC’s Instagram at bbcnews – 5,833 followers is a long way from the 2.3m it has on its UK Twitter account – but the organisation is trialling a form of news bulletin with this smaller audience, having begun to load clips to the site alongside still images in September last year (there are 203 posts to date).
Uploading clips of BBC News content here is an interesting idea. A small teaser of footage is often all that’s required to generate interest in the wider story, and it also provides an opportunity to isolate decent TV interview quotes as soundbites – such as this 10-second clip of Bradley Wiggins reacting to his recent knighthood.
Instafax clips are different, however, in that the footage also contains written copy. Over ten or so seconds, video plays while a brief snippet of text accompanies each edit. Of course, it doesn’t pack very much into the films but the aim is to get across the main points of a story, the complexities of which can be read on the main BBC News website.
But while a single message on Twitter can easily connect a reader to a wider story – out to the BBC News site, for example – Instagram feeds are stuck in relative isolation. And so one of Instafax’s biggest problems is that the format doesn’t allow for live links in the visual part of the posts, let alone in the accompanying text box on the right.
And the constraints of the format also work their way into the copy now and then. While the Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda’s story is certainly “unique”, is that really the best word to use when first introducing his story, as below? (Far from telling readers the story, it becomes a teaser for the story itself which appear on the next part of the film.)
But does that mean the Instafax idea won’t work? Not necessarily. As much as Twitter is an excellent way to scan news headlines and choose which stories to explore further, the Instafax service offers Instagram users a quick news fix without leaving the platform; the first line of the bulletin acting as its headline.
In reply to some of those leaving comments on its first Instafax, the BBC offered some indication of its aims with the nascent service. “We are trying to create content within the social spaces people are inhabiting,” it said. “That’s the main goal. The way we see it, Instagram and our website are – in many ways – two separate audiences.
“At the end of the day, it’s just an experiment. And we’re very happy you are having these conversations here. They are helpful for us when trying to decide how to move forward.”
Animator and director Jim Le Fevre and film-maker Mike Paterson have worked with RAMP ceramics to create a charming short film for the Crafts Council…
Le Fevre has been experimenting with zoetrope animation for a few years – his own ‘phonotrope’ technique uses a record player and camera to create animated sequences.
But in a new commission for the Crafts Council, his skills were brought together with those of two potters – and their potter’s wheel became the spinning platform from which Le Fevre (who is represented by Nexus) and Paterson could create a great little animated sequence.
RAMP (Roop & Al Make Pots), the Devon-based studio of Rupert and Alice Johnstone, more regularly work on functional and one-off pieces in porcelain and earthenware.
The film was made to promote the work of the Crafts Council, a registered charity whose goal is to “make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft”. Its donation page is at craftscouncil.org.uk/donate.
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