Artist John Baldessari believes that every young artist should know 3 things: Talent is cheap. You have to be possessed, which you can’t will. Being at the right place at the right time. This film, narrated by Tom Waits, shows you that you don’t need thousands of pounds to make a great brand film. Keep that for an amazing narrator instead.
In advance of last friday night’s Jack White concert at Webster Hall in New York, Gary Oldman directed a short film in Nashville, documenting the pair’s meeting. The AMERICAN Express Unstaged series, paired bands with directors and a live directed feed was aired on friday night. At the end of the transmission, approximately seven million hits were registered on the site. Not bad for a night’s work, Mr. Oldman.
OK GO have released the music video for their song “Skyscrapers”, a track from the album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”. Director/choreographer Trish Sie, does the tango with Moti Buchboot in black, red, cerise, yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple and white. The band have always delivered both musically and visually. Their new video isn’t as visually impressive as their previous ones such as their ‘Treadmills’ video but it is mellow and very pretty. Watch blissfully, as the couple dances through colour. Deceptively simple, but very, very arresting.
After working with Paul Smith on creative projects surrounding the film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, we have a vested interest in the film’s success at the BAFTA ceremony in London. Paul acted as Creative Consultant on the film with director Tomas Alfredson, worked on limited edition projects and has hosted exhibition’s of Gary’s photography in london, and also next week in LA. We spent the afternoon on friday at the final fittings for Gary’s bespoke BAFTA outfit. We have been lucky enough to have be given a self portrait by Gary prior to leaving for the event. 
Night was once a time for thieves and highwaymen, prostitutes, ghosts, and masked balls. Now it’s a place of bright lights, illuminating every part of the city. According to one of the characters in Hemingway’s story of the same name: “He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted cafe was a very different thing.”
The City Dark, a new documentary, looks at the light-filled world we have created in the past hundred years or so. Humans of the twenty-first century have grown accustomed to living twenty-four hour lives, and without the night sky above us, it’s easy to forget our own place in the cosmos. So much so, astronomer Thomas Hockey’s recent book How We See the Sky is a revolutionary call for a return to stargazing.
Whilst this film is shows the acceleration of a 24 hour planet, which in itself is a sad situation, the visual look and feel seems wonderful, based on this trailer. No release date as of yet in UK.
In 1982, young Polish screenwriter, director and music teacher Hieronim Neumann created a captivating experimental animation titled Blok, after the term “block” used in much of Eastern Europe to describe the common apartment buildings erected mostly during Communism. In what appears to be a single continuous shot, you get a voyeuristic glimpse of a series of vignettes that take place inside various apartments. The slightly naive filmatic quality coupled with superb set design makes this film so deceptively brilliant.
http://www.vimeo.com/34632994With so much doom surrounding the Creative Industry, and also an incredible amount of dumming down of idea generation, it is refreshing to see something that makes you smile and appreciate great creativity. Atlanta film maker Walt Thompson spent 22 hours shooting 2,600 pictures along with unmentionable hours of editing to create a LEGO stop-motion marriage proposal for his girlfriend of four years.
The film captures moments of their time together, and even depicts ‘the couple’ in LEGO outfits which match the clothes they were dressed in when they met, as thompson recalls.
The motion picture concludes with a wedding ceremony with the LEGO version of thompson holding a ring practically the size that he is, to be presented to his bride-to-be which comes walking down the aisle. notable guests include the likes of Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, and Star Wars’ Han Solo in carbonite, on hand to officiate the nuptials.
Thankfully, his girlfriend said ‘Yes’ and the couple plans to get married this year. Sweet.
I’ve never had the experience of going to a Northern Soul all-nighter. An old friend, Elaine Constantine, has made it her mission to document the passion and power of this unique night out. Elaine is in the early stages of making a film about the people and the clubs that seem to be caught in some sort of cultural time warp. These short clips offer a taster of how the film is shaping up. The subjects have this stunning beauty that seem to only be exemplified by the power of Northern Soul music. The track featured, ‘If this is Love’ by The Precisions fills you with the power and the passion of this amazing movement. I cannot wait for the completion of this project. 
http://www.vimeo.com/32558952With the music industry in dire straits, film production companies are throwing themselves at other industries in an attempt to have work produced in a stylish, pop video way. Step forward Fashion. With the huge power of e-shopping and the the demand from customers to see moving image from their favourite designers, fashion companies have become the new champions of the 3 minute video. Last night in London, InStyle magazine hosted their 10th anniversary party in Soho. At it, they aired a selection of films that they commissioned on the theme of ‘Style’.
ABOUD CREATIVE and DIGITAL PRO co-produced Sir Paul Smith’s first foray into this genre. The film was shot at the end of a 2 day editorial shoot in Nottingham with model Thali Lennox. It is by no means a finished document, merely as taster of how we will be pursuing the communication of fashion in the future. Still fashion imagery will always be king, but the Web, iPads and Apps are dictating to the industry that people want to see things move. The key to success in this area, is ‘the narrative’. There has to be a reason and a story behind the content, otherwise it will fail.
Our ongoing collaboration with family has resulted in a story for Numero Japan. Simon Aboud’s forthcoming film, ‘Comes A Bright Day’ starring Imogen Poots, is featured in this month’s issue. Paul Smith, who has dressed the cast, photographed Imogen in a variety of Paul Smith outfits. The story shows Imogen in and around the various sets used during the filming. Whilst the story is out now in Japan, the film premieres in London sometime in February 2012. 
It’s been a wonderful adventure and exciting experience over the last year working with the director and cast of this wonderful film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. There is a real sense of pride in our studio with it’s impending release tomorrow evening in the UK. We’ve helped with the mood of the film through our support of Paul Smith, we’ve directed a shoot with Gary Oldman which has been syndicated globally. Added to this, we have helped produce the limited edition posters which have a waiting list for the final available images. Tomorrow night sees our curated launch of Gary Oldman and Jack English’s on-set photographs which will premiere at PAUL SMITH, 9 Albermarle Street. And finally, you see here the limited edition signed John le Carré book that releases tomorrow. All in all, a memorable collaboration, and all proceeds going to Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres. I promise after tomorrow, we will keep quiet (until March 2012, when Gary hopefully goes Oscar bound.)
Great to see that the public reaction to the Paul Smith limited edition prints has been so positive. Here are the 4 in the first series. We have been lucky enough to have been part of the production process on Paul’s behalf. His creative direction and designs have been realised by our team to produce the resultant images. The fourth below, is one where you need to avert your gaze, for fear of giving away the endgame. It has been an amazing project to be part of, and the film forms the top of the pyramid. It is a incredibly well made film, directed by someone who will become a great, and realised by an ensemble cast that will probably be talked about for years to come. Good luck to all. We will shortly post some images of the screenprints in production. 
Due to Sir Paul Smith’s association, a series of limited edition product will shortly become available, notably a limited edition (250) book signed by John le Carré, the author, and also a limited edition (50) set of screen printed posters created and signed by Sir Paul Smith. Proceeds of the poster sales will go to Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres.
We will be able to show these editions next week. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer….
Teaser campaigns are often used in film pre-publicity. Stark black and white images have been appearing all over London in the last few weeks that have really caught my eye. The one for new British film KILL-LIST succeeded where may fail…I remembered the website and went to see what it was all about. On first sight, it looked like new publicity for a band, as the imagery and it’s simplicity was not one usually associated with film marketing. Often, the politics dictate a diluted graphic direction and simplicity. Congratulations to Optimum Releasing on a great campaign. Oh, and the film is supposed to be excellent too. www.kill-list.com
We have had POP-UP cinema and Park Screenings but now a London Collective has announced a great new way of enjoying film, keeping fit, and being part of a novel new way to collectively create energy. Magnificent Revolution (MR) is a not-for-profit education project based in London. Made up of artists, musicians, designers, ecologists, and engineers, MR has flourished into a cross-disciplinary organisation working in education, ecology, engineering, design, art, music and film.
Another one of their special Cycle-in Cinema comes to Hackney City Farm, for a night of outdoor film and pedal power. On Sunday 28th August from 8pm, they are inviting people to come down to Hackney City Farm on your bike, with your friends, a blanket and an FM Radio to tune into the film with. They will be screening an 80s classic The Princess Bride (1987).
Their specially designed bike generators will be setup and ready for anyone who would like to bring their bike and participate. The soundtrack will be broadcast live using a wireless transmitter allowing the audience to tune-in to the cinema performance. This means either bringing along an FM radio to the screening or borrowing one from the organisers for a small deposit on the night. The event is free with a suggested donation of five pounds. Definitely beats a trip to the local ODEON. www.magnificentrevolution.org/2011/08/cycle-in-cinema-hackney-city-farm-2/
Beginners is a film directed by ex- graphic designer Mike Mills. Best known for his work with french band AIR, he has successfully navigated his way through the choppy waters from graphic design, motion graphics, music video to finally getting to make his own autobiographical film. The man is a true renaissance artist, he even can bloody well draw, contrary to popular belief about ex-designers. Sometimes a creative comes along, and you just wish that you had created what he has created. Looking forward to the next one Mr. Mills.
At last, we are able to show you this trailer for Tomas Alfredson’s highly anticipated film ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’. We were involved in early conversations between Tomas and Paul Smith, who was a creative consultant on the film. Having seen the first cut a few weeks ago, I can definitely say this is fabulous. Gary Oldman has produced the performance of his life. 
So happy to see a music video that reassures my faith in the medium. This video by New York band ‘BATTLES’ manages to combine every type of visual onslaught into one 4 minute film. The song, ‘Ice Cream’ is on their new album Gloss Drop. Love this. http://www.vimeo.com/23482012
This short film shows ways how graphic design can be translated into film, much in the same way the title sequence for the original Thomas Crown Affair did. Everynone, a filmmaking team from New York, have made a video in collaboration with Radiolab. ”Symmetry” focuses on people’s yearning for balance and shows how wonderful so-called ‘imperfect’ matches can be. The video is part of a series of short films for the same company.
http://www.vimeo.com/22564317
Richard Phillips is known for his large-scale glossy, hyper-realistic paintings, recalling the pictorial style of magazines from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and reflecting traditions of popular image culture. His paintings represent close-up portraits, predominantly of women from fashion and soft porn magazines. Recently he has experimented with film. Phillips’ 98 second film of Lindsay Lohan, which is currently showing at the Venice Biennale, is an interesting example of a modern kind of portrait. It highlights the way moving images are more complex than still photographs. Welcome to this 21st Century genre of the filmed portrait.
In the 60s, Andy Warhol filmed the poet John Giorno asleep, and asked visitors to his studio to sit for screen tests, in which they looked directly at the camera. Warhol’s filmed portraits have a lyrical, unblinking emotional power. As people struggle to face the cold gaze of his camera, they seem to truly reveal themselves, in moments of disconcerting intimacy.