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Back in Summer 2019 the Michael J Fox Foundation in New York contacted us. They wanted to make a film to describe how Parkinson’s Disease can impact a family, how symptoms may manifest and to communicate the need for volunteers to take part in testing. Working closely with our great American rep Cath Berclaz, it was great to be involved from the preliminary stages, we did a lot of reading around the subject and had long calls with the researchers at the Foundation who talked us through the stages of the disease. From this crash-course we wrote a script.
Layla did some initial character designs which the Foundation loved. The aim was to use simple avatars rather than recognisable human characters. This meant the story could be effectively told in it’s simplest form without showing gender, class or race.
Using Layla’s characters we collaborated with the excellent Spencer Wilson of Peepshow Collective who used his Illustrator magic to create backgrounds for the piece. Here you can see how Layla’s animatic sketches were worked up into finished designs.
We pulled a small team together and got down to the animation once the script, animatic and designs were signed off. Most characters were rigged and animated in Adobe After Effects using shape layers. Our lead animator Alex Potts created hero animation in Adobe Animate. This was an effective way to animate multiple characters.
This film is aimed at a wide audience so our challenge was to translate some of the complicated scientific in as concise a manner as possible. This lead to some fun experiments in data visualisation.
Although a longer process than usual, we are super pleased with how this film came out. The cherry on the cake was getting to work with the great Alan Alda who provided the narration. His warmth and empathy for the subject are an important part of the storytelling. We can also recommend Alan Alda’s Clear and Vivid podcast where some fascinating scientific topics are explored.
Alasdair + Jock made this set of teasers and illustrations for the acclaimed feature ‘Lunch with the FT’, an article that has been popularly carried for decades, and that features every major creative and business name you can imagine. The relaxed, yet spirited interviews take place in a restaurant of the interviewee’s choice, and the bill is footed by the FT, who else? The order and receipt are then published for your deliberation, cogitation and digestion.
With an extensive archive of wonderfully candid lunches to exploit, the FT editorial team wanted to give them a fresh twist. Alasdair + Jock developed appetising little mysteries for each interview, revealing subtle clues through beautifully animated vignettes that reflect the humour, warmth and flavour. With two new ones from Charlie Brooker, and Alma Deutscher, and two oldies from Jonathan Franzen (coming soon) and Nigel Farage, there was a nice mix of subject matter to call on.
Chris Swaine and Marty O’Brien at Fonic created beautiful soundbeds for each, which really help contextualise the pieces, even using a snippet of Alma Deutscher’s piano work to help illustrate her story.
Large established media houses have a massive mine of data which remains essentially untapped. For example the Financial Times has articles stretching back over a 100 years. These teasers demonstrate how archives can be made relevant to the contemporary media conversation for as history repeats itself they often become more relevant with time.
The interviews along with Jock’s wonderful illustrations were published in the FT Weekend edition, as well as online, and the teasers were successfully shared and re-tweeted on social media.
Credits:
Directed by Alasdair + Jock
Producer: Richard Barnett
Illustration: Jock Mooney
Animation: Alasdair Brotherston, Lesley Dart
Sound and Mix by Chris Swaine and Marty O’Brien @ Fonic
Commissioned by Natalie Whittle and Kevin Wilson @ Financial Times
FT | Charlie Brooker
FT | Jonathan Franzen
Ft | Nigel Farage
Over the past couple of years we have been working with the International Council on Mining and Metals, a body which works with the mining industry to ensure they follow the very best practices. We’ve created a lot of content both live action and animation. This film, directed by Rok Predin focuses on how mining and metals are intrinsically linked to virtually every single aspect of modern life.
Alasdair + Jock like lunch, in fact they like all meals, it would appear food nourishes them. But it’s lunch that has taken centre stage the last few weeks due to a project for the Financial Times. At first our producer thought it was for an article about his magical budgeting skills. No. It was in fact much more wholesome a project; to make a set of teasers and illustrations for the acclaimed feature ‘Lunch with the FT’, an article that has been popularly carried for decades, and that features every major creative and business name you can think of. The relaxed, yet spirited interviews take place in a restaurant of the interviewee’s choice, and the bill is footed by the FT, who else? The order and receipt are then published for your deliberation, cogitation and digestion.
With an extensive archive of wonderfully candid lunches to exploit, the FT editorial team wanted to give them a fresh twist. Alasdair + Jock developed appetising little mysteries for each, revealing subtle clues through beautifully animated vignettes that reflect the humour, warmth and tangue of the interviews. With two new ones from Charlie Brooker, and Alma Deutscher, and two oldies from Jonathan Franzen (coming soon) and Nigel Farage, there was a nice mix of subject matter to call on. Chris Swaine and Marty O’Brien at Fonic created beautiful soundbeds for each, which really help contextualise the pieces, even using a snippet of Alma Deutscher’s piano work to help illustrate her story.
Producer Richard Barnett notes, “Large established media houses have a massive mine of data which remains essentially untapped. For example the Financial Times has articles stretching back over a 100 years. These teasers demonstrate how archives can be made relevant to the contemporary media conversation, whether interviews, opinion pieces, or historical articles, as history repeats itself, they often become more relevant with time. By creating visual introductions to published interviews a wider audience can be captured than could have been achieved by text alone.”
The interviews along with Jock’s wonderful illustrations were published in the FT Weekend edition, as well as online, and the teasers were successfully shared and re-tweeted on social media. The projects were created using a mixture of photoshop, flash and after effects.
Click below for press coverage :-
Credits:
Directed by Alasdair + Jock
Producer: Richard Barnett
Illustration: Jock Mooney
Animation: Alasdair Brotherston, Lesley Dart
Sound and Mix by Chris Swaine and Marty O’Brien @ Fonic
Commissioned by Natalie Whittle and Kevin Wilson @ Financial Times
Armed with scalpels, scissors, crazy glue, building blocks, straws, and card Trunk has created decades of office technology in a matter of days for their latest short.
Technology giant Cisco has a wide range of services that can benefit small businesses. Yet, when your name alone can be daunting due to your scale, explaining how your secure networking, telecommunications and cloud security can help a business grow is a challenge. So how do you connect to small and medium businesses when you are one of the world’s largest tech firms? The answer was provided by MRM Meteorite and delivered by Trunk animation.
MRM chose to explain the tech giant’s services by telling the story of a company’s growth around the setting of a desk, something very relatable to all of us, as it seems we spend 90% of the time sitting in front of one! This warm approach also needed an animation style that was equally engaging and what better medium than using beautifully hand crafted miniature models. Having seen the work created by Trunk for the Paediatric Brain Tumour Foundation MRM meteorite bought them in to realise their vision.
The shorts action centres on an office desk, lovingly made by retired boat builder Dave Perrin, which evolves over the decades as new technology comes and goes. We see a typewriter replaced with a series of computers, then phones and fax machines flick through different models, and even the staff in the company photos grow over time. In total nearly a hundred props were made by Trunk’s 3D model makers, Jock Mooney, Layla Atkinson, John Harmer and Adrian Leak as well as brilliant intern Stephanie Martin. Layla designed the whole set to spin as each period of time changed, so as the business grows, we get a fleeting glimpse of the buildings outside, before re-entering in a new decade, driving the story on.
DOP maestro Pete Ellmore beautifully lit the tiny set to ensure that all the textures and personality of the props were captured. He also altered the lighting over the shoot, bathing the set in morning, afternoon and evening light to reiterate that passing of time. Animator John Harmer painstakingly moved and replaced each element to create the fantastic time-lapse effect, whilst Rok Predin built additional CG elements to weave in alongside the hand built models. Overall the piece has a wide range of textures and materials, which reflect Layla’s short film ‘Aftermath’, and which allows the film to have a sense of place, and a relatable feel.
Composer Ivan Arnold built on the theme of ‘retro to contemporary’, by composing a track that in a way feels timeless, with a mix of acoustic and electric guitar, and a driving bass, it really drives the narrative forward. The formidable Barnaby Templer and Chris Swain @ Fonic created the sound design, and Lorraine Hodgson beautifully voiced the narrative.
Producer Richard Barnett says of the short “We pushed the boat out on this project, looking to achieve that hand made feel that gives the warmth of the narrative, balanced with a high end production value that reflects the sophisticated nature of Cisco’s products. With a turnaround of just 5 weeks from start to finish, it meant that everyone had to pull together and really work hard. We had such amazing support from everyone working on the project from, crew, to agency, to client. That really makes the difference!’
The short will be used by Cisco on their small business homepage, showcasing their solutions and promotions dedicated to small business customers.
Click below for press coverage :-
Credits :-
Director- Layla Atkinson
Producer- Richard Barnett
DOP- Pete Ellmore
Animation- John Harmer, Layla Atkinson
Art Department- Dave Perrin, Jock Mooney, John Harmer, Layla Atkinson, Adrian Leak, Stephanie Martin
CG and Compositing- Rok Predin, Pete Mellor
Gaffer: Jonathan Yates
Motion Control- Max Halstead
Composer- Ivan Arnold
Sound Design and Mix- Barnaby Templer, Chris Swaine @ Fonic
Lighting: Panalux
Motion Control Rig: Clapham Rd Studios
Senior Account Director- Chris Willocks
Agency- MRM Meteorite
Client- CISCO Systems Inc
Americans spend 95% of their time indoors, a shocking statistic that goes against the very spirit of American retail giant REI. Recreational Equipment Inc is a cooperative with over 6 million members specialising in providing sporting goods and outdoor gear. The company’s outdoor ethos is enshrined in it’s working practice to the point that their 12000 employees get ‘Yay Day’ passes giving them paid leave to spend on outdoor activities.
Peepshow’s Pete Mellor has directed a wonderful animated film to capture the spirit of REI’s #OptOutside campaign. Starting in 2015 REI took the unprecedented move of wholeheartedly rejecting the Black Friday sale phenomenon. Feeling it went against it’s core values. On Black Friday REI closed all of their 154 stores, suspended its online orders and gave it’s employees the day off so that they could opt to go outside instead.
The #OptOutside hashtag has become a core part of their branding. As stated by REI :- “We believe in the message. #OptOutside isn’t just a hashtag, a flash in the online pan. It is a lifestyle that REI supports, 365 days a year. As our CEO Jerry Stritzke wrote, “As a co-op we share a simple belief that time in the outdoors makes us healthier and happier–as individuals and as a society.”
Matching REI’s sustainable ethos they choose Futerra a creative agency that specialises in working with brands that are symbols of positive change. Futerra approached Peepshow to deliver a short that expresses REI’s outdoors message.
The beautiful short takes the viewer on a journey through time. As noted by Pete “The film tells the story of humanity’s retreat indoors – starting with simple structures to shelter from the elements and early farming to suburban houses and mega-cities”. Pete’s first challenge was to take illustrations created by Peepshow’s Jenny Bowers and translate them into a 3D space. Painted effects ranging from luminous ink washes to dark crayon and flat blockwork helps to reinforce the visual journey. This is further enhanced by Jenny’s brilliant use of colour which moves from jewel like washes to grey drab blocks of texture.
Combining Jenny’s 2D illustrations with 3D elements created in Cinema 4D by Rok Predin, and Layla Atkinson’s animated loops drawn in Flash and artworked in Photoshop, Pete then orchestrated a camera move through this heavily layered environment. He takes the viewer from a rural paradise, through the development of our civilisation and into a rapidly growing city. Composer Sebastijan Duh created the music. Whilst, Fonic’s Chris Swaine, sound design balanced the piece.
The finished short is a powerful visual interpretation of REI’s #OptOutside campaign. In less than 40 seconds it builds a claustrophobic atmosphere that behoves the viewer to take positive action.
Click Below for Press coverage :-
WOW Morning
Credits:-
Illustration: Jenny Bowers
Director: Pete Mellor
Animation: Layla Atkinson, Rok Predin
Music: Sebastijan Duh
Sound Design/Mix: Chris Swaine at Fonic
Agency Creative Director: Richard Barnett
We recently had the great pleasure of making this film with Peepshow Collective’s Pete Mellor and Jenny Bowers. Made for American outdoor company REI through Futerra, the film explores humanity’s retreat inside leading to the present day where, on average, we now spend 95% of our time indoors. REI aims to encourage people to #OptOutside and re-engage with their surroundings.
Illustration: Jenny Bowers
Director: Pete Mellor
Animation: Layla Atkinson, Rok Predin
Music: Sebastijan Duh
Sound Design/Mix: Chris Swaine at Fonic
Animation Producer: Richard Barnett
Agency Creative: Warren Beeby
Agency: Futerra
Over the past year “Aftermath” has been in 24 festivals all over the world! We put this ego-boosting new thumbnail together to celebrate. check out the film here