Gulp News:
Creative Review
Wieden + Kennedy London is on something of a roll this week, first releasing the new Cravendale spot and now this short film for Nokia. Titled Gulp, it is shot entirely on the Nokia N8 phone and has just set a Guinness World Record for the ‘World’s Largest Stop-Motion Animation Set’.
Gulp sees W+K team up once again with Aardman Animations, who previously worked with the agency last summer on Dot, another Nokia film which also set a world record, that time for ‘Smallest Stop-Motion Animated Character’. Dot was a huge success, picking up numerous awards, including a Best in Book gong in this year’s CR Annual.
Directed by Sumo Science (Will Studd and Ed Patterson), who were also behind Dot, Gulp is an animated story about a fisherman going about his daily catch, when an unexpected event occurs. It was shot on location at Pendine Beach in South Wales. The film aims to showcase the Nokia N8’s Carl Zeiss optics and its 12-megapixel photography capabilities. Three phones were used to shoot it, and were elevated 36 metres above the ground on a cherry picker in order to film the (record-breaking) set, which was over 42 x 24 metres in size.
Creativity Online
Stop motion goes large.
In what may be Wieden + Kennedy's swan song for Nokia--the agency just announced that it would be parting ways with the client--the shop once again teamed with Aardman Animation create another stop-motion masterpiece with Nokia's N8 with Gulp, following last summer's animation for N8, Dot.
Shot entirely on the N8, Gulp was also filmed on the 'World's Largest Stop-motion Animation Set' (they're aiming for a Guinness World Record). Three N8 phones, elevated 36 meters above the ground on a cherry picker on a beach in South Wales, shot a canvas of 42.71 meters x 24 meters, on which gigantic sand drawings were created by sand artists and art student volunteers. The phones were mounted in a custom-built rig and operated remotely by the camera crew in order to capture the huge images. See the Behind the Scenes film for more on how it was done.
The film itself depicts the adventures of a fisherman captured by a sea monster - all done in Aardman's inimitable style.
Dot’s awards to date!
Guinness World record for Smallest Stop-Motion Animated Character
British Television Advertising Arrows Awards 2010:Winner Gold in Telecommunications Product
British Television Advertising Craft Awards 2011: Winner Gold in Best Animation
Royal Television Society West of England Awards 2011: Winner Media Effectiveness
Anima, Brussels 2011: Special Mention
Epica Awards, 2011: Winner Home Electronics & Audiovisual Equipment/ The home and Epica D’Or
Webby Awards 2011: Winner People’s Choice – Animation
Clio Awards 2011 – Official Honouree
AICP Awards 2011: Honouree in Animation Category
CFP-E Young Directors Award 2011: Winner Web Film
Cannes Lions 2011: Winner Bronze Cyber Lions – Animation, Winner Bronze Film Lions – Production Design
D&AD 2011: Winner of Animation for Film Advertising (Book)
Rushes Soho Shorts 2011: Winner The Animation Award
Aardman Create World Record Breaking Film for Nokia
By Rick DeMott | Friday, September 17, 2010 at 9:26 am | AWN News
Press Release from Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations have broken a Guinness World Record for Smallest stop-motion animation character in a film, with their new short film: "Dot." Shot entirely on the new Nokia N8, the "Dot" film showcases the smartphone's 12-megapixel photography capabilities and also celebrates the CellScope, an invention created by Professor Daniel Fletcher. The CellScope is a microscopic device attached to a Nokia handset, which the Professor used to produce life-saving technology: with his invention he has helped diagnose fatal diseases in remote areas of third world countries.
As part of the upcoming campaign to bring these types of amazing, authentic uses of technology to life, Nokia¹s agency W+K briefed Aardman to create a microscopic animation. The brief immediately inspired one of Aardman¹s youngest creative teams Sumo Science directors Will Studd and Ed Patterson. Heather Wright, Executive Producer on the project and Head of Aardman¹s Commercials and Branded Content department was delighted with the challenge!
"The Nokia job is totally unique, one of those rare instances when the idea and execution are totally inter-dependent. It¹s very cool, challenging and very exciting for the studio," says Wright.
The film features Dot, a tiny 9mm girl who wakes up in a magical, magnified world to discover her surroundings are caving in around her. She escapes the encroaching wave of destruction as her world unravels via a path made up of tiny, familiar objects such as coins, pins, pencil shavings, nuts and bolts, until she finds peace by knitting herself a blanket from the very matter that pursues her. The tiny film has set a new world record for the smallest stop-motion animated character in a film.
W+K Creatives Mark McCall and Richard Dorey said, "Achieving our goal of setting a world record with a Nokia N8 is the perfect celebration of the campaign¹s core message its not technology, its what you do with it."
To create "Dot," Aardman¹s in-house production technology engineer, Lew Gardiner worked alongside the Physics Department at the University of Bristol to create their own CellScope production camera. Aardman used innovative Rapid Prototyping 3D printing technology that uses a computer-generated model of an object or character and then prints it in full 3D using a plastic resin material. The entire set was no more than a metre and a half long, all elements of which were used to help sell the scale of the project to the viewer.
The film was painted under a microscope by expert modelmakers and animated using tweezers; "It became a real test of working at such a small scale, and in having the patience to push on through until the end," said Aardman director Ed Patterson. "The final film has come out better than we could have hoped for. It was great collaborating with Wieden + Kennedy and to gel so well creatively. The Nokia N8 stood up to the challenge and produced some outstanding images."
http://creativity-online.com/news/nokia-n8-dot/145936
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/september/nokia-n8-hacks-dot-hamster
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/bulletin/thefix/article/1029526/?DCMP=EMC-CONCampaignDailyFix
http://gizmodo.com/5643705/worlds-smallest-stop+motion-video-was-filmed-with-a-nokia-n8-phone
http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/11982
http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2010/09/nokia_11.php
http://www.wklondon.com/latestNews/282-wk__aardman_create_world-record_breaking_film_for_nokia
http://www.televisual.com/blog-detail/Aardman-sets-tiny-record_bid-140.html
Digital Arts
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Aardman creates action-packed Weetos spot!
Friday 02 May 2008 - 10:29
Aardman Animation directing duo Sumo Science (aka Ed Patterson and Will Studd) have created a Mission Impossible style action adventure in the latest Weetos commercial for Producer Sally Lipsius at WCRS.
The breakfast table becomes an assault course of challenges for our fearless Weeto hoop. He flexes his cereal muscles and nothing will stop him in his quest to reach the bowl. A butter knife is a springboard helping him on his way, he agilely swings across the toast rack monkey bars and a fruit bowl becomes a scramble net with a banana slide!
The commercial uses a combination of stop frame animation, computer animation and compositing to bring together the journey from pack to mouth. It was shot, animated and composited by Will Studd and Ed Patterson with John Woolley producing.
Rushes’ Colourist Adrian Seery graded the commercial with final finishing by VFX Artist Adam Watson in Flame.
Campaign Magazine 25th April 2008 - Weetos - Mission impossible
The lowdown
Weetos has ditched Professor Weeto and is introducing a new animated Weeto hoop character in its latest TV campaign from WCRS. The ad features a small boy pouring a bowl of Weetos. When one of the cereal pieces doesn't make it into the bowl, it suddenly comes to life and makes a daring sprint towards the bowl, swinging through a toast rack and scaling a bowl of fruit on the way, before finally making it back on to the child's spoon in the nick of time.
As the Weeto character traverses this obstacle course, a voiceover explains: "Only big, hunky and chocolatey wholegrain hoops make it into a packet of Weetos." The TV campaign is supported by an online game in which the user guides the Weeto hoop through a similar assault course.
Shoot Magazine/Online
SHOOT 2008 New Directors Web Reel
On May 28 at the DGA Theater in New York City, SHOOT debuted its 6th Annual New Directors Showcase reel. The reel reflects the work and inventive talent of 30 directors—23 individual directors, a three-person team and six directorial duos. Helping to fashion the 2008 New Directors Showcase lineup were entries from SHOOT’s 2008 New Directors Search, choice work from SHOOT’s ongoing "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery and feedback from advertising agency creatives and producers.
Here’s a look at this year’s field of talent... including a brief Q & A with each director: