I stumbled across this short some time ago, I thought I should make a note of it.

In this dreamy hand-animated music video for the Adelaide band The Audreys, a little girl boards a train car that would take her on a journey where she hopes to eventually find the special person in her life. The wonderful story and animation, somewhat reminiscent one of the sequences in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, of was conceived by Ari Gibson and Jason Pamment, who together collaborated recently on another acclaimed piece The Cat Piano.

 

Brandon McCormick directed The Candy Shop, a well-executed, beautiful allegory for child sex trafficking. It stars Doug Jones (Hellboy) as the villainous candymaker who lures little girls into his shop, transforms them into lollipops and sells them to adult men.

Also check out his brilliant earlier film Heartless: The Story of the Tin Man

Via Boing Boing

 

It’s just another Friday morning, clicking through my RSS feeds while nursing a slight hangover, when I came upon this vid.

Eye-popping brilliance. It may be a bit over the top and borderline bombastic, but it you can’t argue with the impact it makes especially on the initial viewing. I like the intensity of the animal expressions in slow motion, and the minimalist lighting and B&W look works for me. Only problem that bothers me is the “meteor” smoke trails that appear in the background, appear to be sharper and more in focus than the people that are in the foreground. Anyway, it doesn’t make it any less inspiring.

Woodkid – Iron via Boing Boing

Mar 292011
 

In this darkly fantastic new futuristic short film by Ruairi (pronounced “Rory”) Robinson, we follow what happens to a domestic household robot named Blinky when its young owner (played by Max Records of Where the Wild Things Are) longing to bring his family closer together, eventually gets bored of it.

The dreamy cinematography by MacGregor is nothing short of wonderful, and the special effects Robinson used to create Blinky are top-notch and for the most part fairly seamless and does not call attention to itself. The only place where the effects took me out of the story is the scene where you could see the futuristic skyline of the city. Other than that, it’s hard to tell if Blinky was a CG creation or a puppet practical. But none of that matters. The story and the emotional connection the director makes with Records’ character is what makes this film work. I look forward to seeing Robinson’s name on a big screen feature one day, hopefully not too far, far in the future.



Blinky™ via Short of the Week

 

If there’s one person that always looks great in front of the camera, it’s Willem Dafoe. In this Jim Beam spot, he plays a man from a small town that has to make a choice: take a bus either to Milwaukee or New York (obviously). We’re then presented with a series of possible futures for him, from circus pooper-scooper, a fashion designer, to even a sumo wrestler (hmm, the wrestler’s face replacement seems to drift a little). Several of the scenes are beautifully edited to show him as different incarnations of himself within the same scene.

This compelling spot makes you re-examine the many decisions you make in life and encourages you to take more risks, as the payoff can be gratifying.

Vimeo via If It’s Hip, It’s Here

 

Artist Alexandre Farto creates amazingly intricate works of art by blasting away the top layer of plaster off existing walls. This clip of one of his works in progress is positively mesmerizing.

His other works are just as inspiring. I really like the incredible things he does to metals.

 

I have never learned to skateboard, so it’s awesome to find this clip from Zack McTee. Cool stuff, but have your vomit bag close by. Footage filmed using a shoulder-mounted DSLR.

Link on Vimeo

Feb 242011
 

Animator Adam Fisher gives himself a shave and haircut with his fingers, in this stop-motion animation.

I bet he didn’t take 9 months to do the animation, not like this guy.

 

The Saga of Biorn is one of the graduation projects from class of 2011 at The Animation Workshop school in Copenhagen, Denmark. In this Bachelor Film we follow Biorn, an aged warrior determined to die a glorious death in battle so that he may be granted a place in the afterlife within the Halls of Valhalla.

It’s short and sweet, great payoff in the ending. I love it.

The Saga Of Biorn from The Animation Workshop

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The new Coke ad aired during the most recent Super Bowl. I’m glad that they’re continuing their trend of making hugely epic ad spots that are also hugely entertaining. In this spot a large army including ogres, trolls and a massive dragon lay siege on a fortress, and are stopped by a bottle of Coke, natch.

My all-time favorite over-the-top Coke commercial is probably this one, from their Happiness Factory ad campaign:

By the way This American Life also ran a fascinating story this week on how Coca-Cola’s super-secret original recipe came to be published in a 1979 news article.

Link on Vimeo

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