Neophyte Directors and Agents

Well...almost. Chris Jones isn't really a new director, but he accepts he has to start again on his career path (more or less). As the author of the Guerrilla Film Makers books (which are excellent), he has now shot a rather cool short film and is

On of his recent blog posts documents his initial meeting with an agent about his future, how they can help him and what he needs to think about. The video is cool to see, especially in Shepperton :)

My First Music Video - Tin Man's Emotional Response

I have finally completed a film project! Here is my first music video, shot for the English band Tin Man's next single "Emotional Response". Filmed around Norwich, the video follows Dorothy Cinders - a confused young lady who treats her shoes like the puppy she never had! If you like it, please leave a comment on the youtube page.

Jaguar's Sins - Sensual Cinematography

The cinematography and motion graphics for this Jaguar advert are absolutely amazing.

Automated Music Videos

The concept of automated music videos has existed in some form for a while. Various media players have used visualisation techniques to render a visual sequences as an expression of the music. This podcast from designer Jakob Trollback, discusses his experiments in this subject. Although it is an interest concept, it is not really an interesting video ;)

Trollback + Company is a top notch creative studio who have done some amazing work - their motion graphics work in particular impressed me.

Iron Man - An Audi Production

This evening I went to the pictures. The movie I watched was the one that everyone had told me was "the best comic book adaptation so far!!!". Sounded promising, but I've not really been that impressed by comic book adaptations, so was just hoping to be entertained for 2 hours (and 6 mins + all the ads + the trailers + those really, really annoying Orange spots). As well as being a comic book adaptation, Iron Man - tonight's "picture" - it was also a was also a was also a 126 min commercial for Audi.

Audi and Iron Man raised product placement to an all time high. Since leaving the cinema and driving home in my non-Audi car, I have ordered an Audi, had an Audi tattoo on my Audi and Audi'd my Audi in the Audi. Ooopps! Is product placement going to be the future of advertising? Audi certainly think so - and they think in the future if anyone needs to fight evil forces, they will be doing it in an Audi. In I, Robot, Will Smith's character drove around in an Audi concept car that looked very similar to their R8. In fact, it was Audi RSQ - a concept car made specifically for the movie - a first, apparently. Well, a world first if you believe their press release, alternatively you might cast your memory back a bit further to Minority Report - remember the Lexus that was featured in that film? Made specifically for the film? Not the only idea from Minority Report that influenced I, Robot!

Apparently Audi have been at it for a while - check out Ronin, The Insider, Mission Impossible II, The Mothman Prophecies, About a Boy and the auteuristic Legally Blond 2 (I am told the sequel is EVEN better!!!!!) I love ads and I love movies, but a movie trying to be an ad didn't really work for me. If anything, it made me think that Audi are a manipulative corporation, who think they can be hip by buying their way into a cool movie. I know times are tight and producers have to be more creative about where they get their sources of money, but they still need to think about taste - and not just the taste of a tasty American burger!

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?!

Tony Kaye's Dynamo Systeme advert for Kronenbourg 1664

From the Kronenbourg website:

The new ad from Kronenbourg 1664 introduces our new product. Dynamo Systeme - a lager that gives you smaller bubbles for a smoother taste.

Shot in Prague, the ad brings you into the world of the Kronenbourg kitchen hidden within the Dynamo Systeme widget and follows the work of our expert bubble chefs as they use their culinary skills to create the smaller bubbles found in new Kronenbourg 1664 with Dynamo Systeme. Under the supervision of the Head Chef, each chef uses their individual skills to ensure that each bubble is the perfect size giving you the smoother tasting larger.

Prolific director Tony Kaye was chosen to shoot the advert as a consequence of his unique way of looking at the world. The script itself introduces the viewer to a surreal world and therefore the storytelling needed to capture this. Tony’s belief that the story must always be based on reality to ensure that those watching can relate to the idea enabled him to create the world of Dynamo Systeme and invite the viewer to experience it through his eyes.

View the ad here.

Tony Kaye Returns to Ads

Claire Beale on Advertising in today's Independent (Myths and magic of the man who puts adland on the edge of its seat) looks at some of Tony Kaye's more bizarre behaviour and talks about his recent return to directing commercials, this time for Kronenbourg 1664. I haven't seen the ad yet, but I will monitor youtube until it surfaces!

Tony Kaye's "Twister" Commercial for Volvo

Employing documentary elements, combined with strong colours reminicent of his Dunlop ad, Tony Kaye made a great commercial for Volvo with this piece.

Why Tony Scott Was Asked To Direct Top Gun

Although Tony Scott had directed the rather cool horror movie, The Hunger, it was this advert for Saab that got him the gig of directing Top Gun - one of the highest grossing movies of the 1980s. Made for Swedish car manufacturer Saab, the ad depicts a Saab 900 Turbo racing against a Saab 37 Viggen fighter jet. Excess, peach sunsets and homoerotic imagery - power-ballad-tastic!

Ridley Scott's Short Film

Before starting at the BBC, before making commercials, and before making The Duellists, Ridley Scott made a sweet little 16mm short film called Boy And Bicycle. The commentary track on the DVD for The Duellists from Ridley is a masterclass in getting going - as he quotes Nike, "just do it!"

Read more about it here.

Ridley Scott's Hovis Ad

Another classic from Sir Ridley Scott. The Hovis ad has been voted the all-time best advertising in the UK, in a poll by The Independent. Fancy a treat? Treat yourself to Ridley Scott's first feature, The Duellists, it's absolutely gorgeous! The commentary track alone is worth the price for any aspiring director.

Ridley Scott on "1984" for Apple

Ridley Scott is probably the most oft-cited ad directors turned feature film director. Making his start in commercial as far back as the 1960s, Ridley Scott earned a reputation as one of the best ad men in England. He also earned more money than most people could spend.

The 1984 ad for Apple to mark the launch of their Macintosh computer is now widely regarded as a landmark advert: cinematic beauty marking the birth of the Mac. Only shown once at the America during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII

Using imagery conjured up from George Orwell's 1984, ad writers Steve Hayden and Lee Clow, represented the birth of the Macintosh as a means of saving humanity from "conformity". After seeing this, I think I will have to invest in a copy of Karen Stabiner's Inventing Desire: Inside Chiat/Day, which details the day to day working of the agency Chiat/Day, who were responsible for this work. Apparently, Apple initially rejected the concept, but Chiat/Day knew it would work, so they shot it out of their own pocket and sold the finished ad to Apple. Confident, eh?!

Interesting to note, that this commercial came from Ridley after he had made Alien and Blade Runner, his masterpieces.

A classic.

The Opening Shot of Raging Bull

The title sequence to Scorsese's Raging Bull is one of the most beautiful cinematic moments. When I was young, I remember my brother asking my mum to record it for him, as they both liked the theme music that is played over the titles. I can still remember sitting in the family living room, putting the VHS tape in and watching it and after titles were followed with the opening punch, the recording stopped!!! My mother, bless her, only thought my brother was interested in the musical piece, so decided to do a bit of editing! After a few months (possibly even years - I was young, so my memory of it all has become a little hazy), some shouting and other things, my brother finally got a copy of the full film. Jake LaMotta was unquestionably a complete arsehole, but from De Niro's performance, you can't help but root for him. But this title sequence is just pure stress relief!

Oasis' video for The Masterplan

One of the classic Oasis b-sides was given another lease of life when it was flipped onto an a-side. To promote it, they band had a stroll around Salford. Well, not literally, but as if they had falled into Lowryland. I truly love this video, but at the same time, I hate it! I had the idea to do a stop frame animation of a Lowry painting about 7 years ago, just never had the skills to pull it off. Ce la vie!

The Van Gogh vignette from Akira Kurosawa's Dreams.

Been wanting to see this for a long time, and I was not let down by the visuals - gorgeous, gorgeous colours. I am really impressed how they managed to capture the look of his paintings and the music gives an insight into this trouble mind. This piece is nearly 20 years old, but the effects still look cool. I am sure with basic After Effects skills, it would be cool to produce something along similar lines.

Wipes: Film Editing Technique

Wipes are a editing technique used to make a gradual transition between two different shots. Essentially, one image is replaced by another with a distinct edge. Such edges can take the form of a simple edge (giving the impression of one image wiping another off), an expanding circle or the turning of a page.

Wipes are often regarded as going against golden rule that the underlying illusion of the film should be maintained at all times, as they draw the audience's attention to the mechanics of the film, rather than depicting a story. Other film makers use wipes for this specific reason. George Lucas made the famously used wipes to mark transitions between sequences in Star Wars. Lucas has cited his inspiration as coming from Akira Kurosawa, for his use of wipes to evoke similar feels of pulp sci-fi novels and comics.

Still 1 - Luke in the desert. Pre-wipe.

Still 2 - half way through the wipe transition.

Still 3 - after the wipe, and Luke is now in the next scene inside.

One of the very first uses of the wipe was by George Albert Smith in his 1903 film Mary Jane's Mishap.

As well as being used for stylistic purposes, wipes have also become part of the grammar of the film language. However, their use for these purposes is often looked down upon.

Iris wipes are realised as a growing or shrinking circle. Often used in animated shorts, such as the Looney Tunes, to signal the end of the story. The wipe focuses around a certain area of the frame to highlight a certain subject for certain significance, as a fourth wall-breaching wink by a character or some other use.

Star wipes take the form of a growing or shrinking star, whilst heart wipes are the same, but in the shape of a star. It is not uncommon to find heart wipes used in wedding videos to signify love and happiness. It is also exceptionally tacky, and should only be used in irony :)

In a matrix wipe, the transition is performed in a grid of stars. And a clock wipe, as the name suggests, is a wipe that sweeps a radius around the centre of the frame. Clock wipes are typically used to suggest the passing of time between the shots.

The "invisible wipe" is one of the most common used wipes in cinema. Using carefully constructed tracking shots, editors are able to move between shots as the camera tracks parallel to the actor and they enter another room. When the wall passes in front of the camera, it is possible to use the wipe to match with another take of the same scene. Invisible cuts can be made in action scenes where the camera is moving quickly as the rapid movement can hide the transition from being visible in the final film. Wolfgang Petersen used this approached when panning the camera between two u-boat pens during the filming of Das Boot, despite their only being one u-boat available for filming.

In the low budget Laurel and Hardy short, Thicker Than Water, each of the scene transitions in the film would be marked by Laurel and/or Hardy grabbing an object and moving it from one side of the frame to the other. Using optical printing, the opening frames of the next scene wiped relative to the object they were dragging across the frame. Pretty cool for 1935!

Red Hot Chili Pepper's Dani California

Tony Kaye's video for Dani California is highly appropriate for the song, given that it lifts the riff from Mary Jane's Last Dance and the solo is a reworking on Hendrix's Purple Haze riff. Parodying performances in various iconic rock styles, including Elvis, The Beatles, Prince, Sex Pistols, generic hair metal bands, Nirvana, and RHCP themselves :) Effective! Also, nice to see Tony Kaye working again! He has since shot another video with RHCP (Snow (Hey Oh)) and the Johnny Cash track God's Gonna Cut You Down. Also, a new feature soon!!!!

Tony Kaye's "Relax" ads for British Rail from 1989

Tony Kaye's ads for British Rail took the typically unappealing British train journey and romanticized it into something pleasurable. A mood piece, Kaye depicted a chilled out trip in a haze of sepia, set against a laid back soundtrack. Loved by the ad industry, the adverts were criticized for their inaccuracy in depicting the more scummier reality of train journeys.

Tony Kaye's "Real Fire" TV Spot from the 1980s

This very sweet little advert from the 1980s was also directed by Tony Kaye, the gentleman who years later directed Edward Norton in one of the most vicious scenes in cinema during American History X. A nice contrast :) Interestingly, Tony Kaye is a trifle 'awkward' to work with - even to the point that he makes me seem positively placid! Still, he knows how to use a camera.

Dunlop - Tested For The Unexpected. Tony Kaye, 1993

Visually amazing commercial from the mad, bad Tony Kaye! Oh, don't we love him?!

Music Video Composed Entirely of CCTV Footage

This is a very clever use of CCTV footage to form a music video. Really impressed with the originality - however, just such a shame the song is so boring and unoriginal.

Live Honda TV Advert

On May 29th 2008 Channel 4 broadcast an ambitious live advert. The three minute and twenty second commercial consisted of sky divers getting into formations to spell out the word "Honda".

Although the stunt was successfully delivered live, a taped backup had been prepared in the event of bad weather preventing the jump.

The ad was inspired by Honda's strap line "If it's difficult it's worth doing", and is at the vanguard of the car manufacturer's new advertising campaign which will begin this June.

Channel 4's sales director, Andy Barnes, said "This concept breaks the boundaries of the perceived confines of TV advertising, which is something Channel 4 is striving to do.".

Audi RS6 2008 - "Gymnastics" TV Commercial

Audi, Ad agency BBH and director Paul Hunter have produced my favourite advert so far for 2008. The internal workings on the Audi RS 6 are dramatised by breathtaking routines performed by gymnasts.

The choreography represents the headlights, wheels, pistons, cylinder bank, crankshaft and twin turbos of the car's engine. Leftfield's Nick Rapaccioli and Neil Barnes supply the score using actual sounds from the engine of the RS6. Using a sumptuously palette of blues, blacks and greys, the production values of the ad oozes quality. All of these elements combine to form an absolutely stunning ad.

Arctic Monkeys - The View From The Afternoon. Directed by W.I.Z.

This is a very gorgeous little video directed by W.I.Z. for the Arctic Monkey's track The View From The Afternoon. Shot in stark black and white, the video is a beautiful slice of council estate life. Rock 'n' roll!

W.I.Z - Music Video Director Profile

W.I.Z. has earned a reputation as one of the best music video directors working in the UK and is one of my personal favourites. Breaking onto the music video scene in 1992 with the music film to accompany Flowered Up's extended version of Weekender. Capturing the whole clubbing and ecstasy culture that had become prevalent in England following the acid house movement, the film follows the hedonistic weekend of a London window cleaner.

Weekender opens with one of the most amazing and impressionable shots I have ever seen: starting on a tight close up of the protagonist's eyes, the subject essentially tracks out and reveals the window cleaner laying on a platform descending a high rise building in the centre of London. Progressing through the weekend, the film paints a portrait of the nightlife and drug culture that was (and still is) rampant amongst the young people of Britain, contrasted with the mundane events of everyday working and family life. A hybrid between a music promo and a short film, Weekender perfectly encapsulates the times in which it was produced and remains a classic as far as I am concerned.

Weekender by Flowered Up

Part 1:


Part 2:


The subsequent music videos directed by W.I.Z. have largely followed a strong narrative line with a political or social comment. For more insight into W.I.Z's working methods, the making of the Club Foot video shows W.I.Z. at work and how he goes about making his videos.

The former musician, DJ and photographer is (in my mind) a true music video artist. Working with such wide ranging musicians as Oasis, Happy Mondays, Ian Brown, Jamelia, Will Young, Arctic Monkeys, Shakira, Smashing Pumpkins, Leftfield, Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, Marilyn Manson, Jamiroquai, Suede and the Manic Street Preachers. Whether you like the music or not, all of the videos in WIZ's oeuvre are well worth a watch.

Want to read more? An analysis of the Weekender film