Chocolate Island

São Tomé, also known by the locals as 'Chocolate Island' produces some of the best Cocoa in the world. Cafédirect has recently launched a single origin drinking chocolate from the island. We've put together this short animation to help spread the word.

Chocolate's Best Kept Secret

its Magic!

Just a quick snippet of tech-related news...we are trying out a new bit of Apple gadgetry, the Magic Trackpad. We actually got this little beauty for free from Apple, following on from a catalogue of mistakes they made trying to sort out a new MacPro we just took delivery of...anyway, that is a whole other story....

So, we received this little aluminum pad a couple of days ago and hooked it up (via bluetooth)...Jim is curently using it with Motion (while he cooks up a little animation we are working on for Cafédirect - look out for that when its done...) and so far he seems to love it!

Haven't had a go myself yet - but it takes advantage of multitouch technology and allows you to pretty much do away with the trusty old mouse! - will it catch on? time will tell - but its already made a good impression with one of our number...

RIP

Leslie Nielsen & The Kersch.

When God Was A Rabbit

We've been working on this for a little while now, and due to the nature of the business we have not really been able to talk too much about this project.  We were contacted by Headline Publishing earlier this year, and we're very proud that our promo film for the forthcoming book, When God Was A Rabbit, by Sarah Winman went live on Amazon today.

The book is wonderful, and bound to be a monster.  We hope that our tiny part will help it become a success.

The Voice.

Had the pleasure of working with Tim Pigott-Smith last week. He recorded the voice over for our (almost finished) surgical training film which Jim and I shot in Ethiopia last year.

We had a 3 hour long recording session where Tim read the script - flawlessly I might add -replacing the temporary track laid down by yours truly...it never ceases to amaze me the gravitas a great voice over can add to a film.

The trip to Ethiopia was amazing and now having the final film come together with such a great vocal element is very satisfying indeed.

Little Deaths

We just finished animating the titles for the forthcoming UK horror film, Little Deaths.  Sean Hogan, the Director was 'well pleased'.

:-)

Fright Fest 2010

Just finished the title sequence for FrightFest...Creepy!

stormy weather

Weird call last week, we were asked to shoot some PR shots for a new client.  Mattesons have sponsored Storm Freerun, a group of London-based Parkour & freerunners, and they wanted some images of them alongside a pair of glamour models, as well as 5 tutorial films showing off some simple techniques.

We had a really good day, started early at the skate park on the South Bank where we fired off a few shots.  Then we headed over to a stairwell near the iMax which is a popular practicing spot for freerunners, who were there buzzing around all day, happy to meet a few of their heroes form Storm).  We pinged off a few more shots and shot the tutorial films.

We shot with a 3 camera setup, shooting 75fps on the Z7, which produced some fantastic results!  After a few test shots of Nick belting around in the garden in the rain, I was happy that we had a project that was worth breaking out the slo-mo for!

As well as the old FX-1 for backup, we shot on our new baby, a Canon 5D.  It's our first time shooting 1080p in anger on the 5D and the results are niiize!  We are very, very impressed.  Have a look...

Graduation.

This week we've been filming this year's graduating chef's from the Jamie Oliver Fifteen Foundation.  We set up a white infinity cove studio on a spare floor of the Westland Place Restaurant and asked each chef a few questions (some poignant, some messing around).

We got some touching, varied & funny responses that should cut together into a great little piece that will be shown at the graduation ceremony, we're looking forward to it....

Laos

I hate blogs that begin "I've been so busy I haven't had time to post..." or some-such, so I'll spare it.

Emma and I went to Laos for 2 weeks plus a few days in Thailand either side.  We flew to BKK, spent a few hot days drinking on a rooftop bar in Banglamphu, listening to the Nuremberg-esque red shirted street preachers on the loud-hailer all day and night (and playing Queen!?).

Caught a sleeper train up to Nong Kai where we stopped for a few drinks nights before crossing the border into Laos.  We spent 3 or 4 nights each in Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang.  We tried to do everything one is supposed to do in those places.  We were expecting Laos to be a little further off the beaten track than it is, the reality is that they are very well set up for the tourist trail, better than a lot of SE Asian countries at least.  It's still largely geared towards the global traveller scene, we found new adventures every single day, and easily avoided some of the newer resort-type hotels.  The guesthouses are beautiful and proud, and every place we stayed in uniquely reflected the owner's character.  We met wonderful people on the way, both static and traveling friends.  When you're out in the world it's a pretty safe bet that most people you meet are looking for the same things as you.  A wonderful adventure, we'll be back one day.

Here are some photos...

Trouble brewing in Bangkok...

All aboard?  The Night Train!

The hottest chili of all times!

Young monks messing about

A nice temple

er... dinner?

Mucking around underground

Mountain biking

The cows coming home

Trying to read the signs

Hmong night market

"Some people say daydreaming's for the lazy minded fools..."

Elephant Riders

Tuppence a bag

Bangkok in one

Mmm.  Hard to leave this behind...

Barcelona

Laconfusió!

Filming for the First Conferences SFE event.  Inter Milan stayed in our hotel (it was the Champions League semi-final v Barca)- saw Sneijder & Samuel hanging in the foyer! 


This shot is just a mix-up in the bathroom...

Some more Pics from Jersey!

Jersey Royals

Nick and I arrived back in London last Thursday evening from our trip with Jamie Oliver's latest Fifteen apprentices - exhausted!

The 2 day trip was packed with visits to small holder farmers located all over the beautiful island.

We got to sample the most delicious produce from gorgeously fresh seafood to Jersey milk courtesy of the famous Jersey cattle and of course the first spring-woken Jersey Royals!

Films of the trip should start arriving on Fifteen's Youtube site soon.

Sacred Boston

Just returned from a short filming trip in Boston. There's something very cool about Boston that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's my obsession with Lehane's Kenzie & Gennaro detective series to which Boston provides the backdrop, always a bonus to be in the place that the book you're reading is set, or maybe it's the abundance of cool bars like the Beehive. (if you get a chance order a Shortrib, Farmhouse Cheddar & Fontina Grilled Cheese sandwich - worth the trip alone). Not to mention the history, the friendly people, the obsession with baseball, the fact that it has seasons and weather similar to ours. Whatever it is, everytime I visit I like it just that little bit more.

Vombies!

More to follow...

Berlin

Just got back from filming Europe's biggest pharma e-marketing summit EFP.

This is the view from the hotel which overlooks the Deutscher Dom. It was snowing but don't think you can quite make that out from the picture.

Can't wait to go back and spend some more time exploring.

In production

Nick & I have just spent a couple of days on a film set.  We're shooting some 'behind the scenes' EPK stuff for a new horror anthology called Little Deaths  Our old war buddy Sean Hogan is directing the 2nd of the 3 episodes in the anthology, 'House & Home'.  The first & third films are called 'Bitch', written & directed by Simon Rumley and 'Mutant Tool', written & directed by Andrew Parkinson.

Tuesday evening we joined them on a night shoot over near Enfield, where dog handlers were on hand to control the 'actors'.  Filming seemed to be going fairly smoothly and apart from the bloody temperature, everyone was happy at the wrap for the day.

Yesterday we were at a closed set over in Mill Hill.  One of the crucial final scenes was being filmed and the poor lead actress Kate was clearly involved in some harrowing scenes.  We had a nice chat to her afterwards and spoke to Simon and the DoP Milton Kam, who is shooting all the films on a Red One. They gave us their thoughts on the fully digital workflow and were generally really happy about the picture and performance.

So, we should have some cool goodies for EPK webisodes & a BTS documentary for the DVD release.  Will post again when we visit Sean's set - expecting more harrowed actresses there...

Pics from the top -

On-set in London, 

Gravy, 

A dog and a Red One, 

Simon, 

Kate 

Cadbury Boost

We had another call from the folks at Cadbury the other night.  Could we get down to the Gold Coast bar in Brixton and film distinguished guests from Ghana at the launch of the new Swap Songs TV ad campaign?

It's a campaign where Cadbury are asking people to swap any regular purchase to the Fairtrade equivalent (not sure everyone understood the concept thoroughly, one portly gentleman told us he would swap a crate of beer he had in his boot for chocolate bars!).

Anyhoo, the idea is that you let them know what you have swapped on the Cadbury website and you can download a free album of British song re-recorded by Ghanaian artists.  Pretty cool.

So we had a busy night, interviewing the attendees (including Harriet Lamb - the 3rd time we've had the pleasure in as many weeks!).  It was a fun night, we got some nice photos & soundbites for a little promo to help the campaign along.  Had a sip (a sip, mind) of a Ghanaian brewskie, and we were given a little gift as a thank-you on the night - 4.5KG of Fairtrade Dairy Milk bars!!

Well, hopefully our consumption helped to do a tiny bit of good in the world(!).  As I think I've said before, it's nice to see the big boys beginning to embrace ethical trade...

Phipps Photoshoot

Just looking at the stills from last week's photoshoot at Phipps PR, the agency responsible for G&B and other premium brands - stumbled across this test shot of Paul. What a handsome chap!

Saints go marching in

Friday was a crazy day.  We got a call from our old friend and colleague Zachary on Thursday night.  He's working for a pretty cool biz in NY and he called to see if we were interested in doing some 'pro bono' work for a potential client of his, Global Green.  

Could we get a simple 30sec promo completed and shown on air in the run up to Super Sunday in the States in less than 24hrs?

Yup.

Big wheels turning

We got a call from Cadbury's at 3pm yesterday - "can you get down to City Hall to film en event by 6?".

So we raced into town where we got some coverage & stills of a BITC sustainable marketing event - the current Cadbury's Chief Exec, Todd Stitzer.  He was speaking to guests on the day before the Cadbury's shareholders vote on the Kraft takeover.

Todd came across as a gentleman, passionate about sustainability in business and joking calmly about the vote today.

Other speakers were from M&S & Unilever, and the general discussion was on the subject of ethical & sustainable marketing - fairly run of the mill stuff for those that already work in the ethical sector.  "... for our children, and our children's children..."  etc.


Naturally, having visited farmers benefiting from Fairtrade many times, it would be easy for us to glaze over when listening to it being described in metropolitan surroundings.  However it's still exciting to think that "we're dealing with a very critical and crucial time" as James Brown once said.  We're at a real crossroads here...

So, it's good to see that the huge great mechanical wheels of corporate industry are slowly turning towards the realisation that ethical and 'sustainable' business will one day be the norm, not just some cheap marketing trick.

P

Evidently M&S have saved 400m carrier bags since they began charging $$ for them, less than a year ago!  That's according to a Powerpoint slide :-)  Nice!

I'm Blogging!

Considering the area I work in, its quite surprising that I've only really ever blogged a couple of times before on our old blog..

Now we are using blogger.com - perhaps I'll be more inspired to blog my mind more often...?

we shall see...