118 247 is Magical Trevor!
118 247 is Magical Trevor!
Also, within hours...this appeared, remixing a radio ad now?!?
Yes I know they commissioned Weebls to make the illustration but it's a bit cheap to use the same tune.... they also brought you the legendary badger badger.
I'm off to make something for the Kenyan tourist board.
More weebls here
Citroen Ghostbusters
This is brilliant, it's just a huge shame that 118 118 are using the jingle and it looks like they stole it from each other. Created by Euro RSCG Paris, it chases a giant ‘luggage monster'. Cooooooool!
Apparently Citroen's UK marketing director Ian Hughes said the timing of the two campaigns is a complete coincidence, but would consider joint marketing with 118 118 to play on the Ghostbusters connection.
Interesting. So I'll think of a way of making something Fallonesque so they can work with Sony or Orange...clever or not?
Google Street View
Cheers Rob for this blinding spot on the crossroads of Lothain Road Edinburgh. Shame the face has been blurred. Legend.
More here, I'm off to make a Facebook group
Whatever next
Finn creates USB 'finger drive'
Yes we've all heard it, we knew there was something funny in Scandinavia. 'Mr Jalava' says he was inspired by a joke made by the doctors treating him. A computer programmer lost one of his fingers in a motorcycle accident and made himself a prosthetic replacement with a USB drive attached.
Jerry Jalava uses the 2GB memory stick, accessed by peeling back the "nail", to store photos, movies and programmes.
The finger is not permanently attached to his hand, so it can be easily left plugged into a computer when in use.
Mr Jalava says he is already thinking about upgrading the finger to include more storage and wireless technology.
Strange child.
Trevor Beattie night
So last night CR and I went to see Trveor Beattie at Robbie Smith's studio in Edinburgh last night.
It was the first part of many from stv where they get high profile creatives to head north and give a talk on something. Beattie was there to tell us about how to create a great TV advert on a budget. So Union, Family, Newhaven, Leith and a few more sent their people to see what he had to say.
He started with a nice piece information about himself. Material possessions mean little to him, it is all about experiences. He then informed us he paid $200,000 to be on the second plane to space with Virgin and that you should never talk about work that is more than 5 years old.
So...firstly some pointers.
Don't go catch Creative BSE.
Simply put, but basically don't copy awards annuals, they won, you didn't. It destroys youthful minds. So every time we've been told look at awards annuals, maybe go see Trevor instead.
The great thing about low budget advertising is that the idea is everything. Big TV budgets at the minute are being spent on shit apparently and he is very curious to see how a planner knows an idea works, on paper, in pre-research but not in post-research!?!
His first video was Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares To You, written by Prince, he said that the strength of her acting was so good, he would have done away with the fades and had the camera locked on her for 3 minutes.
What not to do.
Never try and make big budget on a small one
The idea is priceless
Be proud to be cheap
It's all about the visual simplicity
And if you believe in your idea, fund it yourself
Use stock footage.
NASA give theirs away for free and National Geographic are cheap.
so much footage can't be recreated again, but apparently that included get Stalin to go to DFS for the sale. Use this footage and say something different
Harry Hill's TV Burp or You've Been Framed are a good example of this.
Be a journalist.
Learn to write fast and precise, there is always time. His analogy for this was if a plane crashed at midnight in London, the next morning the papers would have a 2000 word perfect analysis of events and further essays on Boeing 747s, terrorism and possible other causes, and no one would ever moan.
How to sell low budget.
Low budget is BIG budget to these companies normally, sell it to them that way.
Make it have charm, it doesn't cost a million pounds.
Find something you believe in, sell that.
Don't put a price on ideas.
Don't tell production companies you have a small budget, make it smaller then pull favours, don't let them have the AIG mentality.
Be a passionate expert in low budget
Care, no one did about cooking 10 years ago, now look.
Big budgets mean people get lazy as they have money to burn.
They take things for granted.
How he survives.
Hire brilliant people
If he can sleep at night and not worry about them. That's who he wants around him.
Delegation and trust.
He wanted fun at BMB now he has fun and 90 people in his London office with New York and Sao Paulo opening in May and September respectively.
That was it (phew!). I've never met the guy before, he seems nicer than I expected, and is definitely the kind of guy I could see myself working for, less knobish. There was also free beer and pizza to top off a great night. Mark Waites from Mother is up next and I'm off to Pecha Kucha tonight so another long write up to follow soon.
Beam me up Scotty.
Michael Jackson and iTunes tie In
So you were some how the unlucky sod who couldn't get tickets to one of MJ's 50 gigs at the O2 this summer. Well fear not, Ticketmaster and iTunes have done a great tie in with each other.Simply by a MJ album via iTunes in the next few days and you will get a code which you can redeem on Ticketmaster's website to then be able to buy 2 tickets for his tour.
Basically Apple bought 2000 tickets for which you can buy a maximum of 2 each and then flog them to people who buy their product first. Genius. Love the tie in. Afraid it didn't work on me, as much as I loved his music, I can't think of anything other than the image of him performing his greatest hits on gig number 37 with an oxygen mask attached.
Dan Bramall
Dan Bramall aka The Scribbler makes cool illustrations. I'm a bit of a suck up when it comes to styles I like. I really enjoy seeing what looks like rough doodles but what is actually nicely crafted a purposeful mistakes.
This is my fave. A nice and simple take on everyday life, but a hell of a lot of charm.
see more on flickr
see more on his website
This is my fave. A nice and simple take on everyday life, but a hell of a lot of charm.
see more on flickr
see more on his website
Inflatable Steel and NOTCOT
That next concept, made easier by inflatable steel, from a company called full blown metals they make all manner of products, all bespoke and all awesome. This isn't a functional material, well I lie, they make a few things usable but on the whole they are there to look good.
Now Chris has become addicted to NOTCOT which I'm sure most people are aware of, but this is the gem I like to find without the use of NOTCOT, partly because I know loads of people haven't already seen anything I may use as inspiration and also because anything Chris finds thats cool ends up clogging up my email!
Red Nose Day 2009
This is the Red Nose Day 2009 advert, created by Fallon with the creative by John and Chris (below).
I love this advert, it won't win any awards, it may not be remembered but its about the only time you can say they worked with some of the greatest characters on television adverts ever.
Love the fact meerkat got an appearance, it just shows how he has taken the UK by storm this year.
John documented the day and I have fallen in love with this great cliche.
A gorilla eating chocolate. Possibly by accident but John still managed to get a shot of it happening.
Hope to see these guys again soon, but they are busy as hell, and Edinburgh isn't the easiest of commutes with a job up here too!
I also found this, presumably by Fallon, can't decide if it would have been funnier with the kids wearing red noses instead...
Ipod Shuffle - I want one!
new
old
Its smaller, bigger and so much cooler, this is why I love to hate Apple.
No buttons, voice command, and a headphones set that means you always have to use Apple headphones, clever techies.
Sure it'll annoy some people, but not me, this brings a whole new way of looking at minimalism in the 21st Century. I don't really need to buy another iPod but if I had any money, it would be a hard thing to resist!
For more info and a tutorial click here
70% less of everything
I was sat on too many trains yesterday commuting from Crawley to Edinburgh (7 hours is always fun) but it gives me time to think or sleep or generally notice the world around me.
Now I don't often get these crisps, Walkers Baked, but i nicked them from the cupboard at home. 70% less fat sounds good on the packet. But sadly the reason why there is 70% less fat is that there is 70% less crisp in the packet. Honest to god, that is how many crisps I had to eat. I remember the days when these packets were full. Should I complain? Actually that wasn't as bad as having to stand up from Kings Cross to York, 2.5 hours. Although I did notice the man scratching his nether region on a toilet sign.
P.S. I stood there for 2.5 hours... oh the joys
Now I don't often get these crisps, Walkers Baked, but i nicked them from the cupboard at home. 70% less fat sounds good on the packet. But sadly the reason why there is 70% less fat is that there is 70% less crisp in the packet. Honest to god, that is how many crisps I had to eat. I remember the days when these packets were full. Should I complain? Actually that wasn't as bad as having to stand up from Kings Cross to York, 2.5 hours. Although I did notice the man scratching his nether region on a toilet sign.
P.S. I stood there for 2.5 hours... oh the joys
Doodling helps you concentrate
Doodling 'may help memory recall'.
Yes, we all knew it really didn't we?
Doodling may look messy, but it could in fact be a sign of an alert mind, a study suggests.
Plymouth University researchers carried out memory tests on 40 volunteers, asking them to listen to a phone call and recall names and places. Doodlers performed 29% better than non-doodlers, the team found.
Awesome! So when, you drew on the desk you were really taking everything your chemistry teacher was trying to teach you. Oh why did you have to give teenagers an excuse!
Experts said it stops people from daydreaming and so was good at helping them focus on mundane tasks.
During the study, half of the volunteers were asked to colour in shapes on a piece of paper while they listened to a 2.5 minute telephone message.
The other half were left to their own devices while they listened. Both groups were told the message would be dull
Afterwards, both groups were asked to write down 8 specific names and 8 places mentioned.
The doodlers on average recalled 7.5, while the non-doodlers only managed 5.8.
So next time you see me doodling ad ideas, I'm still 'apparently' listening, whether I am or not is another thing.
Awesome! So when, you drew on the desk you were really taking everything your chemistry teacher was trying to teach you. Oh why did you have to give teenagers an excuse!
Experts said it stops people from daydreaming and so was good at helping them focus on mundane tasks.
During the study, half of the volunteers were asked to colour in shapes on a piece of paper while they listened to a 2.5 minute telephone message.
The other half were left to their own devices while they listened. Both groups were told the message would be dull
Afterwards, both groups were asked to write down 8 specific names and 8 places mentioned.
The doodlers on average recalled 7.5, while the non-doodlers only managed 5.8.
So next time you see me doodling ad ideas, I'm still 'apparently' listening, whether I am or not is another thing.
Morph Flashmob
I've always loved Morph and I grew up with him on the tv screen. I was as saddened as anyone when I heard Tony Hart had passed away, but was delighted when on surfing the BBC news webpage that a flashmob had been to honour the legend that is Hart and his adorable plasticine character Morph.
The event which was organised via Facebook attracted around 200 models outside the Tate Modern happened on yesterday (1st March).
There was even a Best Morph competition which I would have loved to have entered - I always wondered what I could make with my 40 pots of blue playdoh that I bought a year ago.
There are some beautiful shots of Morph and other tributes on Olley Headey's Flickr page.
His daughter Carolyn Williams put it well, "He would particularly love this because everybody is doing exactly what he always wanted them to do which was make something, just give it a go, make a model or draw a picture.
I will attempt my version later with anything I can find in the office. Tin foil here I come, Morph in a space suit perhaps?
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