BigShinyThing

Much as we love Nick Park’s national treasures, surely they are much more suited to flogging tea bags than glad rags? Mother‘s Hibby and Harvey campaign from the late 90s was far more on-brand. With their delightfully catty captions — “Nice Helmut” — the knitted dolls spoke directly to the fashionistas who shop at Harvey Nicks as well as modelling the clothes. It’s hard to see Wallace and his dog having the same high fashion resonance.

And yet. Marks and Spencer has just launched an ad campaign featuring that beloved working class stereotype Del Boy in an attempt to move away from its current upmarket image. Food retailers in the UK are increasingly under pressure from the ‘Aldi effect’ with credit-crunched shoppers switching to budget outlets. M&S claims that Del Boy has “universal appeal with the British public”. Maybe Harvey Nics is attempting a similar shift by adopting the distinctly mainstream Wallace and Gromit. But what does a luxury brand have without its exclusivity? Luxe brands from M&S upwards may well be about to find out…

Back in the 80s, HBO wanted an ident. A big, bold ident. A fly through of a city, no less. So they built one. Out of stuff, not bits. Lovingly. Then they filmed it.

To advertise its Spring/Summer 08 collection, the fashion house has produced a short film. In it, a blank-eyed nymph both models and interacts with the product: a couple of scuttling crabs become shoes and a fish transmogrifies into a handbag. Further blurring the lines between advertising and product, the illustrator behind the short – James Jean – has also worked on Prada prints and bags for this season, as well producing the backdrop for catwalk shows and in-store decoration.

And whilst we have absolutely NO IDEA what the film means, it sure beats the usual grumpy-looking models staring out from the pages of Vogue.

It’s a bit too close to Creature Comforts for — um — comfort but a nice stage in the evolution of corporate communications all the same. Coca-Cola’s ‘Making of’ last year’s animated TV spot features the v/os of actual ‘happy’ workers.

Mixing puppetry, fantastic lighting and cut outs, the film is viewable online or if you’re really whizzy, on your video iPod. Natch.

Somewhat impressively, the short is now PageRanked higher than the poem itself on Google.

THE TYGER
By William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

1794

Via Wooster.

Flipbook was created by Colombian artist Juan Carlos Ospina Gonzalez. An additional clever feature lets you download your animation onto PDF and print out to create a flipbook. Via we-make-money-not-art.com.

We fell over this short whilst reading RSS feeds — as you do.

It’s directed by Philip Hunt and features William Burroughs reading his poem Ah Pook is Here. The music is by John Cale and the animation is sick-inducingly brilliant.

Via/via BoingBoing.

You can watch some of his films in full on the BBC South Africa site.

An animated one second film … 24 frames in one second of film … the film consists of 12 giant frames (5ft x 9ft paintings) … each frame will be filmed twice to create the 24 frames in one second of animation. Each frame had its own director and was painted by hundreds of people during an all-night event

Once the film has been shown the frames will be sold off for charity

The film is being funded by hundreds of thousands of producers from the very famous to anyone who can donate a dollar or more to be included in the credits

Extract from the site:

The 1 Second Film hopes to bring a conceptual film to as many people as possible. But this 1st second is just the begining- Ultimately, we hope to bring the entire world together, one second at a time, through a series of epic animated SEQUELS that will eventualy culminate in THE 11,111 SECOND FILM.