Ooglies

I spent a weekend with my lovely nieces recently and between a steady dose of imaginary tea parties, Nintendo DS, bedtime stories and street dance classes I was introduced to Ooglies. The basic premise is to put some googly eyes on inanimate objects that you might find around your house. These creatures come to life when no one is watching. The results are hilarious. It’s delicious stop-motion in the same vein as Morph and Wallace and Grommit. It’s the kind of thing that can easily get lost amongst the slew of dreadful kids programming (Disney channel most notably) – but CBBC have really pulled it off with this one. It’s really lovely stuff so try and catch it if you can. Something for all the family.

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Big Spaceship

Flash on the Beach provided a wealth of inspiration but possibly one of the best talks for me was the one from Joshua Hirsch of Big Spaceship fame. He is the Minister of Technology (no less) and let me just say I’m ready to convert to his church, or at least hop on a plane and go work in Brooklyn. Ok so his presentation was a bit flaky in that none of the videos worked (curses Snow Leopard – glad I didn’t make the upgrade just yet) but he made up for this with a very enigmatic approach that captivated his audience. He mostly talked about what Big Spaceship is about and their practice and methodology. One of the things I found fascinating was an agency-wide promise to never use stock footage and where possible shoot everything themselves. This ideology manifests itself in their animated logo that they built and shot themselves. From the cardboard cutouts, to the hand built camera track, everything was shot by their in-house team and assembled with a bit of post. He whole-heartedly recommends buying a smoke machine as “you just can’t fake this shit”. Here’s the result of their efforts. Gloriously low-fi and a marvelous stop-motion effort.

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8 bit trip

LEGO Stop-Motion Video [VIDEO].

My head hurts thinking about how long this must’ve taken (1500 hours) to make. Some serious dedication and planning went into this piece and the results are well worth it.

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YouTube – HP Workstation: Viral Commercial

YouTube – HP Workstation: Viral Commercial.

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YouTube – DEADLINE post-it stop motion

YouTube – DEADLINE post-it stop motion.

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Zombies Zombies everywhere!

It’s been a bit of a zombie week for me quite unintentionally I might add. When done right this genre of horror is fantastic (think 28 days later – but not 28 weeks later) and it seems there is still more that can be told in this tale of people gone mad with blood lust.

First up is a video that someone at work posted on our blog (which incidentally is worth checking out as lots of people regularly post http://www.leanmeanfightingmachine.co.uk/blog/). It’s called ZOMBIE ZOMBIE Driving Clip Simon Gesrel Xavier Ehretsmann and is an homage to the classic Carpenter flick The Thing. It’s done in stop-motion and set to an absolutely hypnotic electro track. The tension is incredible and the tale is told in a breathtaking 6 and a half minutes. It’s absolutely brilliant stuff and it’s on youtube so I’ve included the video below. Make yourself a cup of tea and settle down for this treat…

Second up is a fantastic Spanish movie called REC. It follows a camera crew as they set out to film an ordinary night of a local team of firemen who get called to a routine call at an apartment block. It seems neighbours have called the services to reports of screams coming from an apartment of which the police need the firmen’s help in opening the door. You see everything from the cameraman’s point of view and although this style of film-making has been done before in Cloverfield doing this in the horror genre certainly adds a level of claustrophobia I’ve not felt in a movie in a long time. What emerges from this plot is a zombie movie but trust me this is realistically done. Totally believable storyline. Brilliant acting. And terrifying in its conclusion. It’s the first time (I think ever) that I’ve actually jumped up in my chair and screamed. I know that sounds a bit woosie but really this film will make you do this. It’s an absolute classic and well worth a watch. Here’s a clip…

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Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

Thanks to the lovely Em for this one. An absolutely stunning stop-motion dreamlike adventure using the bed as a canvas. Starting very obviously by staring down at someone in bed you are soon transported to a different world as the illusion of the animation takes hold. A really impressive feat of imagination and preparation has gone into making this and the effect is rather lovely. Works perfectly with the song. Michel Gondry eat your heart out.

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Western Spagetti

Leading on from yesterday, another little ditty from the guys over at Pes films, here creating a masterpiece of culinary delights all out of everyday household things. Yum!

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Game Over

Another great stop-motion video from the incredible guys over at Pes films. Here recreating the best arcade deaths with food. Delicious!

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Tripping the light fantastic

Genius. Lichtfaktor here with a short promoting Sky Movies. Created in London it mashes light painting with stop motion to create this stunning little light battle of man and robots. Entitled Star Wars vs Star Trek there is a great gallery of images over at behance.net. Don’t forget to click to appreciate!

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