Conceived by Paul White and directed by Trevor De Silva, Rushes have produced their own version of the J. Arthur Rank title sequence to introduce this year’s short film festival.
Festival Director Joe Bateman comments: “When the idea was pitched to us the timing was perfect, we’d just started finalising this year’s activities and the story board for the title sequence was the perfect introduction. The original Rank gong is resident at The Movieum in County Hall and as they’re enthusiastic supporters of the festival, they were more than happy to let us use this original piece of film history.”
He continues … “The gong is huge, it might not be made of metal but it took a number of us to shift it! We received amazing support from On Sight and Arri Lighting which meant we could give DOP Ed Rutherford and Gaffer Shawn White all the equipment they needed to light and shoot the piece. It looked absolutely incredible on set.”
“We opted to shoot on RED (provided by Deane Thrussell) as it was more financially viable and meant we could send our chosen rushes directly to Final Cut where they could be carefully selected for post production.”
Rushes’ Senior Designer and Head of Motion GFX, Matt Lawrence comments: “This take on the J. Arthur Rank brand was a fun job to be involved with. The Rushes crew did a great job of recreating the look at the shoot. I used Cinema 4D to create the custom font that was complimentary to the hand painted artwork from the classic original. Compositing and subtle film grain was added using After Effects to complete the piece.
He adds: “I love the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival and I’ve had the pleasure of attending every one since its birth. It’s incredible to see how it’s grown into such a huge well respected event in those 11 years!”
Finally, sound was added by Bulb Ideas who were delighted to be involved with designing the soundtrack for the Rushes Soho Shorts promo again this year. James Wilkinson at Bulb: “We teamed up with Paul Foss and had great fun in the studio creating all sorts of interesting Foley sounds for the little man and gong sequence. The gong swipes, believe it or not, came from tennis racket sounds and the powering down of a jet engine and the grunts from a Danish circus pig … and all bundled up seemed to work like a dream!”
The promo along with along production information can be viewed on the Rushes Soho Shorts website at: http://www.sohoshorts.com/#/214
The promo can also be viewed along with a selection of work from every year of the festival, to date, at: http://www.dailymotion.com/SohoShorts
The Rank Gong: Did you know …?
J. Arthur Rank employed five gong beaters. Our star gong beater, Graham Hughes, has become the sixth gong beater 77 years after J. Arthur Rank first employed Carl Dane.
The 6′ 5″ Carl Dane started banging in 1932 and kept banging until 1948. Dane was the first man to pull a London bus with his teeth and the first man to open a J. Arthur Rank film.
He was succeeded by Bombardier Billy Wells (1946 – 1948), a professional boxer who is the only beater to have had a beer named after him.
Then there was Phil Nieman, (1948 – 1955) who was only able to bang for a short time, considered by many to be a master beater.
Ken Richmond (1955 – 1978) 19, a 6’5″ 265 lb. pro wrestler turned Jehovah’s Witness and when his gong-banging days were over, he started banging on doors and passing out copies of The Watchtower.
The final beater was Martin Grace, the Milk Tray Stuntman, despite his golden locks he remained on the cutting room floor while Richmond’s footage continued to be used.
The beater was last applied to the gong in 1980, when the Rank Studios closed; Mr. Richmond’s own beater gave out at his home in August of 2006, when he was 80 years old.
CREDITS
Title: ‘Gong’ Rushes Soho Shorts Festival Promo 2009
Starring: Graham Hughes
Creative Concept: Paul White
Producer: Joe Bateman
Director: Trevor De Silva
First Assistant Director: John Evans
Art Director: Jason Carlin
DOP: Ed Rutherford
Gaffer: Shawn White
Grip: Greg Murray
Make-up and Wardrobe: Nicole Lee and Eleanor Rogers
Production Assistant: Alan Pressland
Runners: Helenie Desorajensen and Grant Douglas (Courtesy of Soho Runners)
Editing: Final Cut
Post: Rushes
VFX: Omar Akkari
After Effects and Cinema 4D: Matt Lawrence
Original Soundtrack: Bulb Ideas (James Wilkinson and Paul Foss)
