Inspired by its partnership with the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Panasonic teamed up with Tokyo-based media company Nowonmedia to create the Five Colors/Five Films–Capture the Motion II project. Then, Nowonmedia chose five film producers from five areas of the world–Asia, Oceania, Americas, Europe and Africa–to each create a 60-second film based on the theme “Glory of Sports.” The shorts are appearing online at Panasonic.co.jp/Olympic/ “for your online enjoyment,” as the site relates.
The Panasonic and Nowonmedia partnership was natural since Nowonmedia worked on the first Capture the Motion project with Panasonic for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. That set of Ten Short Movies involved 10 filmmakers from around the globe and the work is also available for viewing at Panasonic.co.jp/Olympic/.
For this year’s work, Panasonic provided the theme “Glory of Sports.” The goal for the project, said Nowonmedia producer Kana Yamamoto, is “to let people know that Panasonic is the IOC’s (International Olympic Committee) worldwide partner.” There was additional impetus to utilize the short-form format and support up-and-coming filmmakers. The mission set forth to the filmmakers was to create a humorous film that would appeal to diverse audiences–“minimizing linguistic barriers”– and have the work relate to winter sports.
“In respect to the Olympics, we choose filmmakers from five continents, and sought the talented next generation of filmmakers,” Yamamoto related.
ANIMATION, ATHLETES, ADVENTURE The films and filmmakers involved in Capture the Motion II are as follows: Yoman from Qian Qian, a designer from China; Too Good for his own Good, from Rumpus Room, a creative collective of directors with Auckland, N.Z.-headquartered The Sweet Shop; Slippery Town, directed by Honest through international CZAR; Archeo-Logic, which Gabriel Malaprade directed through Nexus Productions, London, and Yellow House, Paris and Stonington, Connecticut; and The Little Battle, which Hilton Tennant helmed through The Ebeling Group, Los Angeles. They represent the following geographic areas in respective order: Asia, Oceania, Americas, Europe and Africa. With filmmakers from around the world involved in a project for a global audience, the project skirted language barriers by omitting dialogue and narration.
The animated Yoman takes place in a land where fictional creatures made of snow live. They are called Yoman. The unusual story begins with two members of this group fighting over a rainbow colored mushroom that quickly runs away. Then, one of the cute white creatures tears the tail off of another, who begins to weep. The perpetrator, however, quickly smoothes things out to the delight of the victim and the rest of the group.
Too Good for His Own Good combines live-action and visual effects to present a figure skater named Tristan Floss. His moves include giant leaps and throwing pink hearts into the air. Going too slowly at the end though, he can’t complete his last jump and hangs suspended in mid-air. Then, paramedics have to pull him down and carry him off of the ice.
Slippery Town also includes live action and effects. In this unusual setting, people slide through their day because everything is slippery. None of the surfaces appear wet or icy, but people slip, slide and fall all over the place. Based on the artists’ commentary on the site, this story seems to tie into the Winter Games, because this slippery town is a place that all winter athletes have heard about but have never seen.
With an obvious nod to several of the sports at the winter Olympics, Archeo-Logic presents archeologists excavating a ruin where they find skeletons with helmets on and something that looks like a sled. The imagery then transitions to artifacts that have paintings of people engaging in sports like skiing, figure skating and curling.
Back to adorable animated snow dwellers, director Hilton Tennant of Johannesburg, South Africa, brings an unusual looking purple character to life in The Little Battle. As the main character, who is a small guy with long ears, stands on skis atop a mountain, the mountain grows in scale. In his mind, the environment is growing more dangerous by the second; he is scared. However, he musters up the courage to challenge his fears and soon finds himself at the bottom of the hill, which is significantly smaller than it first appeared.
“Our film was inspired by eastern pop culture as well as my homeland,” Tennant noted. “The characters definitely owe themselves to the Japanese phenomenon of ‘kawaii,’ or cuteness, but we added an African quality, which is evident in the film’s organic patterns and textures. There’s an international feel to this piece, which is exactly what we were going for to mark the occasion of the Olympics.”
On the challenges involved in the overall project, Yamamoto pointed to the tight deadline. “We did not have good enough time, but all filmmakers are so professional to achieve the quality and management of production schedule.” Additionally they had to balance creative freedom with Panasonic’s goals and the spirit of the Olympic Games.
At the same time, he noted, “We tried to give filmmakers as much creative freedom [as possible].
