To launch the BBC’s coverage of the upcoming Olympic Winter Games, BBC Creative and Blinkink have partnered to create “Extreme by Nature,” a mixed media animation that brings to life the intensity of the competition through the harsh worlds of ice and snow.
Directed by Balázs Simon via Blinkink, the gritty piece combines in-camera effects and post with intricate stop-motion animation, with entire scenes 3D printed frame-by-frame. As well as running as a trailer across channel junctions and online, the animation will feature as the title sequence for The Winter Olympics Games, which first airs on Friday, February 4, across the BBC.
CreditsClient British Broadcasting Corporation/BBC Winter Olympics James Cross, Tim Jones, Reuben Dangoor, creative directors; Stuart Gittings, creative; Liz Dolan, producer. Production Blinkink, London Balázs Simon, director; Bart Yates, exec producer; Alex Halley, producer; Rebecca Little, producer; Theo Cassels, production manager; Max Halstead, DP; Andy Biddle, stop motion animator; Andrew Spradbery, stop motion animator & rigger; Jennifer Kidd, art director; Beattie Hartley, art department assistant. (Toolbox: Volo motion control crane, Dragonframe, Maya, Houdini, Flame, Nuke) Studio Clapham Road Studios Daisy Garside, studio manager. Blinkink 3D Printing Jennifer Kidd, art direction, set dressing. Props Scale Model Studios Elliot Spencer Colley, clear prints. White Prints 3M BIC Janine Downs, Anastasis Constanti, Stephen Knowles; Georgina Kipling, 3D printing technician. VFX/Post GYAR Mate Barbalics, Andras Piroska, VFX producers; Aron Hargitay, VFX supervisor; Sandor Garaczi, head of CGI; Adam Marihazi, CGI lead artist; Zoltan Marko, Istvan Bori, CGI generalists; Bernadett Dian, 3D modeling; Robert Toth, rigging; Bea Ujj, Zoltan Zahorszki, Gyorgi Fabos, Zsolt Merey Kadar, 3D animation; Gabor Abbas, FX artist; Shahab Hosseini, lead compositor; Aron Nemeti, sr. compositor; Andras Pflum, compositor; Balazs Lublovari, Victor Miltenyi, Ivan Voros, clean up. Rendering Fox Renderfarm Postproduction Company Feature Films for Families Peter Barbalics, exec producer. Color Glassworks Jonny Thorpe, colorist. Sound Company GAS
Director Gia Coppola Teams With Mejuri For “A New York Minute”; 1st Episode Takes Us To The Grocery Store
Mejuri, known for turning fine jewelry into an everyday luxury, has partnered with director Gia Coppola (The Last Show Girl, Palo Alto) and The Directors Bureau in Los Angeles, for the first time reimagining the brand’s story as episodic content. In a series of microfilms, co-created by Coppola and premiering following New York Fashion Week, Mejuri eschewed a typical celebrity campaign and cast us as voyeurs to a group of aspiring young women--real people, not actors--at the crossroads of their adult lives against the backdrop of New York City.
Titled “A New York Minute,” the series features five real-life friends, who include one perfectly imperfect heroine named Emma. The women celebrate ordinary moments and interactions which reveal, sometimes retrospectively, the extraordinary within the mundane. Adjacent to the brand’s own community, the 30-something year old cast includes Laura Love (Emma), Rebecca Ressler, Natalie Vall-Freed and Rozzi Crane. Mejuri’s jewelry makes an appearance as the best supporting actor.
“When I met with Gia and The Directors Bureau team, there was instant creative and personal chemistry and a natural alignment on the desire to push and blur the lines between marketing, storytelling, and the construct of what a ‘campaign’ could be,” said Jacob Jordan, chief brand officer, Mejuri. “Gia was able to push that idea into something that truly feels new and artful, with a realism and relatability that almost feels jarring. Gia was such a perfect collaborator and partner, someone I had complete trust in to be a catalyst for Mejuri’s values of celebrating women as their truest selves. I can’t wait for us to continue to tell the next chapters of this story.”
To land the relatable... Read More