Creative multimedia studio Duck has taken on stateside representation for U.K. motion shop Mainframe, which sports a collective of producers, designers and 2D and 3D animators in London and Manchester. Mainframe specializes in animation, VFX and motion graphics for commercials, promos, titles and branded creative content.
Mainframe’s portfolio includes work with such U.K. agencies as McCann Erickson, Mother, Publicis and TBWA for broadcast, cinema, online and mobile media companies, including Animal Planet; BBC; BBC–Radio 1, — Radio 2 and –1Xtra; Channel 4; Five; IDEO; Karmarama; MTV; Nickelodeon; Sci-Fi; Sony Computer Entertainment Europe; VH1; and Virgin Media Television, among others.
“We’ve recently found that the commercials world has reacted very positively to our work, so the next logical step was seeing how the U.S. would take to us,” noted Mainframe owner/managing director Adam Jenns. “After a fair bit of searching we found Duck Studios. They’ve got an extremely talented roster and it felt like the right fit. We’re confident they’ll open new doors for us.”
While Mainframe originally worked primarily for broadcasters, they have expanded into commercial work and recently signed to London-based Independent’s new animation/VFX arm A Very Special Place. Joining Duck and establishing an international presence marks the next phase in the company’s development.
Review: Director Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” Starring Robert Pattinson
So you think YOUR job is bad?
Sorry if we seem to be lacking empathy here. But however crummy you think your 9-5 routine is, it'll never be as bad as Robert Pattinson's in Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17" — nor will any job, on Earth or any planet, approach this level of misery.
Mickey, you see, is an "Expendable," and by this we don't mean he's a cast member in yet another sequel to Sylvester Stallone's tired band of mercenaries ("Expend17ables"?). No, even worse! He's literally expendable, in that his job description requires that he die, over and over, in the worst possible ways, only to be "reprinted" once again as the next Mickey.
And from here stems the good news, besides the excellent Pattinson, whom we hope got hazard pay, about Bong's hotly anticipated follow-up to "Parasite." There's creativity to spare, and much of it surrounds the ways he finds for his lead character to expire — again and again.
The bad news, besides, well, all the death, is that much of this film devolves into narrative chaos, bloat and excess. In so many ways, the always inventive Bong just doesn't know where to stop. It hardly seems a surprise that the sci-fi novel, by Edward Ashton, he's adapting here is called "Mickey7" — Bong decided to add 10 more Mickeys.
The first act, though, is crackling. We begin with Mickey lying alone at the bottom of a crevasse, having barely survived a fall. It is the year 2058, and he's part of a colonizing expedition from Earth to a far-off planet. He's surely about to die. In fact, the outcome is so expected that his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), staring down the crevasse, asks casually: "Haven't you died yet?"
How did Mickey get here? We flash back to Earth, where Mickey and Timo ran afoul of a villainous loan... Read More