Shonzilla, a pattern-seeking animal

Logorama

This is the most awesome animated short movie I’ve seen recently and you will too. It’s called Logorama and all characters in it, buildings and additional props are entirely comprised out of company logos.

The movie uses logos as metaphors to succinctly communicate a number of obvious or subliminal messages (YMMV). I don’t know about you, but I’ve always looked behind Ronald McDonald’s fake smile (well, all clowns have those) and considered him evil as much as the company he’s representing. Further on you’ll see an earthquake (financial crisis) bringing down a number of buildings (financial institutions Ronald is calling “losers”, since McDonald’s wasn’t too affected by the crisis). My take on choosing Michelin men to represent cops (one good, one bad, of course) is that it reflects pretty nicely the common perception/prejudice of cops being donut-munching fatsos. After seeing many other interesting usages of logos, you may think that the movie foresaw some events like BP Oil Spill.

The authors are a French animation collective called H5 who have also created a number of animated music spots for the likes of Röyksopp, Super Fury Animals, Alex Gopher, Massive Attack, and many more. The movie also won a bunch of highly acclaimed awards including Academy award for Best Animated Short Film (at 82nd Academy Awards 2010, the Kodak Prix at Critics’ Week at Cannes Film Festival 2009 and many more.

Authors’ commentary on the message of the movie is also worth reading: ”Logorama presents us with an over-marketed world built only from logos and real trademarks that are destroyed by a series of natural disasters (beginning with a hurricane, cyclone, tidal wave…). logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us everyday in our lives. this over-organized universe is violently transformed by the cataclysm becoming fantastic and absurd. it shows the victory of the creative against the rational, where nature and human fantasy triumph.”

Thanks to Christopher for the link!

Homuncululs

Sometimes we need to enjoy ugly stuff, or at least ugly stuff represented from a more beautiful perspective, even bizarre. Especially, one needs to be reminded of the passage of time and what it does to you when it passes too quicky and you’re not doing anything (meaningful, may I say).

This video does that does just that - showing of still life setup that goes incredibly awry, thus putting both time and ugliness in a nice perspective.

This short film directed by Humble collective Hydra.

“The film is a mashup of Middle Age alchemical beliefs that “Little Humans,” or Homunculi, could spring from dead matter, and of Carl Jung’s use of the concept to personify pure id.

To create the film, Hydra created a real-life spread of pheasant, fish, fruits and cheese, which were placed in a (6x6 foot) plexiglass box and shot (once every 5 minutes) for 11 days using 5 DSLRs until they reached rotting stage. The footage was then combined with the Homunculi characters, modeled in Maya. The piece took over four months to create, but perhaps one of the most daunting part of the job was the cleanup.” For a limited time only, you can also see how the cleaning part looked like.

With the completion of the 12-tone score by Koven Smith and the surround sound mix by Joe Muiccio, Hydra team is pleased to premiere their furry little labor of love.

Enjoy this! Hopefully on an empty-ish stomach. ;-)

[via HUMBLETV and Creativity Online]

The Beatles: Rock Band Short Film

Wonderful short film announcing the upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band game. Produced by Passion Pictures.

Everyone needs some validation every once in a while.

[via hughnewman1024]