Thursday, March 31, 2011
On Tuesday 29th, Randy McEntee, one of The Mill NY's own posted
this video of his twin boys, Sam and Ren. The boys are having a
very adult-like conversation in the kitchen, seemingly about a
missing sock or as Kathie Lee Gifford of The
Today Show claims,"that milkaholic, Lindsay".
With the power of social media and the tendency for all things
baby on the web to take off like wild fire, within the span of 24
hours our baby Mill'ers have graced the screens of World News with
Diane Sawyer, CNN Headline News and The Today Show to name a
few. Since the YouTube video was posted on Tuesday it went
from 2,000 hits to 1.8 million in under 24 hours and views are
currently 2.5 million and counting...!
The proud parents of the tots have been fielding calls for
interviews from the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and will even be
appearing on ABC's Good Morning America today, so this may not be
the last we see of the little guys!
Monday, March 28, 2011
The winners of the 2011 IVCA Awards were announced on
Friday and we are delighted to have been awarded Gold in the Best
Animation, Graphics and Special Effects category for our work on
the Nokia Foosball viral,
created and produced by Jack Morton Worldwide!
The IVCA Awards recognise the very best in film, digital, video
and live events in the corporate and public sectors.
Our good friends at Jack Morton
Worldwide had plenty of reason to celebrate as the film also
collected a clutch of other awards including the top honour, Grand
Prix Award as well as Gold in the Sales of Products and Services
category and a Silver in the Web 2.0 category.
Many congratulations to all of the Jack Morton Worldwide team on a
fantastic result!
For a full list of all the winners, visit: http://www.ivca.org/ivca/live/news/2011/2011-ivca-awards--winners-announced.html
Friday, March 25, 2011
Fancy an exotic pet? How about a Petite Lap Giraffe? Maybe
you've longed for one after watching Gregor the Russian oligarch
coo to his in DirecTV's commercials' 'Opulence' and 'I Am Epic
Win'.
Thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of Gregor and Grey NY, and
a little ingenuity from The Mill NY's Content, Digital and VFX
arms, you can get your own! Shop here, Adweek's
Adfreak is on board
click here to view!
Tell all your friends on Facebook and Twitter … Gregor would
like that!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
We are loving 'Blinky', Ruairi Robinson's amazing new short
film! Dark and twisted, even the strap line sends shivers - 'Soon
every home will have one. Don't worry. It's safe...'
Staring Max Records (Where Wild Things Are) the film
enters the world of a young boy, unhappy at home with warring
parents who buy him a 'Blinky' robot to keep him company. All
is well at first but as the boy grows tired of 'Blinky' and starts
to mistreat him, 'Blinky' becomes more and more sinister - a
psychopathic Wall-E! So Toy Story this is not.
With his usual high production values and darkly comic style,
the twisted and increasingly creepy 'Blinky' keeps you transfixed
until the very end credits roll. We love it!
Ruairi is no stranger to darkly humorous films with his 'Fifty Percent Grey'
nominated for a Best Short Animated Film Oscar and his recent live
action short 'Silent City'.
You can check out his other work including his commercials at:
http://www.ruairirobinson.com/
Friday, March 18, 2011
For those of us not lucky enough to be out in Texas being
inspired by the latest in music, film and interactive creativity
and technology at this year's SXSW Festival, here's a
little treat from the Nokia party held earlier this week at the
Belmont in Austin, Texas...
To promote the launch of a new level of the mobile game
phenomenon 'Angry Birds' coming soon to Nokia's OVI Store,
alongside the creative team from White Sheep, Isobar and technical
wizards, Seeper, we helped Nokia and
game maker Rovio bring a world exclusive Angry Birds 3D spectacular
to life. The impressive short film was projected onto an enormous
150ft building using 3D projection mapping. Much like the game, it
features a giant slingshot catapulting oversized birds at naughty
green pigs!
The film was turned around in just nine days by our Mill Studio
team.
Check out a film of the live event below...
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The who's who of British advertising gathered last night for the
British Arrows Awards 2011 (formerly the BTAA's), to recognise and
reward the best television and cinema commercials made by British
advertising agencies and production companies over the last
year.
Taking top honours for TV Commercial of the Year was T-Mobile's 'Welcome
Back', created by Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by
Henry-Alex Rubin. The advert also won Gold awards for Best
Over 90 Second TV Commercial (sharing the honours with Nike's 'Write the
Future' spot) and in the Telecommunications Services'
category.
Special congratulations must go to our long time collaborator,
director Ivan Zacharias, who was presented with the prestigious
British Arrows Fellowship Award by our very own Head of Production,
Ben Stallard, for his outstanding contribution to the production of
commercials.
Also celebrating success last night were our friends at Smuggler
and Academy Films, who jointly share the award for Production
Company of the Year; and Mother, who won Most Successful
Advertising Agency of the Year.
Many congratulations to all of the worthy winners on another
fantastic year for British advertising!
Visit the British Arrows
website to see the full list of winners and finalists.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
I want to change it around a bit and jump from old inspirational
videos from the past and look to the future (present day) and talk
about the exciting directing collaborative - Canada. Made up of
Luis Cerveró, Nicolás Méndez and Lope Serrano, they shook the
internet community with their Jodorowskiesque video for El
Guincho's 'Bombay'. With striking 70's style visuals (nicely done
in the photography and grade) Abstract narrative and erotic imagery
the video works on various levels.
On the back of 'Bombay', Canada signed to Partizan and went on
to make the video "what you know" for Two door cinema club. With
its simple yet effective art direction, playful choreography,
dynamic edit and pace, we are left with an elevated end result,
complimenting the up lifting nature of the track.
Check it out and enjoy!
Warning: Contains some nudity
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Once again, our Colour team have made the grade in Televisual magazine's second annual
countdown of the UK's top colourists.
Drawing on thoughts from their peers, grading system
manufacturers and the winners and nominees of a selection of key
colourist awards (British Arrows Craft Awards, RTS Craft Awards and
the UK Music Video Awards) as well as Televisual's own 'Commercials
30' survey, the magazine has created their list of the top 15
colourists in the UK.
Coming in at a truly impressive second place is Aubrey
Woodiwiss, who is also credited as the highest placed 'Rising
Star'. As well as host of award nominations for his
commercial and music promo work over the last year, it is his
"great eye" that was especially noted by his peers.
Adam Scott comes in just behind Aubrey in third place, with many
in the industry singling out his consistent creativity.
Mick Vincent's experience and style in particular, were praised
by colleagues and helped place him joint 9th, with Seamus O'Kane
rounding off the list at joint 15th and being described as the
"Ryan Giggs of the colourist world... (getting) better with
age."
Congratulations to all of the team, and for a reminder of some
of their great work, why not check out all of our Colourists' reels.
You can read the full Televisual countdown here.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
The new issue of Stash is now available
and alongside its usual bumper crop of must see work, behind the
scenes features and music videos, is a host of our work!
Scrolling through we start off with Codemasters - Bodycount from our director
Jonathan Vuillemin and the 3D gaming crew, who designed and
animated this visually innovative game trailer. We then whizz
on to see our VW -
Black Beetle spot which, incidentally was just one out of our
21 spots for 2011 Super Bowl, then gracefully moving on to Axe/Lynx -
Even Angels Fall, the next beautifully visceral spot in the
Axe/Lynx Excite campaign. Our penultimate outing is the bold
idents for the Movies Now
channel from our Studio team, before ending with our incredibly
talented mcbess - a director, musician and artist extraordinaire -
with his trademark drawings and design for this year's FITC in
Amsterdam.
All in all, a good Stash for The Mill...
If you'd like to see any of the work highlighted in this month's
Stash click
here.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Paul joins us as our Business Development Director and will look
to consolidate existing partnerships and develop new relationships
with advertising agencies, brands and other creative partners, as
well as scoping new directions for The Mill.
With impressive credentials from Dentsu London where he was New
Business Director, and over 16 years experience in account
management working on the board at RKCR/Y&R and as Managing
Partner at Heavenly Group and McCann's, Paul expertise is a very
welcomed addition.
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