Swallows and Amazons (1974)

On holiday with their mother in the Lake District in 1929 four children are allowed to sail over to the nearby island in their boat Swallow and set up camp for a few days. They soon realise this has been the territory of two other girls who sail the Amazon, and the scene is set for serious rivalry. This is the scene where the Swallows meet the Amazons.

Thinking back to a distant era (1929) of stuff upper lip behavior  (‘grin and smile’ no matter how much it rains!). Swallows and Amazons is a British classic summer holiday film set on Lake Windermere. Our family began spending summers on the shores of England’s longest lake, coincidentally we relocated permanently very near to Windermere.

Casino Royale Train Scene

The complexity of these two people facing off is one of the most intriguing character scenes.

Casino Royale centers more on Bond, the brutality of the villains, a credible plot and importantly ditches the computer generated images. Craig, a contemporary reincarnation, delivers a gritty, humanistic performance–a ruthless, chauvinistic loyalist with a taste for the finer things in life. Initially lacking suavity, he is unruly, undisciplined, unrefined. Asked how he would like his martini he replies, ‘Does it look like I give a damn?’ Bond effectively ‘grows up’ and is primed to become the super-spy we know and love. His mission is to derail the funding of world terrorist organisations by defeating poker player Le Chiffre, the archetypal Bond villain who will do anything to win. Director Martin Campbell skilfully engrosses us in the ensuing action and drama, even holding our attention during potentially boring poker games.

Dab Hand at Parody

Dan Black music vid aptly named “Symphonies.” It should rekindle your appreciation for the original title sequences, including Bond from the 80’s, French New Wave, Hitchcock — it’s all up for grabs. Nice tune.

Worldizing Sound


Walter Murch sound design concept for making sound “feel” more natural.

The sonic equivalent of photographic depth of field. Manipulating sound until it seemed to be something that existed in real space. This refers to playing back existing recordings through a speaker or speakers in real-world acoustic situations, and recording that playback with microphones so that the new recording takes on the acoustic characteristics of the place it was “re-recorded.” The concept is simple, but its execution can be remarkably complex.

Used in American Graffiti. Back in 1973, Walter Murch was working on American Graffiti and trying to create something new with the film’s Wolfman Jack sound material — commercials, hit songs, DJ rants. His task was to turn the soundtrack into a cohesive soundscape, to make every car cruising the city of Modesto, California a player in a citywide radiophonic symphony. The idea was that every teenage car in this town was turned to the same station, and, therefore, anywhere you went in the town, you heard this sound echoing off the buildings and passing by in cars.

In American Graffiti, recordings of the Wolfman Jack radio show were played through practical car radios and re-recorded with both stationary and moving microphones.

The practice of worldizing — and, I believe, the term itself —started with Walter Murch, who has used the technique masterfully in many films. However, it has received most of its notoriety from his use of it in American Graffiti and in the granddaddy of the modern war film, Apocalypse Now.

In American Graffiti, recordings of the Wolfman Jack radio show were played through practical car radios and rerecorded with both stationary and moving microphones to recreate the ever-changing quality of the multiple moving speaker sources the cars were providing. On the dub stage, certain channels were mechanically delayed to simulate echoes of the sound bouncing off the buildings. All of these channels, in addition to a dry track of the source, were manipulated in the mix to provide the compelling street-cruising ambience of the film. In Apocalypse Now, the most obvious use of this technique was on the helicopter communications ADR, which was re-recorded through actual military radios in a special isolation box. The groundbreaking result has been copied on many occasions.

Natural ambiance is needed. Digital reverb wasn’t going to do it. Worldizing it makes the sound “feel” much more natural.

New Balance People

They often refer to these spots as brand reality. In essence you turn the brand on it’s head and show the hard working people behind the product. A beloved sneaker company enjoy putting the worker center stage.

Rain Scene In Blade Runner

Rutger Hauer on-set ad-lib ‘like tears in rain’ has legendary status amongst Blade Runner’s illustrious cult following. The line, which was apparently added during shooting, punctuated the poetic of the movie’s most pivotal scenes.

The Cure Lullaby

cure

I always thought you could build a fun interactive ‘off-beat’ film using a standard 4 camera security system. It would be be an experience where your actively controlling either multiple images at once, or following them into a single frame. Figuratively your dealing with the narrative and spatial relationship in and around each shot. Now back to earth for a second, this acoustic version of ‘lullaby’ likely had no such aim, it’s purely a way of watching thye Cure play at once.

Be still be calm be quiet now my precious
Boy don’t struggle like that or i will only love
You more for it’s much too late to get away or
Turn on the light the spiderman is having you
For dinner tonight

Sport is Simple

You are harking back to simpler times. Wonderfully filmed and well-timed edits. Notice how it starts with black bars shortly after going full screen. This acts like a focusing device for your brain.

Audi Q5 Identity Thief

Really enjoyed the irony here of the car park filled with identical Lexus cars.

It occurred to me that the new Audi Q5 is hardly a radical departure to those brown models it’s supposedly superseding. Okay, beautiful lights, better lines and great dashboard. Beautiful camera moves framing the action, stunningly simple and effective (pull-focus/assumed POV and those dramatic car turns).

Obviously aimed at lulling professional women (or wannabe femme fatales) into a Hitchcock suspenseful twist. Be daring. Be different.

This is reality


A lot has happened since the Reality Campaign launched to call out the coal industry for their dirty lies. Just last week, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to reconsider carbon dioxide regulation — a serious wake up call to the coal industry. Submit your own idea and help us push the coal industry to come clean about dirty coal.

Now with a new and improved label! New Reality ad directed by the Academy-award winning Coen Brothers.

Hitachi True Stories


Hitachi’s true stories campaign is one of those moments where we all should thank the gods in advertising for such wisdom and commitment to the power of real. Equally proud of what Code and Theory did with the flash experience. It’s the right kind of big screen cinema canvas, highly fluid and delicately handled interface and flash design.

Tom Clifford said of the approach:

It’s the simplest code in corporate filmmaking.
Here’s the code:

1. Real people.
2. Real stories.
3. Real emotions.

It’s pretty simple, yes?

Apple 1984

25 years ago, Ridley Scott directed what is arguably the most powerful and memorable commercials the world has even seen. It’s still a remarkable spot. We salute this visionary director.