Wednesday, June 27, 2012
As proud event sponsors, The Mill created a title film and
credits for the 2012 Young Director Award which celebrates the very
best in international new directing talent in Cannes each
year.
Mill director and designer Carl Addy took the YDA theme of raw
talent as inspiration for the piece and takes us inside a child
director's imagination as we see a spoonful of food transform in
the mind's eye. Carl used pop culture and character
references to enhance this approach. We hope you enjoy.
Monday, June 25, 2012
The annual week of celebrating the best in creativity from
around the World has come to a close. This year saw a
festival full of stunning work, breath-taking visuals and a spot of
celebration (well, when in Cannes…).
With a mighty cheer-roar it's fantastic to be able to congratulate
MJZ, USA on receiving the Palme D'Or and Wieden+Kennedy, Portland
on winning Advertising Agency of the Year. As well as our long time
collaborators, BBH picking up the Creative Effectiveness Lion Grand
Prix for Axe/Lynx 'Excite'. A serious achievement!
We were also thrilled to see R/GA New York, USA receiving both the
Cyber Lions Grand Prix and Titanium and Integrated Lions Grand Prix
for Nike 'Fuelband'.
A good take away from this year's Cannes Lions saw UK ad agencies
strike back by picking up some of the biggest prizes at the 2012
festival. It was a really good year overall for UK agencies,
with a number scooping Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions in their
respective categories.
It was great to see BBH's Guardian 'Three Little
Pigs' do so well collecting a raft of Lions in various
categories as well Playstation 3's 'Michael' with Deutsch Los
Angeles awarded a Silver Lion in the Short Format Internet
Film.
And congratulations to all our clients, it's always exciting to
see projects we've worked on pick up awards including Doritos 'Dip Desperado', P&G
'Best Job', Nike 'I would Run To You', Hennessy 'Manny', Barnardo's 'Life Story', ASOS 'Urban Tour', Heineken
'The Legendary making Of The Date', Old
Spice 'Motorcycle', Nissan 'Gas Powered Everything',
Unilever's 'The Dove Ad Makeover', and last but by no means least
the British Heart Foundation's 'Vinnie'.
You can see a full list of all winners and shortlists on the
Cannes Lions website.
Welcome back and well done to all the award winners… same time,
same place next year!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Hugo Guerra is our Head of Nuke, he also teaches
compositing at Escape Studios and most recently he went off to
Sweden where he regularly gives Nuke masterclasses. Have a read of
last week's trip below.
Last week I visited the Campus i12 VFX school (formally known as
IAA) in Sweden, I've been teaching compositing at the school since
2008, and I try to get over there once or twice a year.
For those of you not familiar with the school here's a small
introduction from Sofia Delis, Programming Director. "Campus
i12 belongs to the University of Jonkoping and the school is
located in Eksjo, an hour from Jonkoping in Sweden. We have 180
students studying in several areas; 3D, compositing, digital design
and visualization for architecture and design.
"The courses last two years, with 20 weeks of work experience
included. We believe that the courses should aim to be reflective
of actually working in the industry and this is why we have both
compositors and 3D artists working under the same roof. We
aim to find the very best people in post production come in and
teach our students and we were very proud to have The Mill and Hugo
Guerra supporting us. We hope to give the vfx industry some of the
best vfx artists in the world."
The objective of my three day masterclass was to teach the 1st
year students about the advanced 3D system of Nuke in the context
of matte painting, sky replacement, pan & tile and 3D tracking.
Then, at the end of the day the class's assignment was to make a
sequence using these techniques.
I also took the opportunity to show the VES keynote presentation
we did at The Mill about Audi's 'Hummingbird'. This presentation
was shown to the 2D and 3D students from the school. Take a look at
the making of Audi 'Hummingbird' here.
Overall I had a great time over there, and it was really good to
see all this wonderful talent growing in Sweden, I really hope I
can visit again and soon.
Friday, May 04, 2012
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We are really looking forward to this year's FMX Stuttgart. It is
the 3rd year in a row for us now and the 2012 FMX conference on
Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia is set to be a marvellous
week for looking at creativity in the digital industry.
If you are attending FMX this year why not drop in on us? We have
a stand in the recruitment area, Booth 4 and we'll be there all day
Wednesday 9th May. We are really keen to talk to any TDs or
Animators that are interested in an internship in our London, NY
and LA studios.
As well as looking forward to meeting and chatting to everyone,
we'd love you to come and listen to some of our Millers talk.
We have Claire Anderson our Talent Manager
and Alex Fitzgerald a VFX Producer talking
about all things recruitment on Wednesday 9th May at 10:00am.
Murray Barber, VFX Supervisor is primed and ready
to chat about film quality VFX on a TV budget on Wednesday 9th May
at 12:00pm. Jan Walter our principle R&D
engineer will be comparing global illumination (GI) renderers on
Thursday 10th May at 11:00am and finally, our commercial team's
Rob Holmes, Joint Deputy of 3D, will be dispelling
Fact vs. Fiction and the challenges our commercial artists face
every day on Friday 11th May at 4pm.
So, tickets done, bags packed, you know where to find us, please
do pop by and say hello, otherwise we will see you at the party on
Wednesday evening!
Friday, April 20, 2012
Some ten years ago now the folks at IHAVEANIDEA
had a brilliant idea: create a social event to foster a bright new
generation of ad creatives by introducing established and rising
talent superstars. On May 23, 2012, the sun will
set on cities around the globe as hundreds of the world's top
creative directors meet with thousands of aspiring copywriters, art
directors and designers. Representing the California creative crème
de la crop, agency 180 returns as host for Portfolio Night 10 (PN10) in Los Angeles.
"The mission is simple yet grand: to celebrate the next generation
of creative talent, to guide them as they begin their fascinating
careers in the advertising industry, and to raise their city's
creative flag to be counted on the world stage," reads the
Portfolio Night site. PN10 is set to occur simultaneously in 14
countries and 18 cities around the world.
At The Mill we celebrate creativity in all
shapes, sizes and formats. Join us at PN10, the event at which "the
best of the present meets the best of the years to come". It was at
PN6 that 180 hosted and then hired one of the aspiring attendees --
who knows, it could be You this time around!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The glitterati of the UK advertising world gathered last
night for the annual British Arrows Awards, that recognise and
reward the best and brightest in television and cinema commercials
made by British advertising agencies and production companies over
the last year.
A very special congratulations to our long-time friend and
collaborator BBH on picking up Agency of the Year, Paul Rothwell on
his British Arrows Fellowship Award and Rattling Stick for
Production Company of the Year.
A great night for British Advertising and creativity and many
congratulations to all of the well-deserved winners.
Visit the British Arrows website to see the full list of winners and
finalists.
And click here to have a flip through the
British Arrows sponsorship film, out of The Mill's Design Studio
and directed by our Carl Addy.
Monday, January 09, 2012
What a great way to kick off 2012 with news that all three of
The Mill's studios has been nominated for this year's highly
coveted Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards!
The awards - which recognise outstanding visual effects artistry
in 23 categories of film, animation, television, commercials,
special venues and video games - are widely regarding by the VFX
industry as one of the most prestigious on the calendar. Nominees
were chosen by distinguished panels of VES members from across the
globe.
The Mill London has received three nominations for its work on the
Audi A6 'Hummingbird' spot in the
Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Commercial or Video Game
Trailer category, Outstanding Animated Character in a Broadcast
Program or Commercial category and Outstanding Created Environment
in a Broadcast Program or Commercial category.
The Mill NY has been shortlisted in the Outstanding Visual Effects
in a Live Action Commercial category for Johnnie Walker 'Rock Giant' whilst The Mill
LA received their nomination in the Outstanding Virtual
Cinematography in a Broadcast Program or Commercial for Mattel's
Hot Wheels spot 'Immersion'.
Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society said of
this year's entrants: "The standard of the creative work that is
being considered this year is unbelievably high across all
categories. The judges faced a huge challenge because all of the
work was so far above the norm."
Winners of the 10th Annual VES Awards will be announced at an
exclusive event on Tuesday 7th February at the Beverly Hilton Hotel
and will also air on ReelzChannel.
To view the full list of nominees, click here:
http://www.visualeffectssociety.com/10th-annual-ves-awards-nominees
Thursday, December 08, 2011
We are committed to recognising and developing new talent here
at The Mill, so we couldn't have been more pleased when we heard
that our CG Generalist Andreas Thomsen received the 'Best Student
Project' award at this year's SIGGRAPH Asia, for his work on the
short film 'Last Fall'.
SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 celebrates the future and present talents of
animation industry, and this year's Computer Animation Festival
honoured the top three works through a Best of Show award, the Jury
award, and for the first time ever, the Best Student Project
award.
The SIGGRAPH judges were particularly impressed by the film's
high standard of graphics and animation achieved on a limited
budget. "It has been very satisfying to see the level of talent in
the animation and VFX industry. Working with the jury to curate and
select the best was very challenging," said Computer Animation
Festival Chair, Eric Liu, who had the uneviable job of choosing a
winner from 558 entries from 21 countries.
Our talent team first met Andreas when he was at the Animation
Workshop (where he created the winning film) in Denmark earlier
this year. Shortly after, he came to The Mill's London studio
to do an internship and has now been working as part of our
award-winning CG team ever since.
The SIGGRAPH Asia Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics
and Interactive Technique runs from 12-15 December at the Hong Kong
Convention & Exhibition Centre.
Find out more here: http://www.siggraph.org/asia2011/
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
A great start to the week as The Mill was last night named Post
Production Company of the Year at the London International
Awards! The London team was also awarded a Gold Statue in
the Visual Effects category for their work on Volkwagen's 'Black Beetle' spot.
The LIA's honour creativity and new ideas in Advertising, Design
and Digital media, and in what marks the 26th year, the
hotly-fought competition saw 14,283 entries from 79 countries.
Other big winners at last night's event, which was hosted at
London's Troxy, include BBDO who were named Agency Network of the
Year; Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Boulder, who took The NEW Category
Grand LIA; Marshall Street Editors who took the Technique Grand
LIA, and Warrior Poets, NY, who took the LIA Special Award.
Congratulations to all of our friends, clients and collaborators
who won last night!
To see the full list of winners, visit: http://www.liaentries.com/winners/
Friday, November 11, 2011
Televisual Magazine has unveiled this year's Commercials 30 -
the annual survey of the UK's commercial production sector - naming
Blink number one commercial production company. Rattling
Stick's Ringan Ledwidge - with whom we most recently collaborated
on Barnardo's 'Life Story' - was named top
Director, and Mother was awarded Top Agency.
We are also delighted that The Mill has been named the 'Most
Rated Post House' and 'Most Used Post House' for the second year in
a row.
As well as this, we are proud to see that six spots our teams
from across the globe have worked on make the Top 10 Ads of the
year, including Nike 'Write the Future' at number one
and Heineken 'The Entrance' in second
place. Our other commercials to make the list include Old Spice 'The Man Your
Man Could Smell Like', Hovis 'Miss Chief', Puma 'After Hours' and T-Mobile 'Welcome Back'.
We'd like to congratulate Blink, Ringan, Mother and all of our
clients, friends and collaborators who have made 2011 another
fantastic creative year!
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