Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Check out this incredible video that was captured just outside
our Clipstone Street office in Central London last week!
UFO's? Who knows... you decide.
Monday, June 27, 2011
As another incredible Cannes Lions draws to a close, the winners
of the Film and Film Craft Awards were announced on Saturday
night. We are delighted to be able to congratulate our
friends at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and Droga5 New York for their
Grand Prix wins for Nike 'Write the
Future' and Puma 'After
Hours Athlete', respectively.
Our Mill NY team were also honoured to receive a Gold Lion in
the Design Awards for their animation work on the OFFF International Festival
opening title sequence and a Bronze Lion for Special Effects
and Computer Graphics was awarded to our London and New York
studios for their work on the epic Nike 'Write the Future' in the
Film Craft Awards category.
The Mill NY's Yann
Mabille, Creative Director and Al Thompson, MD, with the team's
Gold Lion
Other big commercial winners on which we have been lucky enough
to collaborate over the last year include Heineken 'The Entrance' (also
by W+K Amsterdam), The London
Metropolitan Police's 'Who Killed Deon?' (AMV BBDO London), T-Mobile's 'Welcome Back'
(Saatchi & Saatchi London), and Old Spice 'Questions' (W+K
Portland).
We would like to offer all of our award winning partners and
collaborators huge congratulations on another fantastic year of
creativity and innovation. See you back at the Palais in
2012!
View the full list of all of this year's Cannes Lions winners
here:
http://www.canneslions.com/work/
Friday, June 24, 2011
If like us you were gripped to your sofa in front of series 4 of
Primeval on ITV1 earlier this year,
then you might be interested to find out how the BAFTA winning Mill
TV folk created the prehistoric monsters and creatures who gave the
ARC team the run around every Saturday night.
VFX Supervisor Jean-Claude Deguara gives us the low down in part
1 of this exclusive behind-the-scenes video…
Thursday, June 23, 2011
"La Fin!"
After over 1000 gruelling kilometres, countless savage
mountains, numerous tyre changes, and every weather condition known
to man, the Fireflies were treated to small lie-in before setting
off for the final time at 9am. Leaving Frejous, they followed
the coastal road, passing through the likes of San Rafael, for a
gentle 50k roll alongside the glorious Cote d'Azur.
They paused to mop their moist brows and have a welcome ice
cream and a cup of coffee at a beach side restaurant en route, but
unfortunately the owner seemed to suffer a temporary sense of
humour failure at being confronted by a hoard of hungry and thirsty
Fireflies! Undetered, they continued on, basking in the
beautiful sunshine and lapping up the stunning views along the
coast. After enjoying a final Fireflies lunch, they saddled
up for the last stint to begin their grand entrance into
Cannes…
Rounding the final bend, a police escort was ready and waiting
to lead them in. They paraded down the Croisette to a
cheering crowd, crossing the finishing line outside the Palais!
Congratulations Chris and Alex - we're
proud of you!
Champagne flowed and there were congratulatory hugs and cheers
aplenty before many of the Fireflies took to their heels for a
traditional dip in the sea.
As the celebrations drew to a close, Alex and Chris dismantled
their bikes and began lugging their belongings off in search of
their apartment. 45 minutes later and after probably the most
labour intensive challenge they'd had all week, they eventually
staggered into their apartment! After a quick rest and a
brief pitstop via McDonalds (!), they hit the town - a little
leaner and browner - for a final celebratory dinner and several
much-longed for beers!
We'd like to offer huge congratulations to our Mill boys Chris
and Alex - and all the Fireflies - on a truly tremendous
effort!
Au revoir… and see you in 2012!
Don't forget, if you would like to show your support for the guys
with a donation, their fundraising pages are as follows:
Alex: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/fireflies2
Chris: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ChrisBatten
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
On Thursday, June 9th The Mill NY's Digital Executive Producer,
Bridget Sheils, hosted the Poolhouse Producers in what would soon
become the first in a series of digital learning sessions. A
collective of agency producers, Poolhouse is a resource for
educating, activating and employing their members in today's
quickly evolving advertising landscape.
"The Digital Series kick off at The Mill was a success; as
traditional agency producers merge into the digital world we need
partners who will educate us effectively," explains Veronica Beach,
Freelance Integrated Agency Producer with Poolhouse. "The world of
digital is fascinating and very layered with many moving parts and
as we work with The Mill through this summer's digital series I
personally flutter with excitement because our teachers are highly
skilled, informative and also quite fun to hang out with."
About the series Bridget says, "As media converges it alters the
way we interact with and consume content, and it also changes way
we get it made. So, when Karen McKibbin from Poolhouse approached
me with the idea of a local round table series designed to elevate
knowledge around digital work I thought it was a really timely
idea. Our team is excited about developing the talks and are
looking forward to the lively discussions that are sure to
ensue."
Next up in the Digital Roundtable series, as decided by popular
vote amongst the group is From concept to Launch: The Short Form
Website hosted by our Digital Producer Kei Gowda, and will be held
on Thursday, July 13th.
http://thepoolhouse.tv/
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
"Hot, Hot, Hot!"
Still on a high from yesterday's conquering of Mont Ventoux, the
Fireflies were all raring to go for the final full day of
riding.
Setting off under the glorious sunshine, they cruised through
the beautiful lavender fields of Provence set against a backdrop of
the pastel-coloured Alps. The roads and gentle winds made for an
awesome morning of riding and everyone was using the opportunity to
take plenty of photos* of the stunning scenery (*lots of pics
coming soon!)
With the temperature gauge hitting 37˚C, conditions were ideal
for Chris to work on his tan and in his own words, he is now
"disgustingly brown", albeit a little stripy. Sadly, the same can't
be said for Alex, who is "still like an oven-ready chicken".
After lunch, they left the lavender fields behind them and
turned onto the main road to burn some serious miles. Forming a
double-pellaton so that cars could over-take more easily, they
steamed on until one particular car pulled up behind them, beeping
them loudly. Despite waving it by, the car continued to hoot them
before speeding by and then breaking sharply and stopping at the
head of pellaton causing a mini-Firefly pile-up! Fortunately,
everyone was fine but there were a lot of raised voices and
arm-waving as the driver emerged from the car - that was until the
guys realised it was a police officer in an unmarked vehicle!
After some diplomatic intervention, international peace was
quickly restored and the Fireflies were waved on to complete the
last few miles before rolling in to Fréjus, their destination for
the final night. Everyone was excited to check-in to the plushest
hotel of the tour and fully enjoyed the facilities before going for
a slap up meal and a couple of glasses of the local vino.
With only 75km to do on Wednesday before they cross the finish
line, the guys are already looking forward to a well-deserved
lie-in and (more than) a few celebratory beers!
PS: If you are in Cannes and would like to welcome the Fireflies
in, they will be crossing the line and riding into the Croisette at
4pm this afternoon… they'd love to see you there!
STATS FROM THE DAY:
Distance: 144km
Ascent: 1050m
Temperature: 37˚C
If you would like to show your support for the guys with a
donation, their fundraising pages are as follows:
Alex: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/fireflies2
Chris: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ChrisBatten
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
We knew we had a talented bunch here at The Mill, but who knew
just how far these talents stretch?
Photo by Jim Williams
Matthew 'Wispy' Clarke, (pictured above, third from left)
Head of Editorial from our TV & Film team is no
exception. When not putting the magic into the VFX for the
likes of Primeval and Merlin, he is a founding member of the
5-piece band, 'Geoff Leppard' who were
"born out of a drunken conversation and the need to be stupid".
Rather excitingly, the band released its debut single this week
- a cover version of the classic Gary Numan track 'Cars', complete
with its very own music video which you can view below…
It's already reached number 51 in the UK Rock Chart
according to midweek sales, and is all being done
in the name of charity with proceeds going to the Alzheimers Society, so click here to
download your copy from iTunes now!
The band will also be performing live at SELOC - The Lotus Enthusiasts Club this
weekend.
Want to learn more about the band - and see Wispy in a selection
of incredible hats and snake skin trousers? Visit Geoff
Leppard's official website -
www.geoffleppard.com or follow them on Twitter @geoff_leppard.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
This year at Cannes Lions we wanted to create something new,
something different that best demonstrates The Mill capabilities.
We wanted something that is quite unexpected and surprising as well
as entertaining and useful! We decided to look for a
connection between the event in Cannes, The Mill and what we
do.
We came up with 'Time', literally... 'Time'!
The inspiration behind the project by The Mill's Design, Motion
Graphics, and Digital teams was to create a hybrid cross media
platform piece of work which represents The Mill's digital
offering, and also focuses on our ability to create outstanding
design, motion graphics and VFX-work.
So 'Time' explores and references actual time as a concept over
four screens throughout the duration of the Festival. The
clock-like elements and graphical representations of time are
interwoven with abstract clips and actual clocks where one
animation can trigger the next one. Some of the clocks are
easily recognisable, others... you'll need to stare at them for a
while!
The time-based aspect of the project creates a grid - clockwork
- in which the content will play out. The clock runs over all 4
screens with each panel representing a different aspect of
time, dividing it into days, hours, minutes and seconds,
centiseconds or milliseconds.
We managed to create around 45 uniquely different
clock-type-animations with many more in the works...
Nils Kloth, Head of After Effects at The Mill explains: "We (the
Design and Motion-Design departments) developed the idea - always
in close collaboration with our Digital team and the guys from Beam
to ensure that what we wanted to attempt was feasible. We
eventually found a way to work around the things we couldn't do
without cutting back on the design, aesthetics and technical
developments. The project in its raw form is a clock, which has to
display the time accurately every step of the way.
"We also made use of Beam's incredible scheduling system, which
was designed to distribute video content worldwide and built a
flash-based application for the real time clock functionality. The
system now cuts back between more abstract video content and
the flash-clock at regular intervals. It was a great experience
with a lot of talented people contributing."
Tony Volpe our Digital Team's Creative Technologist explains:
"On the Digital side we created a template that ensured we could
create clocks that required programming to be millisecond perfect,
without having to program it themselves. In many cases the creative
was also able to alter the structure of the template to fit many
different needs."
Luke Colson, Head of Mill Studio tells us: "It's a great
departure from our usual Cannes films approach, and really sets a
new benchmark for future installation projects. We hope to offer
this project out to the creative world in the not too distant
future... it'll be exciting to see where it ends up in 12
months!"
If you are in Cannes why not 'make time' and check out The
Mill's installation in the entrance of the Palais!
For an exclusive sneak preview you can check out a selection of
the clocks in the film above, or have a look at the footage playing
out on Beam screens in Cannes, below...
Tick tock, tick tock!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
"The Giant of Provence"
It was with a mixture of nerves and excitement that the
Fireflies set off bright and early to face the biggest mountain of
the tour - Mont Ventoux. Ever since signing up for this
year's ride, this is the one that had been keeping Alex awake at
night - that, and Chris's snoring of course. Lovingly
referred to as the 'Giant of Provence', the summit is a massive
1912m high and it is widely regarded by cyclists across the world
as one of the ultimate rides.
With only a short 10km stint until they hit the bottom of the
mountain, the general mood amongst camp was that they were all
going to "ride their guts out"! A good time for the 22km ride
is considered to be 2 hours and as the 35˚C sun shone down, they
crossed the start line at Bédoin
to begin the most famous and difficult ascent with one eye on the
clock.
The mountain itself has very unusual geography with two-thirds
of it shrouded by a thick blanket of forest and the other third
completely exposed to the elements - in this case, the June sun and
some of Europe's strongest winds. It is even said that
Napoleon built the Armada with trees from the mountain due to their
remarkable strength and resistance to these winds, thus leaving a
large section of forest missing from the top and creating a unique
moonscape.
Making their way up the steep, brutal road, there was no let off
as the sun beat down on the exposed mountain roads or even when
they were trapped inside the thick forest curtain - a proper
lung-buster! In true Fireflies fashion, they cheered each
other on as they pushed themselves to their physical limits. But
one by one, they all proudly made it to the top.
Chris and Alex
celebrate at the summit
There were emotional scenes with plenty of whooping, tears and
Chris and Alex sharing a 'very significant man-hug'. As well
as a few glasses of bubbly, they were also rewarded with some
amazing mountain-top views and an impromptu display from France's
equivalent of the Red Arrows who roared overhead complete with
blue-smoke billowing to pull some impressive aerobatic manoeuvres -
what a welcome!
Both Alex and Chris put in absolutely fantastic times -
Fireflies newbie Alex clocking in just under the magic 2 hour mark,
and Chris steaming in with a sensational personal best of 1 hour 37
- not only beating his previous time by over 5 minutes, it was also
the third quickest time of the day. Amazing!!!
Alex stands
victorious! ... and the view down the mountain
road
As they hooned off down the mountain at breakneck speed, they
headed in to Sault to enjoy some coffee and ice-cream, before
starting a 70km romp through the beautiful lavender fields of
Provence and onto the home straight. The truly epic day drew
to a close as the last group pulled into Manosque at 9pm, their
final destination. Phew!
Well done guys, you've done us proud!
STATS FROM THE DAY:
Distance: 155km
Ascent: 2010m
Temperature: 35˚C
If you would like to show your support for the guys with a
donation, their fundraising pages are as follows:
Alex: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/fireflies2
Chris: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ChrisBatten
Monday, June 20, 2011
Chris snores. "Like you wouldn't believe!", according to
Alex. So after a relaxing evening in Gap and looking forward
to some well deserved sleep, Alex found himself having to evacuate
his and Chris's room in the middle of the night and constructing a
makeshift bed in order to try and find some peace - in the
bathroom.
They awoke suitably (or unsuitably in Alex's case) refreshed to
a beautiful blue sky - making Chris very happy. Day 6 marks
transition day where the team will be moving steadily south and
leaving the Alps behind to move into Provence, which meant hardly
any climbing - hoorah!
Today's leg meant cycling through some of the most breathtaking
landscape on the route - in fact, it was some of the best veteran
Chris has seen in all four of his Fireflies rides! The sun
shone as they went through two gorges, with the second, Nesque
Gorge, offering up spectacular 1500ft drops. It was a great
ride for all with an incredible view of the Alps to left and the
beauty of the Provence landscape lying to the right - a truly
perfect cycling day.
Arriving in Carpentras, their final destination for the day, the
team were confronted with their first glimpse of the mighty Mont
Ventoux, which Lance Armstrong described as, 'the hardest climb in
France…' So it was with some trepidation that the guys
settled down for the evening as they knew it was only a few
kilometres before they hit the mountain the following day…
Mt Ventoux looms in the
background...
Tan update:
Chris's is going well, despite yesterday's gardening glove set
back. Alex however, claims to be tan-proof, with only his
arms showing any hint of colour. Still, there's always time
for a quick spray-on before reaching Cannes on Wednesday!
Snoring update:
Alex has now invested in some industrial strength ear-defenders so
if hopeful of a good night's sleep - we'll keep you posted.
STATS FROM THE DAY:
Distance: 154km
Climbed: 1,160m
Descent: 2,200m
If you would like to show your support for the guys with a
donation, their fundraising pages are as follows:
Alex: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/fireflies2
Chris: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ChrisBatten
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