LBB | The Work That Made Me: Wes
The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
The creative work that I keep revisiting…
Music and photography…
The one album I consistently listen to is The Smiths ‘The Smiths’. I saw them live on the Queen is Dead tour and they were a big part of my teenage years but the first album is the best. It’s a shame Morrissey has turned into such a spiteful figure.Photography is a big influence. I love the photo-realism of Vija Celmins and the work of Stephen Shore but more recently I’ve been following the work of Coldwar Steve – social commentary and brilliant composition.
My first professional project…
I seem to remember it being a spot for the Mail on Sunday where I had to animate the mouths of a hamster and a goldfish to make them speak. I did a lot of morphing when I first started.
The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
I see these pretty much every week. Any advert where a blue sky has been comped on to footage that was shot on an overcast day. I just don’t get it. It’s like an estate agent has done the post-work. My gripe here is with the VFX artist, not the agency or client. One of the things I preach to the artists at The Mill is to give clients what they want, not what they ask for. When a client asks for something it’s important to consider what it is they have a problem with and what it is they are actually after. So when a client asks for a blue sky it’s because the shot is looking dull. If you put a blue sky into an overcast scene it makes the scene heavier and doesn’t solve the problem. Yes, you’ve done what on paper seems like the obvious solution but the reality is it doesn’t work. If instead, you put in a sunlit cloudy sky you brighten the scene, the client is happy, you can even include some spots of blue, and you keep your professional reputation intact. It’s not difficult, so please, please, I’m begging you, stop doing it.
The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
It’s usually the pieces of work I’ve missed out on, so there are a few…
Guy Ritchie’s spot for Nike ‘Next Level’ which, as a football obsessive, I think is one of the best football ads ever made. I’d love to revisit it with the tools we now have at our disposal (note to any agency creatives reading, come on, let’s make it, include a few Wolves players, and let me do it, please?).
Dom&Nic’s video for the Chemical Brothers ‘Wide Open’ is so good, part art performance piece, part music video, a great track, and supplemented with great VFX work. As with the Nike spot, it was worked on at the Mill, but it’s not one of mine.
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