Reel of the Month Club (Jan 2025): Virak Path
January 15, 2025
Rendered in visceral, expressionistic oil pastels and backed by layered audio fragments, Marcus Armitage‘s BAFTA nominated graduation film “My Dad,” looks, feels and sounds like an edgy and experimental NFB short from the 70’s. That’s a good thing. [Watch]
Creating hundreds of visual “boob” metaphors looks like a fun project but Totuma CD Hubert Reinfeld says creating this breast cancer awareness campaign for Lifetime Latin America was among the most difficult he and his crew have ever attempted. [Watch]
Indulge your fetish for 70’s design with this five-minute, low-key feast of tightly kerned Helvetica, Swiss-flavored graphics and Op art – courtesy of German designer/animator Henning Max Lederer. [Watch]
Madison, Wisconsin doesn’t leap to mind as a hotbed of animation or road rage but local director/animator Nate Theis transcends such petty limitations for his first indie film “Driving,” channeling the style of mid-20th century studios like UPA and the intense fury of big city commuters. [Watch]
Wonderful mix of styles and techniques add up to a whole lot of quirky charm in this self-referential short film from director/animator Jon Boutin, currently in his third year at the EMCA in Angoulême, France. [Watch]
Nexus wunderkind director Johnny Kelly talks to Stash about pulling together 100+ artists, designers, craftspeople, architects, engineers, scientists and musicians; assigning them each a scene, then merging it all into a hypnotic brand film for Dropbox. [Watch]
Unless you’re a package designer, paperboard is just not something you’re likely to think about much. Stockholm animation house Happycamper and their client Iggesund, a venerable Swedish paper company founded in 1685, hope to change that with this poetic CG work emphasizing the firm’s ecological outlook. [Watch]
London-based animator/illustrator Yukai Du elevates a potentially banal TED-Ed lesson called “The Torturous History of the Treadmill” into a four-minute work of motion art with vigorous palette choices, unexpected framing and stripped down characters. [Watch]
You don’t have to like the Phillies, baseball or even sports to appreciate the draftsmanship, character work and story-telling from Mixtape Club in this episode of ESPN’s #NotPictured docu-series featuring former MLB all-star John Kruk. [Watch]
Can a four-minute animated film capture and convey the intimate horrors and dark heroism of war? According to US veterans who’ve seen the film and the two marines who helped co-produce it, “Chosin: Baptized by Fire” proves you can. [Watch]
4creative, the in-house creative agency for all Channel 4’s brands, just posted a series of riveting and insightful compilations from the broadcaster’s excellent Self Portraits series featuring interviews with top directors and actors revealing their influences and favorite filmmaking moments. [Watch]
Explore the art and act of creation with Stefan Sagmeister, GMUNK, Rama Allen, Erin Sarofsky, Mischa Rozema and 20 more brilliant presenters at FITC’s 2-Day FORM event at the Chicago History Museum, Nov 2-3, 2015. Just enter code “stashmedia” at check out to save a cool $100 on your ticket.
[Watch]
Based on a sketch by Leo Burnett art director Eugene Kolkey, Tony the Tiger hit grocery stores and the airwaves in 1951 and has since helped kids with all sorts of problems. Now, hoping to attract an older demo, Tony tackles work-related ageism with a 43-year old named Candy who admits, “she ain’t no spring chicken.” [Watch]
Director/VFX artist Sam O’Hare relies on a background in architecture/design and the tiny but seriously talented crew at his NYC studio Parachute to push this spec, all-CG Tesla spot into need-to-watch-again territory. Attention Elon. [Watch]
