Fragstein_Marie Louise | STASH MAGAZINE

Michael Fragstein: “Happiness Has A Hole”

Austere, enigmatic and whimsical, this new animated CG music video by Michael Fragstein (director/architect and co-founder of the Büro Achter April studio in Stuttgart) reads like a dreamscape full of strange juxtapositions and unexpected constructs. “Happiness Has A Hole – Solo Piano Version” is included [Watch]

ADCAN Awards Connect Aspiring Filmmakers and Good Causes

Squeezing into the jam-packed advertising awards ecosystem is a tough assignment but an industry collective is out to try with the launch of ADCAN, a new initiative supporting upcoming film talent through creative productions for charities and good causes.

Developed by Brydon Gerus and Dan Heighes, ADCAN was established as an awards community that connects good causes and charities with aspiring, non-represented filmmaking talent. ADCAN provides a new approach that exists above and beyond the awards themselves; it is not only a creative platform to help aspiring filmmakers get exposure within the industry, it is also a means for films to be made that will do some good and connect filmmakers with charities/causes and production companies looking for the next top talent. [Watch]

Pacciani_Dark Souls II | STASH MAGAZINE

The Darkly Dark Darkness of Dark Souls II

Packing enough hardcore tropes to anchor four video game trailers, this full CG film from Tokyo-based director Alessandro Pacciani and VFX house From Software for Namco Bandai’s Dark Souls II holds together with artful rendering, believable mocap and ambitious scope. File under Guilty Pleasure. [Watch]

Death and Danger In Venezuela

Unrest in the Ukraine dominates the headlines but, as the Caracas-based Totuma crew and Irene Ramírez make clear in this new infographic poster, the unrelenting political chaos and violence in Venezuela has rendered their homeland one of the most dangerous on the planet with 24,763 homicides in 2013 or one murder every 20 minutes.

Totuma_Venezuela Poster | STASH MAGAZINE

Totuma CD Hubert Reinfeild: “As designers and visual communicators we have to make something, so we did this poster and a sculpture to try capturing the essence of (at least one) of the reasons young Venezuelan students are protesting and dying.

“Between 1999 and 2013 there have been 200,509 violent deaths in Venezuela. In comparison, in the Iraq War there where 189,000 casualties (this is data from March 2003 to February 2013).

“In Venezuela there’s no official war, but every 20 minutes someone gets murdered. They aren’t just numbers, on the last month and a half thirteen people have died in a even worst scenario, if that’s possible, by the government forces.

“Until the actual government (or the next one) equally values the life off ALL venezuelans (regardless of their political views), we’ll have a nation divided by hate and we’ll carry over our shoulders and conciseness the sad title of being one of the most dangerous countries in the world.”

Poster: Irene Ramírez, adapted by Totuma. [Watch]

Th1ng Chomet_Simpsons | STASH MAGAZINE

Le Couch Gag dans Francais par Sylvain Chomet

Three-time Oscar-nominated director/animator Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville, L’illusionniste, The Old Lady and the Pigeons) and London animation force th1ng responded to Matt Groening’s invite to create a Simpson’s couch gag with this appropriately over-the-top Gaulish interpretation. Previous guest couch [Watch]

Dion_Monsieur COK | STASH MAGAZINE

Franck Dion “Monsieur COK”

Almost seven years after it first stormed onto the festival circuit, French director/illustrator Franck Dion‘s inventive and stylish animated short “Monsieur COK” still brings smiles despite its melancholy subject and palette. The film keeps your attention for almost 10 minutes with snappy pacing, intriguing character [Watch]

Job, Joris & Marieke_Happy Camper | STASH MAGAZINE

Job, Joris & Marieke March to “The Daily Drumbeat”

Inventive and minimalist character work keeps Utrecht studio Job, Joris & Marieke on our must-watch list. Like this music video for instance: a monochrome romp with dark undercurrents for fellow Dutchman Job Roggeveen and his collaborative musical project called Happy Camper. “The Daily Drumbeat is a sunny song [Watch]

Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting: “Last Hijack” Trailer

Best known for the polarizing film projects “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly,” American director/producer Tommy Pallotta mixes fantasy-fueled animation sequences into his new feature doc (co-directed with Dutch new-media producer Femke Wolting) called the LAST HIJACK, “a true tale of survival in Somalia told from the pirate’s perspective.”
[Watch]

Andy Martin_Selfie | STASH MAGAZINE

Andy Martin “Selfie” Short for Pictoplasma

Strange Beast director/animator Andy Martin worries about you. Specifically, he worries about the possible side effects of your auto-portraiture obsession (beyond the obvious problem that nobody looks good shot up close with a wide angle lens). “Selfie” was created for the Pictoplasma #Characterselfie project. [Watch]

MPC_Blacklist | STASH MAGAZINE

MPC Plays Dominoes with NBC’s “Blacklist”

Approached by NBC “to help emulate the gritty undertones” of the network’s hit drama Blacklist without revealing details of the show itself, MPC NY inserts a sweeping CG domino sequence into stark live footage shot in and above the Mojave Desert. The process started with a 3D previz and six life-sized reference sculptures [Watch]

Supamonks_Holypop | STASH MAGAZINE

Supamonks Wreak Havoc for “Holypop”

Parisian character masters Supamonks bust free from their commercial work to unleash a wave of medieval mayhem in this manic and blood-soaked animated comedy produced at the request of real monks in the south of France (Les Frères de la Sainte Famille) to promote their new soda called Holypop. Seriously. [Watch]

Quad Digital District_Mugler Alien | STASH MAGAZINE

Floria Sigismondi Captures Thierry Mugler’s Alien

We carry very few fashion films on Stash but this new spot from director/photographer Floria Sigismondi thru Quad with VFX by Digital District grabbed our attention for its reverential depiction of “a Solar Goddess awakening to the light” shot in the stunning Castello di Sammezzano in Tuscany and set to the [Watch]

Platige_Vikings | STASH MAGAZINE

Platige Fights Fate with “Vikings”

Director Tomek Baginski and a massive crew from Platige Image in Warsaw wrangle the stars of History Channel’s Vikings into a powerful promo augmented with dramatic and seamless CG. Tomek Baginski: “All marketing materials were shot at the same time, so we only had each actor for an hour. That meant [Watch]

Art&Graft_Virgin | STASH MAGAZINE

Virgin Atlantic “Trip” with Art&Graft

The vast majority of inflight safety videos deserve to be ignored because they’re benign and boring. Virgin Atlantic on the other hand treat the mandatory clips as edutainment and just replaced theirs (created by Nexus back in 2002) with this ambitious epic produced over six months by London’s Art&Graft who won [Watch]