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]
London design and motion studio weareseventeen recently won a competitive pitch to develop and produce the on-screen identity for the launch of All 4; Channel 4’s new destination for all their linear and on-demand content including this series of eclectic and fun animated pre-rolls created in concert with 4creative. [Watch]
Blinkink directing duo Tom & Nicos create a striking in-camera mash-up of replacement stop-motion techniques including plasticine, felt and colored wool, plus projections and UV paint in this trailer for the “Cannibis on Trial” episode of Channel 4’s controversial Drugs Live doc series. [Watch]
London’s Electric Theater Collective supply VFX and animation back up for Rogue director Saam Farahmand‘s new stunner for Channel 4’s Born Risky campaign starring British singer-songwriter/model/multimedia performance artist/DJ Viktoria Modesta who, after spending most of her childhood in and out [Watch]
Nexus directors Smith & Foulkes brew up two-minutes of apocalyptic fun for a serious cause in this broadcast and cinema spot boosting awareness for Stand Up To Cancer, the partnership between Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK, billed as a ‘killer night of fundraising.’
Smith & Foulkes: “The initial brief was to turn the table on cancer, depicting the disease as a civilization spreading aggressively – unable to prevent its own Armageddon in the style of a disaster movie.
“The main challenge was how to visualize the cancer cells. We wanted to steer away from the obvious route of showing cells as a bunch of grotesque alien germs, but we were also acutely aware of not making them too human or cute.”
“We also had to find a way to illustrate the new therapies, drugs and scientific breakthroughs that are fighting Cancer. We wanted their arrival to be initially magical and mysterious. so we used a glowing blue orb, an unexplained light descending upon a shadowy world.
“Disaster Movies rely heavily on vast visual spectacle and a cast of thousands, so working within our time constraints we decided to recreate this using 2D matt paintings to show a sense of the city without having to model every building.
“This gave it an illustrative and richly textured feel. Modeling and animating our cast in 3D gave us the flexibility of performance we wanted, and made them stand out from their environment.” [Watch]
Although best known for their striking 3D animated work, London’s ManvsMachine rebrand the film domain of UK broadcaster Channel 4 with an intriguing mix of live action, stop motion (the logo) and digital post production (provided by Analog).
MvsM say they developed “a contemporary take on a classic film strip / projector effect… to give the package a visual signature beyond the logo.
“The idents see the technique applied to cinematic live action compositions, presenting the Film4 logo in various locations. Each location/scene carefully crafted to elicit a variety of different moods.
“Idents begin ambiguously before seamlessly branching off into one of three possible endings, making minimal adjustments to shift the mood dramatically.”
Watch the finished IDs with all three of their alternate endings:
[Watch]
