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2-3 Bourlet Close,
London, W1W 7BQ.
t: +44 (0)20 7907 1000
f: +44 (0)20 7907 1001
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2-3 Bourlet Close,
London, W1W 7BQ.
t: +44 (0)20 7907 1000
f: +44 (0)20 7907 1001
Mrs Kipling featured in The Sun! Not on page 3, thankfully...
Craig Cash - writer/director/Jim in the Royle Family has just finished the new Kipling campaign featuring Mr K's wife for the first time. She's in bed! With Mr Kipling! And she's covered in flour!! At 55 years old!!!
We've got to stop reading The Sun.
Click below to read more...
Metro - Revealed: Mrs Kipling seen for first time in exceedingly new advert
The Sun - Crumbs! Now Mr Kipling has a Mrs
Johan Tappert's recent Argos ad was featured in last week's Private View - see the reviews below...
Ben Priest, creative partner, Adam & Eve
“I like the Argos work. It’s funny, populist and insightful, with a tone of voice punters will relate to. The Christmas ad was a good’un and so is this latest offering. It lets us know in a charming way that we can reserve stuff online. They’re building up a recognisable look and feel, and the humour seems bang-on.”
Mark Summers, casting director and owner, Mark Summers Management
“Well, this is clear, understandable and it actually resonates with me. It has targeted purpose, accurate messages and relates to experiences we know all too well.”
Shots talks to Sam Brown about his new promo for Jay Z's 'on to the next one'...
Sam Brown meets Jay Z
Sam Brown featured in Shots September 09.
...we've loved you, but you were filling up too many toxic waste dumps in Lian Jiao, so you're fired. Eco-friendlier than Zac Goldsmith’s goat, our new, 100% edible, plastic-free reels will be personally run round to your desk small alpine marmot very soon... Don’t feed him, he needs the exercise. If you’d like a reel - or a pet marmot, email us. Don't feed him, he needs the exercise.
Designed with the help of Modern Activity we think it sets a new benchmark for eco-sustainability compared to standard DVD boxes that can only be used for one really dull thing. I mean, not only does it neatly hold up to 6 Rogue reels, but it can easily double up as a brilliant pencil case, pygmy guinea-pigs bed, sandwich box, stick insect home, receipt box, eastern bloc shoe, attic insulation, thing that Nicolas Sarkozy can stand on to look normal sized or even a last minute anniversary gift-box. If you're desperate. If you have any other formidable ideas for the Rogue box, we’d like to know.
Kevin is shooting Roman epic ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’ , and you can join Charlie & David in disguise as the strangely attractive druids, Picanmix & Geriatrix, for a heroic battle scene. If you want to brave this Scottish crusade, all you need to do is prove you could survive in the wild lands of Caledonia with just a Rogue reel box and a pair of socks. Please send us a photo of the 'best alternative use' of the new Rogue reel box (see below)...think warrior sandwich box, handy loin-cloth storage or early all-terrain boot. Email us your photo now and within days you could find yourself north of Hadrians Wall hurling horse manure and small mammals at your Romans oppressors.
Sam Cadman is back in London, for good, after 2 years in LA. We’ve already caught him scheming with Trigger Happy’s Dom Joly, so if you see human size rats or an amish stampede in Great Portland Street, that’ll be Sam and Dom going to work.
Cadman will continue to travel to LA, having recently completed two campaigns in the US, for AdoptUsKids and for Hardee’s A-Holes. Sam’s back in the swing of things here, readjusting to battered savaloys and horizontal rain, and working on two commercials and a longer format project.
Shots hotshot Henrik Hallgren is moving to London from the land of Spunk, Plopp and herring. Leaving Sweden in the middle of the Crayfish Festival is heart-wrenching for any Swede so please send any spare crustaceans to Henrik at Rogue.
Henrik is known for his perfect blend of live action and effects, as proven in his work for Electrolux, Reaal and Ikea. An illustrator and animator in his past, Henrik also pulled the animated Sony spot out of the bag for TBWA London. Working on a Sky project with WCRS, creative director Yan Elliot said: “With Henrik the magic of making ads comes back to life. He instantly makes you feel that anything is possible.” Those nordic crayfish are overrated...What's wrong with a good old British winkle?
Sam Brown’s Virgin Media was voted into the APA 50 Collection 2009; one of the best 50 ads of the year, at a packed One Marylebone, last Thursday. We set out to see how much one man could eat in one evening without a drink. James won the award with fish & chips, lamb hotpot, thai chicken curry, something green in cous-cous and half a leg at the charcuterie table. A Pyrenean goat’s leg not the table leg.
Getting your money’s worth is very important to James.
Kevin MacDonald is shooting his new movie, Eagle of The Ninth. In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila (Tatum) arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca (Bell), Marcus sets out across Hadrian's Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia - to confront its savage tribes, two strangely attractive druids, Thermos & Geriatrix (Crompton & van der Gaag), make peace with his father's memory, and retrieve the lost legion's golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth.
Oscar winning Anthony Dod Mantle (Last King of Scotland, Slumdog Millionaire) is lighting the film. Oscar winner Michael O’Connor and nominee Michael Carlin (both of The Duchess) are the film’s costume and production designers, respectively, and the very lovely Justine Wright, is back as editor marking her fifth consecutive feature collaboration with Kevin, who’s shooting the film on location in Hungary and Scotland.
Ron Scalpello is set to shoot his first feature, Here Comes The Summer. To find out what he's got in store for us, check out the link below.
Screen Daily
Campaign 17th July '09
Private View, Creative
Ewan Paterson, executive creative director, CHI & Partners on Phil Churchward's Vodafone ad:
"We agree on the Vodafone Taxi Grand Prix work as well. Particularly the web game, which allows you to pick real taxi drivers (Rob from Manchester is leading at the moment) and then the actual miles they clock up determine how quickly you get around the racetrack. First around the track wins the big prizes. The idea that a wait-and-return to Piccadilly station becomes a virtual lap of the Nurburgring racetrack is an excellent idea. Original and engaging."
Watch 'Fantastic Journey'
Campaign, 10th July '09
Private View, Creative
Brian Fraser, executive creative director, McCann Erickson:
"The Virgin Media "Fantastic Journey" production is next. And what a big old production it is too. It's beautifully shot and the effects are seamless. A young bloke gets on a train and turns on his mobile device, only to find that the train carriage changes around him. He suddenly finds himself in a live music gig, a cinema, a war game and there's even a bit of romance thrown in. Sorry, but I just feel that I've seen this transformation idea done in this category before, even if it's not as well executed as this is."
Private View, Client
Patrick Jubb, head of marketing, Vodafone:
"Finally, we come on to the new Virgin Mobile ad from Virgin Media. The spot is called "Fantastic Journey" and I really think the work lives up to its title. Beautifully directed, wonderful music - this grabbed me for the full 30 seconds. My only red flag would be what's the point of difference? Every smartphone ad in the world is saying the same thing at the moment - music, games, movies and friends. Maybe I'm being a bit hard, but, at the moment, if you're in the smartphone or multimedia phone industry, you have to give the consumer a distinct reason to choose you that's not the same as everyone else - good creative can only get you so far!"
Interview with director Sam Brown
Shots, 23rd June '09:
Can you tell me a bit about the script you got from the agency - what was the key concept behind the spot? How much detail had they gone into in terms of the specific flashbacks/memories the guy would experience? And what were the main reference / nuances you added with your treatment?
The overall idea for the spot was basically that Virgin Media could turn the most mundane of journeys into something exciting. One of the first things that Mark (Roalfe, ECD), Paul (Angus, AD) and Ted (Heath, CW) talked about was this idea that as soon as our character turns on his phone it’s like he’s stepped into a movie of his own making. Creating something ‘cinematic’ wasn’t just about style, it was a big part of the idea.
Because of the linear nature of the idea, the ‘memories’ and the way the transitions between scenes played out, was pretty much pinned down when I came on board. I knew I wanted the transitions to be very simple, in-camera stuff and simple action cuts... the creatives prioritized the story over the ‘effects’, which was important to me also, because from the start I didn’t want to the idea to feel buried under flashy post work.
Most of my contribution was about nailing the atmosphere, connecting with the characters and creating scenes that - hopefully - the viewer feels they want to be involved with, to step right into. I was always thinking: this is a diner, this is a club… but how do we make them places that the viewer would actually want to go to? I couldn’t really find many references in films or commercials that did this in a convincing way.
I was also thinking about Hong Kong cinema when I was writing the treatment, the amped-up colours and the exciting, dream-like, hyper-real feeling of the city. I wanted to make something that drew you in this very sort of dreamlike way, that didn’t seem like reality at all.
Did you build different sets for each of the sequences (e.g. the gig/club, the cinema)... or did you shoot at multiple locations? or a mixture of both?
We built two sets (club/troop carrier) that we redressed to form the café and cinema. We then shot a combination of real train stuff, both static and in motion, and a comprehensive series of moving city plates to composite outside the windows.
Both creatively and technically, what were the most demanding aspects of this job? How long did you have to shoot and where was it filmed?
We filmed over three days in Berlin, in studios and on location. I think a great creative challenge was to pack all the ideas and disparate ‘locations’ into the 60 seconds we had without feeling too disorientated, and that everything flowed together as a sequence. We really had to commit to a sequence of shots at storyboard stage… it wasn’t the sort of thing where we could cover things off in different ways and find the best flow in the edit. Technically, shooting on any metro system anywhere is always tricky. Filming on and around trains is rather like filming whales, they just amble about in their own pattern and you are absolutely powerless to control them in any way.
The whole project was very complex in terms of lighting. We knew that the lighting needed to work very hard, to create something that looks very epic and cinematic with very limited resources, and there were many moving and flickering light patterns. Tom (Townend, DP) did an amazing job, I love the slightly cartoony, colourful feel of the lighting.
Was it a big casting number - looks like there are quite a few extras involved?
Yes… there did seem to be an awful lot of people around.
Got to ask the money question - this looks like a pretty high budget spot. Was it, or was it more a case of making a little go a long way?
The budget was relatively low – nowhere near what you might think.
Was there much post involved or did you aim to capture as much in camera as possible? And how closely were you involved in the post process? Was this one of those jobs where you had a pre-viz from the outset and got the VFX crew involved at every stage?
Again, doing as much in camera was critical. The transitions were all shot without any kind of motion control or pre-vis, just simply eye matching camera moves from one set to the next. Making these transitions between sets ‘slick’ just wasn’t important to me… but getting something that felt like a graceful flow between shots, was. (Post House) MPC were very supportive in this approach, in not coming to them with the usual green-screened, mo-con stuff, but being a bit more organic about the whole thing. However, from the start I was keen to enhance the city in post production, so we shot a comprehensive set of background plates for the interior and exterior train sequences to drop in afterwards. Dropping backgrounds into moving plates is a surprisingly tricky thinking to make look good, so we had to be very careful about our angles. We did a lot of doubling-up of city plates to get a feeling of a really dense, sprawling city.
I really like staging as much through camera as possible, so almost everything in the troop carrier was captured for real. The explosion at the end (when the troops storm) was staged with an enormous amount of light, wind, compressed air, dust and dirt… enough to knock you flat. The massive, burly, scary guys we cast as our troops turned out to be great big girlies.
Are you working on any other projects at the moment?
Another big one lined up with Rainey Kelly, and plenty of other things on the boil.
Kevin’s latest film “State of Play” starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren will be released in the UK on April 24th.
Kevin will be going into production on his next film later this year.
Click on the thumb on the left to view the State of Play trailer.
Read more on Times Online and The Observer.
Will Clark’s debut feature film is now in development with Rocket Pictures (Elton John’s film production company).
Pride and Predator was co-written by Will Clark, and will go into production later this year.
For more information click on the links below.
The Guardian, Tuesday, 17 February 2009
BBC News, Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Shots, 26 November 2008
The Guardian's film critic Philip French returned from the 19th Festival of British Film in Dinard with nothing but praise for Jackie Oudney's feature film 'French Film':
"I've seen some of the worst British films at Dinard, but this year there was a strong line-up..."
"A word too for Jackie Oudney's delightful French Film,
a truthful romantic comedy about the breakdown of a relationship between a London couple and the role played in the affair by a suave movie director (a winning performance by Eric Cantona).
They all deserve distribution."
PHILIP FRENCH
The Observer, Sunday October 12th 2008
Read the full article here.
French Film is a hit at the 19th Festival du Film Britannique de Dinard.
"The most unashamedly enjoyable film of the festival was Jackie Oudney’s French Film. A romantic comedy that managed to be both romantic and comic (no mean feat, as anyone who has ever seen a film starring Kate Hudson will confirm), Oudney’s debut was sincere, warm, believable, and laugh-out-loud funny. Hugh Bonneville and Anne-Marie Duff star, although Eric Cantona steals the show as a French film director offering his own distinctly French take on love – let’s call it Gallic symbolism. Despite watching a film which offered gentle mockery of their nation throughout, the positive audience reaction recalled a quote by Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage): “Never be afraid to laugh at yourself. After all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century”."
Adrian Hennigan
Read more on the BBC website
The Dominion Post, Monday, 06 October 2008
“The new HSBC spot is a lovely piece of storytelling. We follow a young Polish rep from a washing machine manufacturer as he travels to India to discover the secret behind their sales boost. It transpires that their product is being used to successfully blend lassis. It’s a tight film, and well photographed. My only mildly cynical urge stems from the belief that, while this spot demonstrates the need to be aware of what’s going on in the world, I don’t really accept that banks are in a credible position to comment at the mo’.”
Simon Learman
Executive Creative Director, McCann Erickson London
Campaign 19/09/08
Our gunship scuds across the low slung sulphurous sky as we hug the tree line, below the mangled carcass of a downed Hele-cam lies on the shores of the Ping Pong Delta. The air is pregnant with the dense perfume of vegetation coupled with the rich metallic tang of spent gunpowder. The rotary cannon barrels' incandescent heat glows in the half light of dusk as our shredded problems cartwheel in our slipstream...
Wagner is cranked to full volume, we are locked, we are loaded, we are ready and we are going in... Death or Glory my friends!
Mid July saw a rogue team heading up to a non-so-sunny Manchester to shoot a new ad for Actimel with the legendary Sir Bobby Charlton.
Sir Bobby was on top form - and happily took on the challenge of hitting a trademark drive into the top right hand corner from twenty five yards out.
During the day he took the time to talk to the kids on the shoot, absolutely engaging them with his effortless charm and ease. Watch our behind the scenes video to see why Sir Bobby will always be a true British legend.
We are delighted to be one of only nine UK production companies to have been awarded a Silver Lion or higher this year in Cannes. Samaritans “Hanging Man” was written by Andy McAnaney, Christian Sewell and Mark Fairbanks with Paul Brazier as Executive Creative Director. The idea was so strong, and the cause extremely worthy – these projects don’t come around very often so we were very proud to be involved. Hanging Man was directed by Daniel Wolfe and produced by Sophie Weldon.
What do you mean, you haven’t heard of the Fireflies Ride?! This group of cyclists, filled with enough star studded advertising talent to sink a large yacht (including Rogue’s Tom Farley) arrived in Cannes having ridden 1000k over the Alps from Geneva. Their route includes 90,000ft of climbing, including many of the gruelling ascents in the Tour de France, over the toughest mountains in the world.
This is the 7th year of the ride - and what started with four guys, six bananas, a marmot and a map has now become a swarm, with 70 ‘flies riding up the Croissette this year. The Fireflies have raised nearly over £600,000 for Leuka, the charity which supports the Catherine Lewis Centre at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, one of the most advanced Cancer research and treatment centres in the World. Every penny raised is spent on valuable life saving treatment and research for Leukemia.
Charlie used his loud voice to good effect this year by trying to raise £20,000 in 20 minutes in the 20-20 auction – about as long as he thought he’d get before being bottled off. In the end, he raised £21,165 before losing his voice and his shorts. Lots included Lance Armstong’s jersey, signed personally for the Fireflies,which after some furious bidding went for £2,200, two Kenyan holiday homes, and Borat’s Mankini which went for £650 to include Firefly Mark Paton inside it. Check out the pictures if you dare.
Click here to see the Straight8 Film of the 08 ride made by Ed Sayers and his bike-cam. One Super 8 cartridge, no editing. Genius stuff... And if you like this, check out more or make one yourself at straight8.net
A huge thank you to Lady Haricot of Zward, Andy Carroll, Nick Amour, Karen Cunningham, Michael Geoghegan, Kai at RSA and everyone who’s hard work and generous donations made the auction possible.
For Those Who Suffer, We Ride.
thefirefliesride.com
Leuka.org
A recession is looming, summer is nowhere in sight... but hang on, Gladiators is returning to our screens to save us all!
After Ron got over the original heartbreak of there being no Wolf, no Jet, no Ulrikakakakaka, no chance of dressing up like Hunter and cracking on to Ulrikakaka, he still decided that to make a promo for the legendary game show was too good an opportunity to miss.
So Ron and producer Kate set off to Tunisia with dreams of hundreds of extras, toned and buffed bodies with stage combat skills, serious police support, a huge stadium and loads of kit to play with. Ah... One extended Tunisian family, two radios, a crumbling stadium and a goat later, Ron rose to the challenge and quite frankly became better than Moses. Fair enough Moses parted water, but he never turned 10 people into a thousand, or wheezing podgy Tunisians into swarthy warriors. Although it has to be said that Moses didn't have MPC to clean up afterwards.
Featured in The Guardian, 24 April 2008.
New Rogue Henrik Hallgren has shrunk. Thankfully this was just for Shots May 08 and hasn’t affected his enormous brain.
Henrik spent nearly two months away from his homeland Sweden, shooting with Rogue and WCRS for a new visual effects led Sky commercial which airs in the summer. Creative director Yan Elliot commented: “With Henrik the magic of making ads comes back to life. He instantly makes you feel that anything is possible.” We think this must be the reason the agency started to call him Jesus, that and the loaves and fishes he made us all eat for lunch.
Kevin has just returned to the UK after a challenging 12 week shoot in LA and Washington for his highly anticipated new feature through Universal / Working Title. 'State of Play' starring Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck, is based on the acclaimed 2003 BBC mini-series of the same title. The political thriller follows a team of investigative reporters who work alongside a police detective to try and solve the brutal murder of a congressman’s mistress. Kevin teamed up with renowned cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain, Babel) and will be editing the film with Justine Wright who has edited Kevin’s previous three feature films. State of Play will be due for release in Spring 2009.
We’re delighted to be representing Top Gear director Phil Churchward. Although still annoyingly young, Phil has been working on Top Gear for over three years, and has been credited with developing the much copied visual style that has made the show such a huge success. Phil is both technically accomplished as well as creatively inventive when it comes to shooting cars, action stunts and landscapes. His artistic eye, coupled with his ability to get the best from live stunts makes him a very exciting newcomer to commercials.
True Eastender, Ron Scalpello has directed two brilliantly received promos for BBC Eastenders. The promos celebrate the return of Albert Square’s infamous screaming couple Ricky and Bianca. Talking of come backs get your pugel stick out of the closet….Gladiators is back and Ron has just returned from Tunisia making a commercial for Sky to welcome it back to our screens. Oh Wolf...where have you been?
Ron also directed the recent Crunchy Nut “Dog Track” commercial through JWT with creatives Miles Bingham and Kevin Masters, and producer Gemma Knight. David Reviews said it was “a return to form for the Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Cornflakes campaign”.
Nicholas Barker is as busy as ever. This time he’s writing and directing another series of Dyson commercials. This follows the completion of a Renault commercial for France on which he worked with The Simpson’s animators. He has also shot a second Pizza Hut commercial through Wieden & Kennedy.
Sam Brown’s stunning new commercial for Tropicana through DDB is now on air. Thanks go out to creatives Danny Seager and Steve Hall who brilliantly avoided writing a commercial about breakfast in London. Sam shot in Australia, Chicago and Hong Kong making those of us left behind beyond jealous. Well, jealous until exec producer Charlie Crompton sent us this heart-warming photograph of shoot day five in Sydney. Wasn’t the central theme to the commercial sunshine?
Sam in Shots
Sam Brown "speaks to David Knight about his rise to pop's big league" in the November '06 issue of Promo.
22nd February '08
Jackie & Eric
Jackie Oudney has completed her much anticipated debut feature film, 'French Film' starring Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill) and French Football Legend Eric Cantona (Manchester United) in a fantastic supporting role alongside Ann Marie Duff and Dougie Henshaw, Jackie’s very British comedy about love is already getting rave reviews in pre-release screenings.
Jackie also recently directed a stunning new spot for First Choice holidays... Undeniably bold advertising which stands out a mile in the ad breaks. Written by Simon Bere at BMB and produced by Jane Oak.
Also on air is Jackie’s new Kingsmill commercial through M&C Saatchi. With a characteristically strong central performance, Kingsmill was written by Ned Corbett-Winder and Martin Latham, and produced by David Jones.
13th March '08
Spring of Sam
Sam Cadman has been back on our shores following a stint in LA. Touching down in a rather miserable London, Sam sensibly set off to South Africa almost instantly for two shoots. The new Argos commercial written by Clark Edwards and
Nick Pringle, and produced by Kate Hardwick at CHI has just gone on air. Next out is the third ad of the Strongbow campaign with creatives Tim Collins and Mike Hughes, and produced by Kate Male at St. Lukes. Shot on a set of an urban roof terrace on the top floor of a Cape Town carpark in 50k winds, everything had to be nailed to the floor - including Sam and a small squirrel called Tufty.
10th April '08
Marc in Prison
New Rogue Marc Evans is currently developing his next feature film set in the wilderness of Patagonia, as well as promoting his recent feature length documentary “In Prison My Whole Life”. In Prison is a compelling statement on the issue of the death penalty in America, and the story focuses particularly on the astonishing case of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal who was convicted of the murder of a Chicago police officer back in 1983. “In Prison” was produced by Livia & Colin Firth and features interviews with Snoop Dogg, Noam Chomsky, Angela Davies, Steve Earle and Mos Def.
Marc is also currently working on an innovative brand commercial for the Co-op bank. It’s part art installation, part live video sequencing and part film – and is a truly original idea.