bad banana blog

Russian Invasion

No, not that Russian invasion. The Stoli Blakberi invasion. What a beautiful spot from Publicis/London, even if the timing is a bit unfortunate.

Via AdPulp.

Fantasmagorie 1908

One hundred years ago today, Emile Cohl unveiled the very first animated film. His short, Fantasmagorie, clocks in at barely over one minute in length. The 700 drawings were drawn with black lines on white paper and then reversed to look like a chalk drawing on blackboard.

Via The Disney Blog.

A Byproduct, Not a Goal

What is art? It either is or it isn't. Let Paul Rand explain in this excellent video (5:43).

Via Bobby Sattler.

Two Things

"...and a pretty smart shopper." I almost did a spit take on that one. Pretty funky website, too.

Via 5 Blogs Before Lunch.

Inside Guernica

Lena Gieseke created this amazing three dimensional view of Picasso's Guernica. Take three minutes to watch the video. Then click here to read more about the project.

Via Fresh Creation.

Western Spaghetti

Take a minute (actually, 1:44) to view Western Spaghetti, the new film by stop motion animator PES. Great fun.

Via Encyclopedia Hanasiana.

Disney's Biggest Little Hit

It was 75 years ago today that Walt Disney and his team scored one of their biggest hits.
    Three Little Pigs, released May 27, 1933, hit a huge nerve with America and the world. In the middle of the Great Depression, the animated short spawned unprecedented merchandise sales. Sheet music. Pig dolls. Big Bad Wolf dolls. The public simply couldn't get enough of it. Amazingly, the short was even promoted above many of the feature films it was paired with during its long run.
    Today, Three Little Pigs is still amusing to watch, but hardly feels radical. That's because it heavily influenced everything that followed, including all of the famous Disney features. Compared to animated shorts of the time, however, it practically jumped off the screen. The use of color. The catchy music. And, most importantly, the personality of the characters. There was a dimension and roundness and weight to the pigs, especially, that was lacking up to that point.
    Like the pig that took the time to build a house right, Walt Disney and his team took the time to build this simple little animated short as solidly as possible. As a result, an entire empire would be built upon it.

Via TAG Blog.

The Next Level

Wow. Just wow. One of the best commercials I've seen in a long, long time. Perfectly on brand. Perfectly executed by director Guy Ritchie. Goosebumps.

Via Scamp.

Just Awesome

Really captures the essence of the Discovery Channel. Awesome.

Via The Denver Egotist.

Tarako Commercials

Japanese commercials are the best. These three are for Tarako brand cod roe sauce. My knowledge of the Japanese pasta sauce market is not very strong, so I can only assume the objectives of the creative brief were brilliantly met by these marching, singing Kewpie dolls dressed up as fish eggs. If, way down in the fine print of that brief, there's a sub-sub-sub-objective of creeping out some guy in the heartland of America, consider that objective nicely met as well. Take a look. Amazing.

Via Kitsune Noir.

Melting Bunnies

"Chocolade Haas" is a short piece created by Dutch filmmakers Lernert Engelberts and Sander Plug for the preschool art project "Big Art for Little People." Strangely hypnotic.

Via Old Glutton.

Demonstration

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've been dealing with these last few days.

Sound of Color

Five musicians were each given a color. Each musician then wrote a track inspired by that color. Those tracks were then given to five directors. You can watch the resulting videos here.

Via Quipsologies.

The Year in Ideas

To promote the annual Year in Ideas issue, The New York Times Magazine created this nice little video. Take a minute (actually 1:42) to learn about some of the big ideas from 2007 that may end up making a huge impact on our lives in the years to come. Stick through to the very end; especially if you think you need to be some sort of scientist to make big discoveries. All it takes, sometimes, is a willingness to look at the world in a different way.

Via AdverBox.

Revelation

Before today, I had never heard of Battle. Now my mind is reeling. This video is truly spectacular. And this progressive rock supergroup's first full-length offering, Mirrored, is being listed by some as one of 2007's finest albums. In most of their songs, there is no lyrical singing. Instead, Tyondai Braxton uses his voice as another musical instrument or texture. I can't wait to hear more.
    I love the beautiful, artistic execution of this video. It's definitely worth the nearly eight minutes of viewing time (including, as one YouTube viewer points out, what must be the longest fadeout in musical history). Have an additional ten minutes? Take a step back to the very beginning of the prog rock movement. Also a favorite and worth a look.

Via Creative Generalist.

Rare and Unseen Short Films

Wholphin is quickly becoming one of my favorite sources for random inspiration. Put out by the good folks at McSweeney's, Wholphin is a DVD magazine of rare and unseen short films. Issue 4 was delivered to my door just last week. It's jam-packed with nearly three hours of video.
    The screen captures above are from an excerpt of site specific, a film directed by Olivo Barbieri. I was drawn to this film right away because of my previous post about the photographic work of Ben Thomas. Both Thomas and Barbieri use a photographic technique that makes their subject matter look like little toy villages. So cool. Here's how it's explained in the accompanying booklet:

"Like in his still photography series "Virtual Truths," Barbieri uses a tilt-shift camera lens, which allows him to finely control the area and range of focus within the image. From moment to moment one feels that one is viewing, on one hand, panoramic aerial views of a real city, and on the other hand, macroscopic photography of hyperdetailed miniatures of said city."

You can read a full interview with Barbieri at wholphindvd.com. If you're looking for some great creative inspiration, take a moment to subscribe to Wholphin, as well. You'll get four issues delivered for $50. Well worth it, if you ask me.