The D&AD Professional Awards 2012

D&AD celebrates outstanding work in design and advertising. This year, the Awards mark their 50th anniversary. Entry is now open with the entry deadline being this Wednesday 1 February 2012.

The Awards levels are as follow:

In Book:
The year’s best creative work. In Book work features in the D&AD Annual.

Nomination:
Work that rises above In Book standard and has the potential to win a Pencil.

Yellow Pencil
Work that is outstanding, rather than merely brilliant, wins a Yellow Pencil.

Black Pencil
The best of the best, the ultimate award, for work that is truly groundbreaking. Only a handful of Black Pencils are awarded each year.

To write yourself into the future of D&AD visit http://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2012

 

The Soho Screening Rooms

The Soho Screening Rooms, AKA Mr Young’s Preview Theatre (established 1992) is located in the heart of Soho. This has to be the only truly independent screening theatre where you can walk straight in off the street, to be welcomed by Paul and his friendly crew.

You’ll be struck immediately by the walls which are adorned with some great movie posters of all time, including some of the films I have worked on.

They are happy to accommodate all film makers from majors to indies in their three intimate screening rooms which offer the very latest in projection.

See below image for some technical data, or for more information visit www.sohoscreeningrooms.co.uk

The Soho Screening Rooms

Screen 1:
Seats – 41 with reception / bar area for 41 people
Film Projection – 35mm: 1.85, 2.35, 1.66, 1.33, 2.40
Sound – 5.1 Dolby Digital / SR / Stereo / Mono
Video Projection – Barco DP100 2K Projector with Dolby 3D playback
Video formats – Digi Beta / Beta SP (PAL) DVD (All Regions) Blu-Ray / HD-DVD / DCP / Dolby 3D / PC / Mac as well as HD-D5, HDCAM-SR and HDCAM on request.

Screen 2:
Seats - 25 with reception / bar area for 25 people
Video Projection - NEC IS8 2K Projector
Video Sound – 7.1 Dolby Digital / DTS / Pro Logic / Stereo
Video formats - Digi Beta / Beta SP (PAL) DVD (All Regions) Blu-Ray / HD-DVD / DCP / PC / Mac

Screen 3:
Seats - 44 with reception / bar area for 44 people
Video Projection - 35mm: 1.85, 2.35, 1.66, 1.33, 2.40
Sound - 5.1 Dolby Digital / SR / Stereo / Mono
Video and 2K Projection - Barco DP90 2K Projector with Dolby 3D playback
Video formats – Digi Beta / Beta SP (PAL) DVD (All Regions) Blu-Ray / HD-DVD / DCP / PC / Mac / AVID as well as HD-D5, HDCAM-SR and HDCAM on request.

Title Sequence Clips Now Available on YouTube

Forget the Film, Watch the Titles – in which we are featured, is a great website focussed solely on showing clips of some outstanding main title sequences of film and broadcast.

So in addition to this, we have decided to share a whole load of titles sequences we have created, by converting them into clips and uploading on to our YouTube channel for you to see.

We have loaded quite a few already and will be uploading clips regularly, so please come back often to see what else is available to see. Happy viewing.

Braun Power

If like me you have many gadgets that need battery power, especially digital cameras. The chances are, like my particular set of Panasonic cameras, each one takes a different size battery! Well I have tried out many ‘universal chargers’ and have now discovered one that works for all.

Introducing Braun the German product company famous for almost everything electrical!

The Braun 1-For-All-Switch charges virtually all old, present & future lithium-ion batteries, round batteries, NiMH/NiCD batteries, prismatic batteries and NiMH/NiCD blocks used in camcorders, digital cameras, MP3/MP4 players and mobile phones.

I recommend this to all.

BRAUN 1-For-All-SWITCH

 

Suggs – His one man show

I thought I would share this shot of my old friend Suggs and I, which we took on my iPad last week when we met for our usual coffee break. I caught up on how his one man show was doing too and I’m so pleased to hear it’s going well.

So to plug it… his show runs through to February with the next show this Friday 20th at the Oxford Playhouse, then Saturday 21st at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre. Check out his website www.suggslive.com for other venues and dates.

Golden Globes celebrated with Darius in Berlin

Back from a great weekend with Darius Ghanai in Berlin. What a fascinating city. It was good to spend some time sharing ideas and getting an insight into Darius’s world.

We also raised a glass to all the nominees and winners at the Golden Globes on Sunday at Soho House Berlin where I stayed, who’s sister House in West Hollywood held the CAA’s pre-Golden Globes bash on Friday.

I’ve uploaded a few shots I took in Berlin onto my Flickr account, take a look and let me know what you think?

Berlin based Titles Designer Darius Ghanai

I am off to Berlin for a few days, the home of my friend Darius Ghanai (Lichtrausch), who like me loves to produce stunning creative work mainly for the big screen.

We first met in person as judges at the D&AD Awards 2011, although we had both admired each others work and where both featured on the current DVD by Submarine Channel titled ‘Forget the Film, Watch the Titles!‘

We will be sharing thoughts and ideas on all subjects I am sure, whilst challenging each other over a game of chess, which is as elaborate a waste of time as you can find.

Interesting shots I’ll be posting on Flickr.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival has come around again. It starts this month from the 19th to the 29th. Premieres include Stephen Frears’s latest movie ‘Lay the Favorite‘ starring Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

I can also recommend the skiing/snowboarding there too! Visit www.utah.com/ski/ and see what I mean.

Now Is Good

Following on from my previous post ‘Bold Strokes‘. Our title sequence for Ol Parker Now is Good is drawing into shape.

We are re-constructing the opening frames from a series of layered drawings, to build the selected streets of Brighton where the film was shot. This is to create the correct style and movement we need to follow Dakota Fanning as she moves through the opening scenes. The architecture is then re-laid out in the 3D space ready for colouring and animation in place of the original backgrounds.

I’ll get back to you with more development as it progresses.

In memory of Eve Arnold

‘Legendary’ is not a word I would bestow on many people. But along with the likes of Maurice Binder, the Magnum photographer Eve Arnold famous for portraits of Marilyn Monroe who died yesterday aged 99, also deserves that tag in my book of people who inspired me when I started out on the creative path.

I’m reminded of one of her famous quotes “I think if I ever get satisfied, I’ll have to stop. It’s the frustration that drives you.”

In memory of Eva, her extensive body of work lives on.