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I really do hope The Hairy Bikers get a third series, or would that be the fourth? Hmmm, not sure; the first series, which aired back in 2006, somehow became bisected by an Easter break. Still, I am moderately certain that it's one of my favourite jobs to work on having been on-board with the production from the beginning, save for the pilot episode in Portugal. Mooschool has created maps and menu graphics for Si King and Dave Myers' culinary travels in Africa, India, Mexico, Romania, Turkey, Argentina, Belgium, Morocco, Ireland and the Isle of Man! This time, for a Winter special, the Hairies are staying closer to home and exploring the North of England.
Enough about them. Has anyone else noticed how many TV shows have copied the "handwritten, doodled, whoops I've spilt coffee all over my map again" style we (that's the Royal we) designed for the Hairy Bikers? No? The title sequence for "Jamie at Home" by Hello Charlie is the most recent one I've spotted. The maps in "Oz and James' Big Wine Adventure" seemed very familiar, except for the illegible medieval script font they'd used. Oh, there have been others, many others, nearly always food & drink shows and if I could remember them I'd proudly list every single one.
Anyway! Aside, from the usual maps and menus, I also updated the 'Come Home!' title graphics which time-travelled me back to my archives, software and kit of 2005 and the painful memory of the extra hours, days even, that I used to have to spend on jobs; time generally spent swearing at a CRT monitor the size of a mini-bar, waiting for renders to finish. So, if Big Bear Films are commissioned to produce another series I may have to persuade them it's time for a new title sequence. It'll be quicker than updating the old one and, you know, coffee-rings are so last year, baby.
Watch The Hairy Bikers Come Home! A Winter Special. Thursday 3rd January 8PM BBC2.
"Scarecrow doesn't like pesky crows, so if you steal his corn he goes wild! Spin the spinner to see how much corn you need to lift but beware if you wake him!"
Toy commercials have been keeping Mooschool occupied lately. The two projects, "Shakin' Scarecrows" and "Laser Challenge Pro", are courtesy of Lambie Productions who have worked with Mooschool on many jobs over the last two years.
Ideas for both projects were storyboarded for client approval before proceeding on to shoots. The "Shakin' Scarecrows" shoot (see above pic) was at Spring Studios in Kentish Town and I went along to advise director, Tim Lacey, concerning the shots I would be compositing graphics with. My input at this stage really makes life simpler in post-production and facilitates my best possible work rather than just fixing mistakes.
Both project briefs required an assortment of graphics ranging from captions and logo pack-shots to animating cartoon artwork composited with live footage of the kids.
"Katy Brand's Big Ass Show" starts on Friday 19th October at 10pm on ITV2. Mooschool created graphics for the six part series including a main 15 sec. title sequence plus a number of in-programme mini-titles and captions to introduce spoof characters such as Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie and Melvyn Bragg. For the main titles, Mooschool created a colourfully-graded, high-energy edit of the characters dancing to the theme tune before compositing film fx and random quotes from the scripts in a fun, handwritten font to create a kind of 'cutting-room notebook'.
I worked closely with the director, Chris Faith of World's End Productions, to create the mini-titles; experimenting with a variety of references ranging from 'Life of Brian' and 'Watercolour Challenge' to 'Doc Savage' and 'Bloomberg News'.
I got a phonecall not so long ago from Rebecca Welsh, a producer I met working on SkyOne's "The Match" up in Newcastle. Rebecca's been freelancing for World's End Productions; producing and directing a documentary entitled "Call Girls - The Truth" which is going to be on ITV near the end of September (see TX dates above). The project needed graphics which is why my phone rang. Mooschool produced a title sting and name captions that combined elements of a sumptuous boudoir with technical elements and font (New Media) to represent the internet-based aspect of the programme.
The film apparently provides an insight into the world of the high-class call girl. These women ply their trade via their own personal websites; designed to attract the 'right type of clients'. The programme features a young glamorous 20-something, an ex city banker, a married mother of four and a student whose aim is to leave university debt-free. I haven't seen any clips yet but I do know that, while filming, Rebecca got offered a job by a guy who runs an escort agency. I don't think the job was maintaining his website either.
James Miller, a British cameraman and director, was shot dead in the Gaza Strip on May 2nd, 2003 while filming the Emmy-Award winning documentary, "Death in Gaza". The film investigates the traumatic lives of those people stuck in the middle of the violent Israel-Palestine conflict with particular focus given to the lives of three Palestinian children growing up in a culture of martyrdom.
Miller and his crew had been at the home of a Palestinian family in the Rafah refugee camp where they had hoped to film Israelis destroying houses; clearing the border area to prevent tunneling. The Israelis believe that the Palestinians use these tunnels to smuggle guns and bombs across the border and by policing this area have effectively created a Berlin Wall style 'death strip'. By nightfall, activity had quietened down and Miller, reporter Saira Shah and another crew member attempted to approach an APC, waving a white flag and shouting in English, to ask if it was safe to leave the area. The Israeli soldiers in the APC fired a warning shot followed by a second shot which killed Miller instantly, hitting him in the front of the neck. The whole sequence of events is captured on video shown in the documentary although the darkness of the night thankfully spares us the gruesome details. Miller and Shah had planned to film Israeli children as well but his death inevitably becomes the focus of the end of the film.
James Miller's family have been rallying ever since to get justice for his murder. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have always claimed that there is insufficient evidence to prove the Israeli soldier guilty and have refused to prosecute him. On April 6th, 2006, the jury at St Pancras Coroner's Court in London returned a verdict of unlawful killing, finding that he had been "murdered". The story has been in the news again this month with UK officials giving Israel a deadline to respond to new evidence proving that Miller was shot by the Israeli soldier.
It's a dark, brutal film as you'd expect from a project that has death as it's central theme but I found it very educational. I have to admit that before working on the project I had known very little about the Israel-Palestine conflict. For several weeks in 2004 I worked closely with Frostbite Films, the production company Miller and Shah set up together, to produce graphics for the film such as maps and photo separation animations of key scenes.
I don't know how many of you like Hip-Hop music these days. I still listen to a bit but it used to be fantastic back around 1988-89. Each album you'd buy would be breaking new ground pushing the genre a little further. And, OK the lyrics were often brutally misogynistic and homophobic and dealt with Afro-American issues in the ghettoes of New York but the music's inherent message was one of self-assurance which will always appeal to teenage ears, no matter where they come from.
By the time my brother Michael and I went to University in Manchester in '95 (he went to the proper one, I went to the Met.) our interest in the music had become more hands-on. We'd saved up and bought some SoundLabs (record turntables) and started writing rhymes. Together with a couple of DJs that we teamed up with we started getting a few gigs around various bars and clubs and not just student establishments. I've got to say it, mainly because nobody else will but three years passed in Manchester and The Moo School were getting pretty good.
When we moved down to London in '98 to find work our music became more of a studio-based sideline and we proceeded to put together three demo CDs in as many years. Magazines such as Sound on Sound, Hip-Hop Connection and The Mix gave us good reviews but there was a distinct lack of label feedback and by 2001, as our careers began to take shape, the music production had come to a standstill.
I'm quite proud of what was produced over those few years. Remember the self-assurance theme?! Plus, as you can see in the photo above, the identical FILA jackets my Dad gave us one Christmas finally came in handy. So no regrets I didn't become the next Derek B (although MC Tunes did buy me a pint once) but the great thing about the interweb, as my Mum calls it, is I can still link our entire catalogue to the outside world where it can be ignored by millions forever! If you like Hip-Hop or Drum' n' Bass, take a listen to The Moo School today.
David Frearson, creative director at Petrol, and yours truly were kept busy in May developing the numerous idents involved in this eye-catching GTV project for Dunning Eley Jones. My work concentrated on the Sports channels which involved animating light streaks to emulate various sporty actions such as a bouncing ball, a crowd doing a Mexican wave, a striker dribbling (see pic. above), a muscle flexing and a boxer throwing punches towards camera. Quite a challenge to say the least but, with a bit of experimentation, we found the light streaks were best created using Trapcode Particular although certain 3D elements also needed to be built using Cinema 4D's fantastic Mograph module.
As reported in DesignWeek on June 14th,
"Broadcasting services provider Gateway Communications has entered the African pay-TV market with GTV, featuring a visual identity by Dunning Eley Jones. The logo was created incorporating the letter G within an orange disc, to represent the African sun. The project included the creation of a corporate identity for GTV and identities for its three new channels: G Prime, G Sports 1 and G Sports 2."
I watched Blood Diamond yesterday. It has sense-pounding action sequences that had my ears ringing from the explosions, some not so great moral moments, an impressive South African accent by Leonardo Di Caprio (I'm no expert - I get South African and Aussie accents mixed up anyway) and, best of all, the DVD extras included a documentary called "Blood on the Stone" for which Mooschool created graphics.
In case you haven't seen the film or just don't know what a blood diamond is, it's a diamond mined in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in order to finance an insurgent, invading army's war efforts. Reports estimated that as much as 20% of total diamond production in the 1990s was being sold for illicit purposes.
"Blood on the Stone" is a film, by Sorious Samura of Insight News TV, which follows the journey of a diamond from the ground to the store to illustrate that, despite the introduction of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, it is still ridiculously easy to shift diamonds illegally out of Africa.
As they have done in the past, Insight News TV came to Mooschool requesting map animations. The maps had to illustrate the path of Samura as he travels around Africa to North America and the UK. Cinema 4D software was used to create a 3D world encapsulated inside a rotating sparkly diamond. This world was composited with multiple layers of high-res satellite imagery to give the appearance of a camera zooming in, through the clouds, close up to the relevant destination.
Mooschool creates motion graphics for all sorts of different media; broadcast TV, commercials, corporate, exhibitions, web and even the McDonald's display in Picadilly Circus. Last week we were able to add a new one to our list after working with Young & Rubicam on a simple, yet eye-catching animation for a Virgin Trains advertising campaign. The animations are to be shown on LCD advertising screens, handled by CBS Outdoor, placed alongside escalators in London underground stations such as Euston and Tottenham Court Road. The animations were created using Photoshop and After Effects, the latter of which Mooschool is beginning to use ever more frequently as there seems to be no upgrade materialising for our, originally preferred, Autodesk Combustion.
Title animations were also provided for a separate Virgin Trains corporate branding film.
OK, so I know every designer and his dog make t-shirts these days but, so what?! It's good honest fun! Check out the Mooschool T-Shirt website at Mootee. The USP of these Tees is that they're all hand-painted which takes ages but means every single one is unique.
Most recently they've been featured in 300% Cotton: More T-Shirt Graphics by Helen Walters. I've also had write-ups in Frankie - a very cool Aussie magazine and Computer Arts which I've actually cancelled my subscription to as it seems a bit lacking in inspiration these days but that's another story. Also noticed my tees popped up on this fairly comprehensive T-Shirt blog called Funky Duds .
Visited New York last week, narrowly missing the current downpours. Had a brilliant few days doing what tourists in NYC do; MoMA, Grand Central Terminal, the view from the top of the Rockefeller Center, Brooklyn Bridge, the Guggenheim, Central Park, Ground Zero, Bloomingdales. Went to see the Knicks get beaten by the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden. Waved a big blue foam hand in the air, ate a nasty weiner hot dog, drank beer and chanted "DE-FENCE," when the scoreboard kindly pointed out that New York were defending. The game itself is a fairly turbid affair but as a novelty spectacle it's fun.
Art-wise, MoMA wins hands down over the Guggenheim which, to be fair, is having massive refurbishment done at the moment but, still, it seemed pretty claustrophobic to me. The Guggenheim has been falling apart ever since the early 60's, soon after it was built, which doesn't imply it's the most successful piece of architecture ever. More impressive is the sheer number of skyscrapers in Manhattan. It's a living guide on how to build vertically, especially in Midtown where the sky doesn't get a look in. The emergency sirens that go off are really eerie as the soundwaves struggle to find their way out, bouncing off one structure after another.
We met up with some friends who've lived over there a couple of years. We usually went for huge brunches downtown around the TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal Street) neighbourhood where we were staying or SoHo (South of Houston). TriBeCa was originally an industrial area dominated with warehouses but has now been revitalised into a fashionable residential district with lots of little boutiques and restaurants. Ghostbusters was filmed there, don't you know.
So anyway, a good time was had by all. Actually experiencing America first-hand made me see some refreshing positives about the place for a change. Speaking of which, I came across this comment by Charlie Brooker in his book "Screen Burn",
"Thank God they currently rule the world with an iron fist, because they do a far better job than we would. Can you imagine how a modern global British empire would function? It'd be like Railtrack with stormtroopers."
I really do hope The Hairy Bikers get a third series, or would that be the fourth? Hmmm, not sure; the first series, which aired back in 2006, somehow became bisected by an Easter break. Still, I am moderately certain that it's one of my favourite jobs to work on having been on-board with the production from the beginning, save for the pilot episode in Portugal. Mooschool has created maps and menu graphics for Si King and Dave Myers' culinary travels in Africa, India, Mexico, Romania, Turkey, Argentina, Belgium, Morocco, Ireland and the Isle of Man! This time, for a Winter special, the Hairies are staying closer to home and exploring the North of England.
