BBC

This was first released a few weeks ago, but better late than never for stuff this good. Here is a BBC commissioned commercial for their Olympic Games coverage set to original music from Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s dramatic remake of the Chinese Legend Journey To The West. As for characters, those of you in the USA may not recognize them but they’re from the cult British TV series Monkey. Named The Journey To The East it shows the animated characters on their quest to “The East” or rather the Olympic stadium.

Damon Albarn, famous for being the creative mastermind behind bands Blur, Gorillaz, The Good The Bad And The Queen and various side-projects, is once again reunited with fellow Gorillaz founder Jamie Hewlett for this 2 minute advertisement. They had both just been involved with a massive stage adaption of the Chinese novel Journey to the West which premiered at the inaugural Manchester International Festival in June of 2007. Called Monkey: Journey To The West, Albarn composed the play’s score, Hewlett designed the costumes, set design and visual concept, and the resulting stage adaption was directed by famous Chinese opera leader Shi-zheng.

RKCR/Y&R was the agency used with Passion Pictures, Red Bee Media and Zombie Flesh Eaters as the production companies (Cara Speller and Deborah Stewart were the Producers). It was directed by Jamie Hewlett.

I couldn’t help posting this - it’s the latest trailer from Red Bee Media to promote a new BBC documentary on Saddam Hussein called “The House of Saddam.” From the chilling Godfather-reminiscent horn solo to the stunning special effects used to melt the characters, I’ve probably watched this a dozen times…

taken from the Finish website:

Focusing on the lives of Saddam’s closest family and an elite few, this intimate portrait into the world of Saddam’s inner circle charts the rise and fall of one of the world’s most terrifying regimes.

The series takes place against the backdrop of the larger tragedy of the Iraqi people, and draws out the story of the Middle East’s relationship with the West.

Working from supplied publicity stills and a small fx shoot for elements Finish’s brief was to bring the pictures to life. Using 2D to morph between stills to add movement and create contra zooms on the family portraits. In 3D we textured a head with the available stills and using maya fluids & maya particles ‘melted’ Saddam & his daughters face, with 2D additional compositing of plates from the fx shoot to give the overall ‘melting’ of the family.

Edel Erickson was the agency producer for Red Bee Media (where Mina Patel is Creative Director). This promo was directed by Wilfred and featured the folks over at Finish as the post-production outfit. It was edited by Alex Lea from Envy. Fi Kilroe was the post-production producer with Jason Watts/Steve Murgatroyd getting credit for the Visual FX. The 3D animation was done by Mark Gregory, Phil Jackson and Paul Wright (Byron Wooffindin was the Flame Assistant).