Killer reels: King and Country

Since its launch in 2006, Santa Monica-based design-driven production company King and Country (K&C) has earned international recognition for breakthrough projects spanning commercials, original promos for major networks, and much more. The innovative production foundry established by directors Rick Gledhill and Efrain Montanez and executive producer Jerry Torgerson elegantly unites A-list talents representing every facet of production and post, delivering impactful films that blend original live-action content, 2D and 3D animation and seamless visual effects into new artforms. Drawing upon its principals’ extraordinary creative capabilities, K&C takes deep pride in directing and producing spectacular projects from concept through completion, collaborating with others to add brilliant end-tags, visual effects and flawless finishing for any and all media platforms, and everything in-between. K&C is featured in the recent SourceEcreative Special Feature entitled “Going Hand-to-Hand with King and Country” and its extensive portfolio of work is viewable online at www.kingandcountry.tv. For further information call Jerry Torgerson at 310.586.0100.

Fired up for FIFA World Cup

Team USA is getting a lot of attention so far in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011. We’re sincerely rooting for a great tournament for all… especially our national players, many of whom we have gotten to know much better through the brand films created and released by Under Armour. The playlist embedded above is a Vimeo Album from U.S. creative production company Shilo and creative think tank WMIG, showcasing their ongoing collaborations with Under Armour and an expanding list of world-class athletes. The newest among more than 20 stunning films currently in the Album feature Lauren Cheney and Heather Mitts of Team USA, which were directed by Nathan Caswell. I find them all to be very inspiring, and I hope you will, too.

Jessye Norman On Summer’s Edge

On the evening of 20 June in New York City, world renowned opera artist Jessye Norman will present On Summer’s Edge, an evening of music and celebration benefiting The Campaign for the Family Resource Center of The Partnership for the Homeless. Beginning at 6:30PM at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Ms. Norman and Sade Baderinwa will co-host performances from Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble and Mingus Dynasty.

Killer Reels: Logan

Logan is a bicoastal U.S. hybrid production company combining the vision of its directorial talent with the multifaceted expertise of its in-house team of content creators, artists, and producers, to create new visual and storytelling experiences. Above, please enjoy my hand-picked selection of some of their work from YouTube. Below you can see their reel on Motionspire. Read more

Memorial Day USA

Please consider making a donation today to The Wounded Warrior Project or your choice cause honoring fallen U.S. military members and their families.

Joshua Frankel’s Plan of the City

“Plan of the City” is an amazing new animated film conceived and directed by Joshua Frankel. Combining live-action footage, animated elements, illustrations and images including public domain photos taken by the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the visually stunning 13-minute film artfully envisions New York City’s unique architectural fixtures blasting off from Earth and resettling on Mars. On the evening of May 6, 2011, at NYC’s Le Poisson Rouge, the film will by presented by New Amsterdam Records featuring a live performance by Chiara Quartet, Matmos and NOW Ensemble, celebrating the releases of their new albums. Tickets and detailed project, performance and artist information is available via Le Poisson Rouge.

Pause Fest 2011 call for creative submissions

Melbourne Australia’s pioneer digital festival Pause Fest is set to showcase the future of technology, art and ideas from 7 through 13 November, 2011. Since the event is being designed to foster sharing, networking and education, creative companies and agencies worldwide are being invited to submit projects for possible display. Read more

Happy F5 everyone!

This Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16, the F5 Festival (a Motionographer.com initiative) will take over New York City’s Roseland Ballroom (239 West 52nd Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue), where the presenters — and attendees — will be among the world’s finest filmmakers, artists and creative industry executives. I regret that I won’t be able to attend, but here are just a few highlights of the affair I’d be front-and-center for if I could (full schedule is here). Read more

TED’s 2011 Ads Worth Spreading

Killer Reels: Meet Buck

“Meet Buck” is an original short film from TeamCerf, a group of Supinfocom graduates. Since debuting online last December, this 4:24 animated short film has been watched more than 600,000 times on TeamCerf’s Vimeo channel and on YouTube, attracting a lot of attention worldwide for these emerging filmmakers. Reportedly created using Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk 3ds Max, eyeon Fusion and Adobe Premiere software, this stylish introductory film was directed by Denis Bouyer, Yann De Preval, Vincent E Sousa and Laurent Monneron, and it features sound design by Julien Begault, and music from Yannis Dumoutiers and Mickaël Védrine. More information is available online at salesmanbuck.com.