Coldplay

Music Video // Coldplay “Strawberry Swing”> We don’t know what’s more astonishing: Chris Martin’s patience or Shynola’s imagination. The Coldplay front man plays a masked avenger on a mission to save a heroine kidnapped by a giant arrow-wielding squirrel. Martin endures all manner of obstacles, from being swallowed by a hybrid Tiger-Fish to dueling with an army of ladies legs with menacing skull heads. It’s a bizarre mythical odyssey for sure, but the jaw-dropping part is that it was shot stop-motion with Shynola drawing the backdrop entirely in chalk. Their canvas? The side of the road.
Label: EMI, London
Director: Shynola (Jason Groves, Christopher Harding, Richard Kenworthy)
Production company: Black Dog Films, London
Producer: Margo Mars
DP: Jonathan Lia
Post-Production: The Moving Picture Company, London

ARG // Tron Legacy> It’s not just sci-fi fans frothing at the mouth at the prospect of Tron Legacy. The Joseph Kosinski-helmed, Daft Punk-scored follow-up to the cult ’80s film had the Boards office all aflutter after 42 Entertainment’s latest ARG gave fans in San Diego a taste of the film. Bloggers were sent to a microsite with a countdown to Comic Con, where attendees were shown footage of Flynn’s Arcade and Space Paranoids. Heading to a San Diego address posted on flynnlives.com, they found a Flynn’s Arcade outfitted with retro arcade games, including a secret back room with a REAL lightcycle. Cue geekboy wet dreams, media frenzy and much more hype and mystery sure to follow as this unfolds.  
Agency/production company: 42 Entertainment, Los Angeles
URL: www.flynnlives.com

TV/FILM // VB “The Regulars”> droga5, Sydney follows up its emotive, winning Raise a Glass campaign for VB with a more lighthearted affair. Matching a smart truth – that pub regulars are a lovable, if eclectic, lot – to the no-brainer, feel-good fun of a big event, the agency created a parade of various groups including Manscapers, Men Punching Above Their Weight and Men Who Won’t Eat Quiche. Glue Society director Gary Freedman keeps the direction and performance as natural as possible, letting the comic stereotypes and the genuine cheer do the heavy lifting.
Agency: droga5, Sydney
Creatives: Cam Blackley, Matty Burton
Agency Producer: Paul Johnston
ProdCO: @radical.media, Sydney
Director: The Glue Society
Producers: Cath Anderson, Karen Bryson
Dp: Danny Ruhlman
Edit: Bernard Garry, Mark Burnett and Zen Rosenthal / The Editors
Sound Design: Nylon
VFX: Fuel

VB "The Regulars"

Music Video // Lily Allen “Fuck You”> Shunning the hyper-glossy aesthetic of many of her pop peers, Lily Allen has shown some pluck as of late, taking surprising chances with her visual direction. For her latest single “Fuck You”, she partners with newly formed French collective AB/CD/CD (Arnaud Boutin, Clément Dozier and Camille Dauteuille). The video, shot in first-person POV, finds Allen strolling through the streets of Paris, while AB/CD/CD’s clever VFX trickery assists her nimble fingers in stretching the body parts of passersby. In other words, she’s quite literally fucking with people.
Record Label: EMI, London
Production Company: Frenzy, Paris
Directors: AB/CD/CD
Editor: Emilie Orsini
Post-Production: Firm Studio

Music Video // U2 “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”> David OReilly’s highly-stylized animation intertwines disparate stories of heartache, loss and reconciliation for U2’s latest single. If the story’s feel-good narrative arc is a little contrived, that’s more than offset by OReilly’s utterly striking and unusual aesthetic. Angular, abstract shapes along with typographical speech elements are incorporated into the action, and slowly shifting, translucent sets place us in coldly beautiful urban alienation. Supersized eyes and simplified cartoonish faces meanwhile convey remarkable subtlety. Sophisticated, inventive animation.  
Label: Interscope, London
Production Company: Colonel Blimp, London
Writer, Director, Editor, Character Design: David OReilly
Art Director, Production Design, Concept art: Jon Klassen
Animation, Rigging: Chris Hutchison, Daniell Brown
Additional animation: Steve White

Integrated // Swedish Armed Forces Recruitment Do You Have What It Takes?> Well, do you? DDB, Stockholm teamed with North Kingdom and director Jesper Kouthoofd to create a campaign that gauges whether Swedes are fit to join the Armed Forces. Judging hand-eye co-ordination, memory and more, DDB’s challenges are tough, while Kouthoofd brings a director’s eye with a creepy, dank-warehouse feel that adds real suspense. North Kingdom worked their digital magic online: full-screen, high-quality video moves seamlessly from scene to scene, games are easily navigable and eerie sound design ups the tension.
Agency: DDB, Stockholm
Web Director: Simon Mogren
Web Producer: Pontus Kindblad
Production Companies: North Kingdom, Jesper Kouthoofd, Broken Doll
Director: Jesper Kouthoofd
DP: Gösta Reiland
Producer: Anna Bergstrom
Post-production and sound: Stopp