Each year, the British Council choose a selection of films from the UK to add to the British Council Films Directory. Chin Up can be seen here.

The UK Films Directory is an extensive searchable database of new British films, containing a continuously expanding record of the best UK features, shorts, documentaries, and animations. It’s archive of British films extends back to 1998.

LoveLove Films won MOFILM’s global competition, Many Voices ‘ Year of the woman’ with Chin Up. Chin Up is about one of our animators, JoAnne Salmon, who tells her story of being born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, a rare genetic condition characterised by deformities of the ears, eyes, cheekbones and chin, which causes breathing problems and hearing difficulties. She explains the challenges she has faced throughout her life, and how she has not let them stop her following her dream of becoming an animator.

A still from “Chin Up”

Throughout her childhood, JoAnne loved to draw herself as heroic characters to escape the insecurity and feeling of being different that came with her condition. However, JoAnne never drew her facial features any differently to fit the scene of a heroic warrior or mystical mermaid, she always stayed true to her appearance in her drawings. The documentary touches on poignant milestones that have impacted JoAnne and made her the strong and inspirational woman that she is today. Chin Up highlights on the female empowerment that is giving 2018 the great ‘Year of Woman’ status. JoAnne’s story also fits into the much larger narrative of how attitudes towards women are changing in todays society.

Chin Up was narrated, illustrated and animated by JoAnne, giving a true insight into growing up with a visible disability. JoAnne and the LoveLove Films animation team created the documentary with intricate 2D mixed media using childhood photos mixed in with beautiful and colourful illustrations and animation.

Chin Up was described by Campaign Magazine as an “Uplifting story for rebel creatives.”

Director JoAnne Salmon states: 

“Chin Up is not a documentary about sadness. It’s an animated documentary about facing challenges head on that is full of heart and adventure. This documentary is about keeping your ‘chin up’ and following your dreams in the face of adversity. It has taken 33 years to write it, Chin Up, which is a story about my own life and aims to highlight that anyone can be whatever they want to be, no matter what gender, age, race or ability.”

Georgina Hurcombe, Producer and Founder of LoveLove Films said; “We are honoured to have Chin Up listed in the British Council’s Film Directory and hope that global audiences enjoy JoAnne’s uplifting story. We hope that it acts as a source of inspiration to many.”

Chin Up is about to start it’s festival run in 2019 and we are very excited about sharing this film with a global audience. We hope that this short documentary will touch the hearts of many.

Keep an eye on LoveLove Films blog to see updates to the festival run, and watch the trailer for Chin Up here: https://vimeo.com/286156799

To find out more about Chin Up, click here: https://lovelovefilms.com/blog/chin-up-animated-documentary/

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The comedy show has always kept up with the times, switching from their original cel animation style to digital ink and paint animation in 2004, and now using early access to the latest Adobe technology to animate their characters live on air.

Nearly twenty years ago, the Simpsons joked about live animation in “The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show”, when Homer became a character in the Itchy & Scratchy Show. Homer asks about acting live for a cartoon, to which the reply is “Very few cartoons are broadcast live. It’s a terrible strain on the animators’ wrists”. Yet here they are, animating live on air.

The live segment showed Homer Simpson, voiced by Dan Castellaneta, sitting in a sparse office as he took questions live from the audience. Other fan favourites also made an appearance, such as Lisa Simpson, Mr. Burns and even Bender from  Futurama, another show by the Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening.

After watching the segment, audiences were left wondering how the show’s producers pulled it off, and the answer was relatively simple. The team used Adobe Character Animator, which is a part of Adobe After Effects, to create the three-minute long segment. Homer’s mouth movements were done through realistic lip-synch and keyboard-triggered animations, and the other characters featuring in the segment were all pre-animated.

Adobe Character Animator, which will be installed in the next version of After Effects, will allow animators to bring still images from programmes like Illustrator or Photoshop to life. The software will capture an actor’s performance through a camera, synchronizing the mouth movements to the actor’s speech, and then the animators can control all of the aspects of the character’s movement with the mouse and keyboard.

Cinema Blend believes that this software could represent the future of animation, and that the technology that lies at the core of Adobe’s Character Animator software could change the way in which animation is brought to audiences. Audiences were amazed by the segment, so it’s not difficult to imagine other shows trying the programme out in the future.

The technology is, however, limited- there were only a certain number of lip movements and motions that Homer could make, said executive producer, Al Jean, and if the segment ran for more than three minutes, it would begin to feel repetitive. This technology will certainly advance over the coming years, and animators will likely soon be able to animate whole episodes using features like Adobe’s Character Animator.

Only time will tell whether live animation will become the norm,  or if it is simply a passing fad, but a great response to the Simpsons’ segment certainly indicates good things for the future of Adobe’s technology, and for live animation itself.

Sources: 

Watch the Simpsons Live Segment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM9o6dKpWB0

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/How-Simpsons-Pulled-Off-Homer-Live-Episode-139547.html

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-05-16/the-simpsons-make-animation-history-with-live-episode–and-homer-promises-the-series-will-never-end

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/16/the-simpsons-live-a-remarkable-stunt-that-proves-homer-will-outlive-us-all

http://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/the-simpsons-tv-show-and-adobe-make-live-animation-television-history/

http://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/adobe-character-animator-revealed/

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DMC  joined forces with Disturbed bassist John Moyer and rock front man Myles Kennedy to release a probing new single “Flames,” which addresses the issue between the black community, gun violence and police shootings.

The video’s visuals are very close to the lyrical theme of Flames, which features scenes of police brutality, rioting and violence. The video both states the lyrics onscreen and uses a unique animated world to show the carnage of the song.

This video is the company’s latest production for an American client. LoveLove Films is expanding rapidly into America, having already produced content for a variety of American musicians and companies, including the technology giant Cisco Systems. DMC’s management, who are based in Austin Texas, approached LoveLove Films to produce a video for their artist after recommendations from various people within the US music industry.

On producing Flames for a musical legend, LoveLove Films’ Managing Director Georgina Hurcombe states “I’m incredibly happy with the finished result and it’s great to work on a project with such an important message. DMC is the latest in a long line of high profile clients to come to LoveLove Films. I can’t wait to see which musical giants will come to the company next! ”

With a tight deadline, LoveLove Films decided to create a unique mix of 2D animation and motion graphics animation, giving the overall video an innovative visual quality. It features animated characters  (Watch out for some of the team members!) and fast camera motions through an animated world whilst presenting the lyrics from the song.

DMC has had a long and enduring career; beginning in Queens, New York City in the early 80s when he was the founding member of the genre defining hip hop and rap band Run-DMC. Run-DMC’s many achievements include releasing the first rap albums to reach gold and platinum, becoming the first rap act to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone, and are the first rap band to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Run-DMC were also recently given a lifetime achievement Grammy, the first ever rap act to do so.

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Student Stories is a series of 2D animated videos that follow the lives of real-life students at Bournemouth University, as they share the true reality of how it feels to be a part of the student experience here in Dorset.

LoveLove Films’ Lead Animator and BU Graduate, Sunny Clarke said, “Working on this project has been an incredibly rewarding experience. As a former Bournemouth University student myself, it’s fantastic to think I may have played a part in inspiring others to take that next step into higher education.”

“When BU first approached us about creating these videos, we wanted to do it in a fresh and exciting way; by combining 2D animation and visual effects with aspects of live-action, what we have created is not only fun and informative but also extremely engaging.”

“With the online world packed full of content, it was important we made the videos unique so they stood out from the crowd. By creating a completely original animation style, we were able to harness the power of digital storytelling to help effectively recreate each student’s journey in an original and authentic way.”

“Using a combination of animation and motion graphics gave us much more freedom and scope than a live-action shoot ever could, making the narrative of the videos that little bit more imaginative and interesting.”

“For anyone thinking of applying to Bournemouth University, Student Stories is fantastic tool to have and a definite must-watch!”

The Student Stories videos explore a wide range of issues that can effect students from all backgrounds as they adapt to the structure of university life; everything from what course to choose, to what it’s like living away from home for the first time, right through to the benefits of getting involved with the Student’s Union, as well as helpful first-hand advice on what living in Bournemouth is like for those international students who choose to study here.

One of the pupils featured in the ‘Student Stories’ series is BA Television Production student, Bill Merner. In Bill’s Story, we follow his journey from an A-Level student with a passion for media, right through to his fun-packed days studying Television Production at BU—which included his time spent working as a member of our very own placement scheme here at LoveLove!

We’re extremely proud to be based in Dorset and of all our ties to the fantastic local educational institutions. We hope all those students who choose to study here go on to do great things, and be the star of their own student story!

You can view all three videos below, and on Bournemouth University’s YouTube Channel!

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Along with the advert, the Wear the Rose campaign by O2 has also established an online avatar creator, allowing fans to copy their favourite players. Once created, the avatars can be published on social media, in order to present support to the England Rugby team. Similar to ‘The Sims’, the avatar allows the users to chose from a range of hairstyles, face shapes and features to create a unique character.

This particular animation took over 12 months to produce, includes more than 6,500 hand-drawn and hand-coloured character frames and is the work of 30 animators! The team spent around 18,000 hours on this film, including lead animator, Dominic Carola, known for his work at Disney. The advert sees the players literally grow as their support increases, with its aim for to get us behind the England Rugby team, ready for the 2015 World Cup. England’s captain Chris Robshaw, along with Mike Brown and Courtney Lawes are presented in a variety of situations on their journey of realisation; the power of support can build them into giants.

“And those giants had the ‘determination, passion and pride’ in representing their nation.”
The Mirror

O2 has consistently hit over 1 million views for its adverts, and this one is on track to become one of their biggest hits. Nina Bibby (O2’s marketing director) wants to be seen as the brand that is stimulating the support for England’s Rugby team throughout the World Cup. Their support has not only been through this advert, but through the creation of the hastag #weartherose earlier on this year, their giveaways of shirts and finally their complete rebranding of their stores to include the rose on their signs. They say it feels like a natural celebration of their 20 years together.

The two minute film will be broadcast on Friday during an episode of ‘Gogglebox’, and will then be featured throughout channels such as; BT Sport, E4 and Dave. It will also be shown on cinema’s across England.

“Your support can make the England team bigger and stronger than ever before.”
YouTube Description

Why animation?

There are plenty of reasons why animation is becoming not only hugely popular with advertising, but also a widely effective form of media.

• Animations can combine a mixture of sound, movement and visuals which make it almost impossible to ignore.

• It can make complex situations appear simple, or make learning easier – and more fun!

• It grabs the viewer’s attention from the start, where as other forms of media can take longer for the audience to become invested in the piece.

• It can communicate quickly and efficiently – and can even make the boringest of topics interesting.

• Makes a lasting impression. Some adverts you tend to skim over or forget, but with animation you can create such fun and loveable characters, so the audience tends enjoy and appreciate the work – e.g.The Bear and the Hare.

With animation you can quite literally make the impossible possible. Animation allows you to create a world and environment that isn’t quite possible in reality – and is loved by children and adults alike – showing why it has become a hugely popular form of media.

Please note: we didn’t work on this project at all, we just think it’s a great peice of work! We LoveLove it!

Sources:

http://www.warc.com/Content/News/O2_lines_up_behind_England_rugby_team.content?ID=7fa79a20-c1a8-408f-93c0-42aa07cebbe3

http://www.blinkink.co.uk/d/elliotdear

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/englands-rugby-world-cup-stars-6412320

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/o2s-wear-the-rose-campaign-unveils-animated-tv-ad–1101486

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/o2-rebrands-stores-ahead-rugby-world-cup/1361934

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LoveLove Films are delighted to have produced an animated film for The Potty training Academy

We have recently completed the production of “The Magic Potties”, an informative and educational animated film and DVD, complete with extra features, such as a potty training quiz.

The film was produced for Amanda Jenner, Managing Director of both My Carry Potty and the Potty Training Academy. Amanda is widely known as the UK’s foremost potty training expert and is a Huggies Training ambassador. Since inventing My Carry Potty over 15 years ago and launching into stores worldwide 5 years ago, Amanda has also written a book and is always looking for further inventive ways of teaching important developmental lessons to children.

The film is the culmination of Amanda and LoveLove Films team members working together to create an inventive and original story that would appeal to a wide range of young children who need to embark upon potty training.

‘The Magic Potties’  project has allowed our team of animators to delve into a new animation style and gave them a taste of animating content for children.  Adapting Amanda’s book ‘George & Holly and the Magic Potties’ characters into a 15 minute animation with new and exciting scenes for the younger viewer. Both the book and DVD are tied into Amanda’s potty training programme and are to be used as an educational resource throughout nursery schools and educational centres worldwide and will be available for the public to buy.

Watch this space for updates and more information on the finished animated  film!

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However, the launch of Sky’s AdSmart is set to revolutionize the way in which viewers consume advertising and how businesses interact with their audiences. This innovative platform uses information provided by Sky users, such as postcode, gender & life-stage, and allows brands to target particular advertising campaigns at their target audiences, tailored specifically for them.
This allows the same brand to target neighbouring households, based on the demographic information provided, with different products, despite watching the same television show.

This is great news for businesses and brands, particularly smaller businesses, as it’s a cost effective way to target advertisements locally at a target demographic, yet still keeping in touch with programme genre. Rather than limiting advertising to local radio and Internet services, Sky AdSmart allows smaller businesses televisual airtime, allowing a direct connection to a precise & pertinent target audience within the of 10.5 million active Sky TV subscribers. Sky AdSmart can also be used by larger businesses to target specific viewers, for instance; a new shop launch in a specific location.

A major advantage to Sky AdSmart is there is no wastage with advertisements, meaning that the potential viewer’s Sky Box needs to be on and the viewer needs to be interacting with the Sky Box for the advertisement to be played. Businesses can determine when viewers see the advertisement, and how many times they see it, with Sky AdSmart tracking the campaign performance.

With Sky AdSmart being used by many major companies, such as Tesco, RBS & Audi, it seems like a great landmark in televisual advertising, helping expand the customer base of local businesses and allowing audience’s to access smaller, local brands. With Sky reporting that 25% of the brands signed up for the service are either new to television advertising, or have previously left the market, it seems like a great new juncture in the future of advertising. Here at LoveLove, we’re currently working on a number of Sky AdSmart television advertisements, so feel free to drop us a line on info@lovelovefilms.com or call now on 01202 557858 to see how we can create your new television advert!

For further information watch the Sky AdSmart Case Study Video here: http://www.skymedia.co.uk/Microsites/sky-adsmart-case-study-video.aspx

Sources:

http://corporate.sky.com/media/key_facts_and_figures

http://corporate.sky.com/media/press_releases/2014/sky_adsmart_launch

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The popularity of social media has undoubtedly increased this practice, which means our daily lives are filled by these stories now more than ever. In one-way or another, we are constantly telling stories. The impulse to tell them is universal: whether you are telling your friend about what you did last weekend or maybe recalling something you saw on TV this morning, you are unknowingly already building a narrative.

Think of it like this: your weekend affairs most likely involved a bunch of mundane, boring deeds too, yet to your friend you are probably only narrating the most interesting bits. You crop, edit and, without even realising, you have created a narrative structure devised to keep your friend’s interest and attention by carefully selecting what to leave out and what to keep in.

This happens more often than we think, and even the way we tell these stories varies depending on who’s listening. You probably won’t tell your boss about how crazy your Saturday night was, but instead might tone it down a bit to a more appropriate level. My point is: we are all experienced storytellers to some degree.

The reason we convey information like this is because that is how we help make sense of the world. Storytelling is one of the most fundamental communication methods; it helps maintain interest by both involved and makes social interactions more exciting. This means its engaging and exciting nature makes us more likely to listen and, more importantly, remember what we are being told.

But why is that relevant? Well, if that is our method of choice to transmit information to one another, it only makes sense to make use of it when we want someone to listen to what we have to say.

Marketing experts have made use of this trick endlessly with their advertising campaigns. There are many ways to tell a story, and they all come in different shapes and forms. Some brands use real life stories to accompany their products, which try to portray a message that the brand uses as its motto.

Sainsburys has done this throughout its new Advert campaign, producing an ad that tells an incredible stories which can even manage to bring tears to your eyes.

Of course, not all the stories that appear on adverts are based on historical events, yet they can work as well if they manage to engage the audience. Stella Artois’ videos have a tendency to make you feel like you’re watching a very short film and not a TV advert. They build narratives that engage with the audience as much as films do, even providing a twist at the end of the short in this example:

Now taking it to the other extreme, the Old Spice adverts are a great example of stories that are clearly made up and don’t follow a conventional narrative structure. These adverts break the fourth wall and directly address the viewer, making it more engaging for audiences who have short attention spans and might not be paying much attention to the ad breaks. Its extremely impossible and unrealistic stories manage to keep the audience’s attention due its snappiness and humour.

Seasonally themed viral videos have sprung up extensively. Westjet’s Christmas viral “WestJet Christmas Miracle”, which in 10 days has managed to gain 30 million views around the globe.

The theme of the viral is simple, but highly accessible. Its title teases the viewer, with the promise of an old fashioned Christmas miracle, and the resulting viral does not let down. The content, a documentary of WestJet customers being asked what they want for Christmas by Santa before boarding a plane, and then receiving their wishes after landing, has managed to connect with a worldwide audience by spreading Christmas cheer.

It has at the very least managed to spread WestJet’s name around the world. WestJet have accumulated a significant following. Currently they have 27000 subscribers; something gained over time. To see the positive increase in viewership all that needs to be done is look at their videos over time. Their April Fools video from several years ago “WestJet introduces state of the art money saving feature” has managed 500,000 views. One year later their April Fools video WestJet introduces child free cabins managed to gain almost 1 million viewers. The Christmas miracle has managed 30 million. Their next viral video will almost definitely get viewers in the millions too now their name has been established like never before. And millions is the worst case scenario.

How to take advantage of it? Very simple: embrace it. If you want to stand out during a presentation and want to leave a mark on peoples memories, use storytelling to engage with your audience. Don’t be too formal and saturate people with facts and figures; tell a story people can relate to instead.

Keeping the attention of the audience is crucial; then once you lose it it’s gone forever. In order to make people remember you it is important to spark their curiosity, to build anticipation through compelling narratives that are changing constantly. Don’t give your audience the chance to tune off for even one second. Keep things moving; engage them.

Presentations, important meetings, interviews and especially advertising; these are all parts of professional life to which storytelling can become a great asset.

People nowadays have incredibly short attention spans, which makes attempting to keep their interest one of the toughest jobs out there. By making use of storytelling you can overcome this difficulty and not only reach the audience you want but also keep their most valued and precious attention.

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We looked into previous comedic videos which were interesting visually and lyrically. I wanted to build some visuals that could show our creativity but also had a unique sort of style. We began to pen out some humorous lyrics but wanted to make sure they weren’t too offensive. A lot of ideas were thrown about and we could of sang for a lot longer than the minute we wanted to stick to.

We decided to go for a 2D style which meant trying to keep the animation simplistic looking whilst lending itself to complex movement. As we began to make more assets there was a really nice style coming through and we all began to agree on ideas and how things would animate.

We recorded the song at a recording studio, which was an experience being able to see someone mix the track live whilst we were there. Also, Dominic Ellis, was a fantastic singer to say he only had a short time to make a melody and sing. Though we made a few changes to the lyric content to perfect the rhythm we came out with a ridiculously catchy song.

Now we could begin to make animatics to coincide with the song, we used Illustrator to create the assets, this allowed us to make quick changes and also as vector artwork we could resize the images and still retain quality.

The animation was coming together nicely but we were struggling to decide what to do with the characters in the chorus and how to animate them. Using reference videos helped us perfect at times, so the animations would look natural. We then pieced the whole animation together and it came together perfectly. With a really nice collaboration of animations from a variety of techniques and abilities.

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