Schwepps water bomb fight

The Schwepps water fight might only be a brief advert to show of the bubbly nature and joy of their product but that doesn't make it any less visually exciting. There are a few different versions of this advert but they all have much he same thing in common, they are all shot in breathtakingly slow motion and all centre around the overwhelming joy of the simple water balloon.

One of the best elements of this advert is within the very first shot. Guest at a black tie dinner event in a luxurious looking house are near frozen in time with giant smiles on their faces as they hurl water bombs at one another. The juxtaposition of this simple childhood playground activity so perfectly overlaid with high class serious affair demonstrates one of Schwepps main themes for this ad campaign; we are all still children at heart.

My other favorite element of this video, aside from the visual treat of watching water bombs burst increadiblty slowly, is the way it edited. We open on the formal event with water missiles already in flight. However the gratification of the first balloon bursting is delayed for a few more shots as we see watery ecstasy flying dangerously close to bursting. As the editing builds our expectations to a crescendo the music too ramps up to the moment we have been awaiting, savoring.

The first balloon bursts.

It is followed in kind by a domino effect as water bomb after water bomb sheds it's skin and rains glistening sparkles of crystal clear water onto the joy filled crowds below. This isn't a revolutionary idea from an ad company but it does perfectly portray Schwepps message about having fun and having gorgeous refreshment. Even without the imagination this spot is a joy to watch just for the slow-mo and the memories of long past water fights that come with it.

Enjoy.

Nuit Blanche by Spy Films

Nuit Blanche is a fantastic example of how a simple idea can be perfectly and beautifully realised using a combination of classic cinema and 3D graphic technology. The description of the movie states that “Nuit Blanche explores a fleeting moment between two strangers, revealing their brief connection in a hyper real fantasy.” 

The movie opens on a black and white skyline and a classically styled title shot. The title of the movie leads us to believe that we are some where in France, most likely one of the arrondissment (suburbs) of Paris. As the movie continues the camera pans from the skyline down to street level where we see that it is a wet night in Paris and the classic style of the titles and dress of the pedestrians leads us to believe we are looking at a scene set in a 50’s style era.

The film starts in a fairly normal way, a man whilst walking along the street notices a woman dining alone in a cafe. The are both dressed in the style of the period and the woman is very classically beautiful. As he continues to gaze at her she glances up from her glass of wine and looks back at him. There is a visible connection between them and as the connect across the street time slows to a crawl. Everything becomes more pronounced and breathtaking as the man begins to walk across the street, the water in the gutter leaping up in slow motion around his steps. Across the road the woman stands from her table never breaking her eyes from the man approaching her, her wine glass falls from her hand smashing across the pure white table.

As the man continues to walk towards her a car drives along the road looking like it will collide directly with him. Everything happens so slowly, and the man seems so unwavering that the tension within the audience rises. The woman too walks unyieldingly towards her emotional interest. As she approaches the window of the cafe again the expectation of the audience builds to a crescendo as she draws closer and closer. She gets so close that she closes her eyes and walks straight through the glass without flinching, almost without noticing.

Every part of the clip so far has had a unison between the male and female characters, as one does one thing, the other completes a similar action. This pattern continues as we cut back to the mans action. The car that was worrying us earlier has approached even closer and looks like it will collided with him imminently. It does. However the car spectaclarly crumples around him in a shower of metal and glass. He does react like he has been hit but mostly seems to be unfazed by the car as the woman continues to capture his full attention. 

The figures keep walking, each with a cloud of glass following them as the finally reach one another. They lean in for a kiss as the background begins to spin, eventually coming to rest back on the woman seated in the cafe. A fleeting moment of fantasy. This is one of the most visually spectacular and intriguing videos I have seen in a very long time and it is a joy to watch.

Enjoy.

Overacting Bullets by Barats & Bereta

Speaking of humourous action movies here is a great one. What starts of like a normal action movie quickly turns into spoofing hollywood death sequences.

The idea behind overacting bullets is that depending on the bullets that you load into your gun it will affect the dramaticness of the death of the person that you are shooting at. So after an anti-climactic first kill the overacting bullets come out and things quickly go from bad to funny. As the gun fight continues the humour only ramps up as the ammo supply grows short.

This film really know what it is doing and makes full effect of the increasingly silly deaths. Most action sequences in Hollywood movies will focus on the protagonist heroically fighting of wave after wave of faceless bad guys, with the enemies falling in droves at a distance, the camera still firmly focused on our square jaw hero battling through this grueling experience. Instead overacting bullets has focus predominately on the death of said faceless bad guys and in one particular sequence I enjoyed, simply cuts between multiple deaths, with the sound of gun fire on every cut. This works excellently as a quick fire (excuse the pun) way of showing multiple amusingly over done deaths. So sit back and have a laugh.

Enjoy.

Clock Blockers by Corridor Digital

Clock Blockers is a short action film which demonstrates a single idea much like most of the movies made by Corridor Digital. These video are very similar to the Freddiew videos, like the one I wrote about earlier, and this is because Freddie and his of camera partner Brandon live with Niko and Sam who are Corridor Digital.

The movie plays like some sort of video game, where each character has access to up to four ‘clones’ of them selves. Each of these clones follows a set path and as the film continues you can watch as the paths layer on top of one another and cross over. I think the real reason that this video is so interesting is the complexity of what they are doing. The film is only really about a fairly simple gun fight but the interaction of the multiple clones makes it much more exciting and compelling.

As such the making of this particular video is really interesting to watch. Seeing how they went about constructing the interlinking paths the clones would follow and how they managed to get them selves on screen, running around and interacting with one another up to ten times is a mind baffling ride. Throw a little bit of humour in there and you’ve got a great video.

Enjoy.

Portal: No Escape

Portal: No Escape

Portal: No escape is a short film set in the world of Valve Software’s exciting Portal game that took the gaming world by storm a few years ago and revisited in Portal 2 this year. The film was recently released and is already building quite a following, being compared to Escape from City 17 1&2, short films set in another Valve games universe.

No Escape centers on a woman who wakes in a mysterious cell with no recollection of how she came to be there. Eventually she manages to find the portal gun and make her daring escape. 

Despite the fact that this film is based in the portal universe, a world with a lot of die hard fans, the creators have not felt it necessary to stick to rigidly to the source material. They have clearly done their best to keep things accurate and throw in plenty of game references, however where this was not possible in a real world situation they have done the best they could and created something that works better for the medium. The opposite of this can be seen in the Escape from City 17 films. 

Made by the Purchase brothers these films try and stick to the games canon as rigidly as possible introducing many creatures and characters from the games. While this would be a welcome turn of events to many fans I feel it has not done the movie justice. There are many CG elements within the movie which considering the amateur status of the film makers is done exceptionally well. However it is not quite well enough to escape from the uncanny valley, the term used when something is nearly life like but just enough is wrong with it that our brains don’t like the look of it and reject the image. So much of the City 17 films is CG from the police forces helmets to the alien and zombie menace, even all of the sky and cityscapes have been artificially created. Unfortunately this jogged me so far out of the immersion of the film I was less able to concentrate on what was actually happening in the film.

No escape on the other hand has decide that with its lack of true to game portal gun and security helmets that they would just have to make do with what they can. Sure this means the guards are running around in paintball masks but it allows the viewer to quickly accept this and then focus on the action again. The film is not without it CG elements but the director Dan Trachtenberg and his team have tried to keep them to a minimum or at least of a variety that they could efficiently handle, so that it blends seamlessly with the live action.

The movie has a great pace keeping us questioning what is happening to begin with and then tense and on our toes during the escape. I especially like that the story telling has been completed almost without any dialogue what so ever, instead using on screen action and subtle music to build mood.

The Purchase brothers movies can be found on YouTube, as can a making of feature for No Escape.

Enjoy.