There’s still room
I’ve saved quite a few films lately. Music videos, ads, short films and motion experiments. Putting them together, I’m struck by how many ideas are still out there.
A cut, a constraint, a way of making image and sound work together… Sometimes a small shift is enough to open up a whole new direction. Looking through this selection makes me feel there are still plenty of creative paths we haven’t explored yet.
And that’s reassuring.
Start with a rule
I like films that begin with a clear rule. Repeat it, vary it, push it far enough, and a whole visual language starts to appear.
shiritori
01 / 04
Sixty clips made over sixty days become one continuous film, each beginning with the final two seconds of the previous one.
Direction, design, animation, music and sound: Hitoshi Morita.
A graphic toy turns stacking shapes into a playground somewhere between 2D and 3D.
Kimathi Flavien.
A network of tiny graphic mechanisms turns synchronised movement into a spectacle in its own right.
Al Boardman.
One hundred and seven films, centred framing and a rush of match cuts reveal connections between shots from entirely different worlds.
Editor: Nikita Didenko · Music: “Continent” by ANBR.
Let the material lead
Sometimes the starting point is a texture, a line or a sound. Paper, collage, drawing and even the noises of a sewing machine can give a film its rhythm and character.
SS#1
01 / 06
A jacket, fabrics and sewing machines become the raw material for a study that seems to stitch the edit together with sound.
CYPHER · Creative direction: John Black · Music: Joris van Grunsven · Animation, edit and sound: Joseph Sims.
A simulation of small shapes is printed on paper before returning to the screen with a whole new physical texture.
Emanuele Kabu · Forge Dynamics simulation in Cavalry · Compositing in After Effects.
Flowers collected, dried and scanned become a little animated herbarium that holds on to the colours of autumn.
Prand · Idea, design and direction: Arina Podgaiskaya · Animation: Islam Chagaev · Music and sound design: Dmitrii Antonenko.
Forty seconds of collage reminding us that culture is built at home just as much as it is in museums.
A Brainchild film, developed over two years of on-and-off experimentation.
Live action meets hand-drawn animation in a winter world of storybook animals and imaginary landscapes.
Director and photographer: Glen Luchford · Animation direction: John Pomeroy · Campaign creative direction: Ferdinando Verderi.
A declaration of love drawn frame by frame by Bill Plympton, with all the presence and personality of his line.
Direction and animation: Bill Plympton · Music: average friends · Editing and compositing: Owen Andrejco · Sound design: Josh Aude.
Give a brand its own world
These films find a world in the brand itself: a bottle that holds its place through time, an artist’s optical language, a landscape, an interface. The idea gives the art direction somewhere to go.
Crown Royal — Always Been Here
01 / 06
A bottle travels through the decades while interiors, celebrations and everyday life transform around it.
Director: Henry Scholfield · Production: Spy Films · CG production: Saga · Compositing: Feather.
Eyewear caught in a collision of colour, light and optical effects drawn from Felipe Pantone’s visual world.
Spot Studio · Direction and art direction: Nicolás Cañellas · Animation: Ezequiel Leiva · Sound design: Facundo Capece.
The contours and patterns of landscapes find their way into textile surfaces and interior spaces.
Direction, art direction and styling: FRAME · For Ege Carpets × Gensler · Renderings and animations made using AI, according to the studio.
A short brand film around Bentayga Fuel, an unexpected meeting between the worlds of Bentley and takeaway coffee.
Joe & The Juice × Bentley · Shared on cinematographer Louis Jablonski’s portfolio; a full crew list is not provided on the video page.
Embedding is disabled for this film. Watch on Framerate
Kinetic type, colour and combined images turn a product demonstration into an invitation to play.
Creative, design, motion and sound: Hook · Client: Google Labs.
The blue screen of death becomes the starting point for a graphic reboot driven by a Jamie xx track.
BUCK · Agency: Isle of Any · Music: Jamie xx.
Change the point of view
A familiar subject can open up when someone changes the angle: running for your head, metal treated with a documentary voice, or AI imagined as a very human production line. That shift is often where the story starts.
Death Metal
01 / 05
A furious tribute to death metal, full of battered collage, wild animation and the sheer pleasure of chaos.
Giant Ant · Sound design: Playdate · Music: Adam Potts.
Eighteen animators bring their different styles to a celebration of running and what it can do for our mental health.
Writer and director: Paul Jordan · Performed by Genesis Elijah · Animators include Hannah Lau Walker, Victor Haegelin, Alex Jenkins and MegaComputeur.
A short film built around a conversation between two artificial intelligences.
Pierre Magnol.
What if there were exhausted humans behind AI, scrambling to answer all our questions? An absurd premise grows into an adventure.
Writing, direction and audio: Brent Bonacorso · Production: Mise Creative · Made with AI tools.
A launch film setting out PATHOS’s ambition to make ads we would choose to watch as entertainment.
PATHOS · Music in part by 2WEI.
A SMALL DETOUR VIA VIMEO
Vimeo has become so frustrating that seeing a Vimeo link now gives me the same instinctive recoil as a Dailymotion link. I sigh before I’ve even clicked.
Thankfully, Framerate.tv is starting to feel like a serious alternative. Giant Ant, BUCK, Brainchild, CYPHER… There’s already plenty worth watching there, and it makes me want to go from one film to the next again.
You can find me there too: my Framerate profile.