This week's hotshot is a frozen moment shot by Motion Blur new signings LIFF for the Converse Gallery online film project.
The spot shows a young Japanese guy with a shocked expression on his face frozen in the midst of falling. As we pan back and round we see that he has tripped over in a room full of trainers and that a pair of Converse are flying out of the window of the high-rise apartment he lives in. A sage, Oriental voice intones about luck and misfortune in the background.
"We got fascinated by ancient proverbs, as we thought they were entertaining but contained little life-lessons from the past, and yet often you don't quite understand what the hell they're meant to teach you. We'd been thinking for a while this would be a great little structure for a film, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity," explains Jack Cole, one half of LIFF.
"We discovered old Japanese proverbs to be by far the most brilliantly absurd, and based our story on two genuine proverbs which are about luck and losing your luck. This lead us to imagining a frozen moment where someone is losing something really important to them, and as the world stands still, they remember a lesson taught to them by their father. The thing that is so important to this character is a vintage pair of Converse allstars," adds co-director Stian Smestad
The brief for the spot was simply Inspired By Converse as apart of the brand's ongoing Converse Gallery project (www.conversegallery.com).
Shot over a day with a high-resolution stills camera, the actors and objects in the film were suspended on wires and stools in a studio. The resulting pics were composited and animated in Flame with extra small elements such as the motes of dust, the skyline and grizzly bear added in the process. All post was done through favours from the good people at Triangle between paying jobs. The voiceover, although it sounds like it was stolen from a samurai film, was actually done by an actor.
Anglo-Scandinavian directing team LIFF signed to Motion Blur this week for Scandinavia and are signed to Independent in the UK for commercials elsewhere. The pair featured on the shots New Directors reel last year and were runners-up in the Young Guns International Advertising Awards. Their film school shorts have featured at the Nike Young Directors Awards, TCM Classic Shorts at the London Film Festival, The Newcomer Awards at Soho Rushes Shorts, onedotzero and the Berlin Film Festival. As well as shooting for Virgin Radio, Lotto, Nidar Doc' Plus and a football short film for Aker/MFK, they lensed shots' brilliantly funny Cannes Issue ident last year.
"We needed young blood in a changing business, and this latest work for Converse shows LIFF are capable of providing just that. We thought they would be perfect for the MB family. After all its all about tilt and zoom and action isn't it?" said Motion Blur executive producer Espen Horn.
To watch the spot, click here: CLICK HERE TO VIEW SPOT
