design by daniels

Dave has just posted a microsite to contain his non-animated work, including design material that led to his animated productions for Honda, Led Zeppelin and NatWest.  Click here for inspiration.

the cat comes back

Big news! The third (and much-anticipated) episode of Simon's Cat hit YouTube last night. The internet release was timed to follow the UK television premiere on BBC2's Culture Show.

For anyone who missed The Culture Show, Simon's Cat 'TV Dinner' will be shown again during tomorrow's edition of The Culture Show Uncut (Thursday 17th July at 11.20pm! on BBC2). The screening will be accompanied by an interview with the director himself; TANDEM's very own Simon Tofield.

learn about learn direct

The Learn Direct team have posted this up to YouTube. It's a 'making-of' video showing TANDEM at work on the recently completed TV commercials.

cannes do

Greetings from Cannes, at the Lions Advertising Festival!
As a yearly tradition, Mike, Lynn, Dave and me went to wave the TANDEM flag during this holi.... erm, work excursion. As usual our days were filled with hard work at several parties on the beach and in the hills.
But this time, we felt like giving as well ... so bring forward TANDEM's mini-party at the Miramar beach. It was a popular and relaxed affair with a strictly 'no business card' policy. The only networking that happened was agency and production company mutually agreeing on the quality of the rosé wine, whilst discovering that the sea wasn't only to stare at.
So if you want to dip in the water with us next year, pre-book your tickets now! ;)

cultured

TANDEM got a mention on BBC2's Culture Show (Episode 2 last week). Ignacio Ferreras' short film 'How to Cope With Death' was shown as part of their new Friday animation spot. The folks at The Culture Show intend to programme more animation short films over the coming weeks, good for them!

dave direct

Dave Daniels has just completed three 30-second commercials for Learn Direct through Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R.  Taking their cue from the clarity of the campaign's message offering professional skills training, the commercials mix stop-frame and graphics techniques with a clean, uncluttered look and a gently comical lightness of touch.  The commercials were animated by resident stop-frame maestro Tobias Fouracre.  Click here to view 'Des', 'Jane' and 'Paul'.

strings attached

Following his work on Paddington for Marmite, TANDEM director Tobias Fouracre has brought another childhood TV favourite back to life for a major campaign, this time featuring the Thunderbirds in the latest spot for Specsavers.  

The commercial sees marionette hero Virgil Tracy being chased by The Evil Hood through perilous mountain peaks - but only one of them is equipped with Specsavers Reaction lenses.  

The commercial was shot using techniques exactly as per the Gerry Anderson 1960s production - including an in-camera explosion on-set - and we even got to work with one of the puppeteers from the original series.  F.A.B., as they say.  

Click here to view Specsavers 'Thunderbirds'.

petrol heads

Tobias Fouracre has just shot this ten second stop motion spot to promote the Guardian newspaper's Formula One racing guide for agency Wieden+Kennedy.

Representing the four British drivers in competition for the F1 title, the patriotic crash helmets treat us to a high-octane rendition of our national anthem.

Click here to see Guardian 'Helmets'.

and the winners are...

Great to see two TANDEM directors pick-up their British Animation Awards (BAAs) at last night's ceremony. Simon Tofield won 'Best Comedy' for Simon's Cat 'Cat Man Do', and Jon Dunleavy's film 'The Technical Hitch' won 'Best Character Voice Performance' for Robert Lindsay's narration.


Simon Tofield, the cat that got the cream.


Jon Dunleavy with TV funnyman Joe Pasquale.

simon's famous cat

We've just launched our new YouTube channel to feature the ongoing series of 'Simon's Cat' films from Simon Tofield.  The first film, 'Cat Man Do' (aka 'Wake Up Cat'), has now had approximately 5m downloads on only two of  the many postings, not to mention the dozens of other links all over the web, so it felt right to give the second film, 'Let Me In!', a proper home. Here's where to view, subscribe and comment: www.youtube.com/simonscat Could the second film be even funnier than the first?  Discuss!

congratulations suzie!

A massive congratulations from all at TANDEM to our friend Suzie Templeton, on her Oscar win for the beautiful 30-minute film 'Peter and the Wolf' in the Animated Short category.        

sweet

Tobias has just completed a stop-frame animated film for the landing page of the Tate & Lyle website, telling the story of the brand's Fairtrade sugar production using a mix of cut-out drawings and models. 

Here's a link to the site: http://www.tasteandsmile-fairtrade.co.uk

tokyo niff

Best wishes to our friend and Japanese agent Hide Ishibashi, as he launches the first ever Northern Ireland Film Festival in Japan. Dave Daniels and Jules Maxwell contributed a 'remixed' version of our film Colour Keys as the opening to each of the screenings. Visit www.niff.jp for details.

calpol

TANDEM director Jeroen Jaspaert has completed a new spot for Calpol. It demonstrates yet another side of Mr Jaspaert's diverse talents, with a richly rendered 'storybook' feel to convey the gentle reassurance associated with the brand. Also, speaking personally as a parent of young children, this is an example of our studio advertising a product I truly endorse! ;) Click here to view Calpol 'Dreams'.

that cat again

Simon Tofield's short film 'Cat Man Do' has been nominated in the 'Best Comedy' category at the upcoming British Animation Awards. Congratulations, Simon - again!! If you've somehow managed to avoid the 7 million downloads (and counting!) on YouTube, as well as the dozens of other links created over the last couple of months, take a look here!!

never felt better

A very Happy New Year to all and first, an apology - it's been an extremely busy period and therefore thin on the postings! TANDEM has completed several new commercial productions in the run up to Christmas and through January, including work for Calpol, Carphone Warehouse, Yoplait, Payback and a new brand campaign for Anchor butter which was directed by Daniel Greaves and Tobias Fouracre. All five commerials in the Anchor campaign were created in fuzzy felt, reflecting the brand's hands-on credentials (an additional apology for another bad pun in this posting's title).

dave joins led zep

We're excited to finally announce that TANDEM director Dave Daniels created the animated projections for the most talked-about rock concert of the year, the Led Zeppelin reunion (for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund) at the O2 arena, London, on Monday. Commissioned by Mark Norton at ThinkFarm, Dave was responsible for depicting fifteen songs in the band's critically acclaimed set, including Black Dog, Ramble On and The Song Remains The Same, with each of his films displayed on a 35 metre screen.

santa claus is coming to town... on a bicycle!

Christmas came early this year for TANDEM. We've been such good boys and girls that Santa visited us early and found the time to star in our new Halfords TV commercial.

Perhaps Mrs Claus had a word about the beer belly, because in the commercial Santa gives his reindeer a well-earned break and makes his deliveries on bicycle! Look out for it on TV in the run up to Christmas.

dave joins people's revolutionary choir

TANDEM director Dave Daniels has directed the promo for PRC's new single, Do You Feel Like I Do. Take a look here

the cat's gone viral!

TANDEM director Simon Tofield's short film Cat Man Do is now officially a web phenomenon, having clocked-up almost one million hits on just one of its numerous YouTube postings.

The scenario of a persistent moggy pestering its dormant owner is based on the director's own observations of feline behaviour.

Click here to see the film.

how to make marmite

Click here to see our DDB clients Mike and Rob, in the TANDEM studio, as they talk through the making of a controversial tv commercial featuring a small bear and an even smaller Marmite squeezy.

trapped released

New from directors Chris Gavin and Nick Losse, the title sequence for CBBC's new show 'Trapped' which airs today at 5pm on BBC One. A high-drama, layered 'theatre set' feel made possible by the combination of the two directors' strengths in design and compositing... click here to view.

bear, what have you there?!

We're staggered by the vast amount of media exposure generated by our 'Paddington' commercials for Marmite. Just google 'Marmite Paddington' and you'll get the picture. No further comment, thank you... ;)

paddington bear in 'i like marmite' shock

Paddington Bear, the world's most famous Peruvian was our honoured guest over the summer. Paddington stars in our
latest animated production, four TV commercials for Marmite. Crafted
in our Islington studio, the commercials follow Paddington - a lifelong devotee of marmalade - as he tries
something a bit different...
Click here to view the spot.

big (screen) in japan

We've completed our first advertising work for Japan in some time (thanks to the multi-talented Hide at SIB). It's a 15-second spot for Coca Cola's 'Patissiolle' through Dentsu, directed by Jeroen Jaspaert. The spot has been under wraps for a while but you can now click here to see the final film and here to see footage of it showing on a big screen in downtown Tokyo.

cannes do

Mike Bell and I went to fly the TANDEM flag (not pictured) at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes. We had an amazing time, meeting nice people from different parts of the advertising world. Everyone seemed to be be in the best of moods, not surprising when you saw this great location. Most of the action happened around the 'Croisette' beach, although among the highlights for us was the Straight8 screening, organised by our friends at Rushes who were also excellent hosts throughout. And congratulations again to the Fireflies cyclists who raised an amazing amount for Leuka.org, through levels of physical exertion not traditionally associated with the Festival!

we're gonna need a bigger fruit bowl

Finally it's done. After an extended planning period, a location shoot in New Zealand with a 50-strong crew and 8 weeks in post-production, approximately 15 billion berries have made it into 'Migration', Daniel Greaves' new work for Ribena. One 40-second and three 10-second commercials will be on-air from 28th May and the 40 will be in cinemas from 15th June. Phew. Visit www.tandemfilms.com/migration to view.

ident parade

We've also just completed this series of thirteen sponsorship idents for Focus (the UK D.I.Y. retailer). The idents were produced for agency Gratterpalm and will air throughout this year on UKTV Style channel. The ten-seconders depict various home and garden scenarios; the animation was achieved through mixed-use of CGI and StopFrame techniques.

you'retheonethati...splat

In advance of our upcoming major work for Ribena, we've completed these idents for M&C Saatchi, to appear within ITV1's 'Grease Is The Word' series. Please note that several blackcurrants were gratuitously harmed in the making of these films. Click here to go to the movies.

guardian: how did they do that?

Fans of time-lapse films, making-of films and stop-motion films might like to see this time-lapse making-of a stop-motion film film
here...

daniels on your ipod

TANDEM director Dave Daniels (Honda) has been busy building a site devoted to podcasts of his personal short film work. Take a look and subscribe for updates here

kinder: how did they do that?

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look at Jeroen Jaspaert shooting celebrity Collien Fernandes for Kinder Bueno (see previous post). Includes footage of Jeroen and his team sustaining themselves with Germany's favourite chocolate snack.

good things come in 3s

Within the last two weeks we have completed three new animated campaign productions:

Weight Watchers 'Gorgeous', directed by Daniel Greaves - 2D drawn animation;

Coco Pops 'Cupboard', directed by Tony Mines - stop-frame and CG;

Kinder Bueno 'The Dream', directed by Jeroen Jaspaert and designed by Simona Ciraolo - 2D rendered, CG animation and live action combined.

See all three here

crafty guardian spot

Another Tandem mini epic... From a storyboard by Daniel Greaves and the hands of stop-motion animation guru Tobias Fouracre comes 'Tool Run' a ten second TV commercial for the Guardian. The ad was produced for agency Wieden+Kennedy to promote the newspaper's upcoming craft supplement.
It's a classy piece of work. Tandem's team pulled together to complete the animation and post work all in-house and in record time too...
See the finished movie here!

delay in transmission

We like to regularly post blogs apologising for the irregularity of our blogging; this is one of those. Our excuse? It has been extremely busy here, with several productions delivering in the coming week including commercials for Kellogg's, Kinder Bueno and The Guardian. All of these will be online soon (we promise). Further to that, we're about to get started on a top-secret, top-notch project shooting on the other side of the world. So please keep bearing with us as we continue to live up to the word 'random'...

isn't this what having a blog is for?

Scenes from the TANDEM xmas party 2006...

fairy xmas

The last week before Christmas...... perfect timing to post our little Fairy job.
It's a 20 second commercial produced for London agency Grey, currently running on TV.
So if you need a dose of instant festive spirit, keep your eyes open for this one.

shots shows jon

Last night we went along to the SHOTS 'Evolutions' night which is a regular showcase for new directing talent. Jon Dunleavy's film The Technical Hitch was first to be shown and went down extremely well, scoring high on the laughometer. Thanks to everyone at SHOTS for the support. Here's where you can see the film: www.tandemfilms.com/jondunleavy

a 'timevine', if you will...

Dave Daniels has just finished directing the animation for a new spot for Radox, through agency WCRS. The agency was looking for an animated solution that would show the many herb flavours of the product while linking various live action testimonials. Dave came up with the concept of a 'timevine' travelling from left to right, continually growing and framing the live shots. Dodgy pun, great idea...

orange for christmas

London agency Wieden+Kennedy commissioned Tandem to produce a commercial for Orange in Romania, promoting SHARE airtime. The thirty second spot was directed by Tandem's Daniel Greaves who took a typically innovative approach to the production. Promoting the thought that you get more conversation for less, the spot shows two small paper cones which emit numerous paper cut-out symbols in synch with a distorted, semi-abstract two-way conversation. This meant animating around one hundred icons in 3D (in record time, I should say). Click here to view the spot or, if you're in Romania, see it on air...

encounters of the TANDEM kind

2 films by Tandem represented directors will appear at next week's 12th International Encounters Short Film Festival in Bristol.

Jonathan Dunleavy's The Technical Hitch (pictured above) will show in the UK Film Council’s Digital Generation Screening on Friday 24th November.

And... (as previously blogged here) Evo will show in the Best of British #1 Screening on Tuesday 21st November.

More details of these and other screenings can be found at the Encounters website.

evo in shameless vote grabbing bid!

In a shameless bid to win cash prizes, I'm asking Tandem blog readers to boost the ratings for the short film Evo over at www.aniBOOM.com. It's a kind of all-comers online animation competition (there are plenty of other short films to see there too!)

the thinker

Director Chris Gavin ponders a particularly tricky pitch.

Quick update before it all gets rather busy. We've got a whole bunch of stuff going on here, many exciting projects ranging from full-on stop-motion in the downstairs studio, to full-on CG upstairs. Tandem is a blur of set construction and render testing at the moment, but i'm sure we'll find time for a spot of blogging to keep you posted.

Heads down see you at Christmas!

Evo goes west

The short film Evo is to get another cinema outing as part of the Encounters Short Film Festival. The 'Best of British 1' programme is to screen at the Watershed in Bristol on Tuesday 21st November (6:15pm) and Thursday 23rd November (11:30am).
Find out more at the Encounters Festival website.

Mr Beaky

More animation for Amnesty International's SECRET POLICEMAN'S BALL!
We created 8 'Mr Beaky' animations, to be shown on the event itself and on Channel 4 the week after.
Mr Beaky is a lizard bird god, designed by James Jarvis.
He'll be the mascotte of the evening, appearing on screen to introduce the comedy sketches. Don't expect a lot of goodwill from his account though. He is easily bored and doesn't care if his tapdance routine will go down a storm.

Amnesty's monkeys

We've just finished a 2 min. shortfilm for Amnesty International's forthcoming SECRET POLICEMAN'S BALL. It stars the See No-, Hear No- and Speak No Evil monkeys in a James Bond style storyline. (obviously we wanted to call it 'Monkeypussy' but strangely enough that idea got scrapped) Jo Brand did the voice and the script was written by Robin Ince.
It's the first time Tandem's directors Nick and Jeroen collaborated and thanks to some technical wizardry from Chris Gavin and Mike Cook, the film was finished in record time we're all really happy with the result.
The Secret Policeman's Ball will be held at The Royal Albert Hall on october the 14th. As far as we know, tickets have been sold all ready. But don't despair, Channel 4 will broadcast the event a week later on october the 22nd.

Benny and Boil in the Pyrenees

We are at the CARTOON Forum in France this week, presenting our children's series concept Benny and Boil to broadcasters and distributors from all over Europe. Our presentation was yesterday and it went extremely well, with around 130 people attending. This is where the hard work really starts, however, as we pull together the various elements in order to fund the project. A really strong start though.

TANDEM Animation on DVD

If you are interested in UK animation, or just animation generally then you might want to invest in the British Animation Awards DVDs. There are six volumes spanning 1996-2006, as well as two volumes of British Animation Classsics.

If it is TANDEM's animation in particular that you wish to view they can be found on:

British Animation Classics Vol.2 - Manipulation, Daniel Greaves
British Animation Awards Vol.2 - Flatworld, Daniel Greaves
British Animation Awards Vol.4 - Rockin' & Rollin', Richard Jack and Daniel Greaves
British Animation Awards Vol.5 - Little Things, Daniel Greaves

For more information you can visit the website www.britishanimationawards.com.

Get meshed

The Channel Four Mesh scheme offers development and production funding to four animation directors every year. The deadline for those 3 minute film proposals is 22/09/06, so less than a week to go.