little hands clapping

Here's the short film we've just made for Canongate books to mark the paperback release of 'Little Hands Clapping' - the latest novel by Dan Rhodes. This one minute stop frame short was directed/animated by Chris Gavin.

another sun spot

Another TANDEM broadcast TV commercial that seems to he been released recently without any blog here coverage at all... until now ...
Dan Greaves directed another commercial for SUN dishwasher products (Our third one now). The spot again features our high-end stop-motion animation techniques; yes that's right, it's all real crockery and cutlery inside a real dishwasher. Once again this was filmed in TANDEM's very own basement studio space and clean-up and set extension post production work was performed in-house too.
Sharp-eyed viewers will spot that this is in fact quite a fancy shoot, with a motion control system being used for some of the animation shots and RED One camera used for the live-action product shots.
The commercial was made for broadcast in France for agency Lowe Strateus in co-production with 85bis.

pete's wagon

We somehow forget to mention the Volkswagen idents that we made recently. Director Peter Baynton and his team put together some delightful hand-drawn 2D spots with a refreshingly retro illustration style. A live-action hand sketches the illustrations for the four idents representing classic cartoon strip scenarios. The idents are currently showing on the Discovery Channel and promote VW's range of Caddy commercial vehicles. You can view one of the idents, 'Explorer' here.

simon's cat in 'sticky tape'

A new Simon's Cat film! Over a million views in the first week and counting... Watch as the Internet's favourite feline has an adhesive adventure...

NEWS February 2011

Peter Baynton directed four idents for VW Caddy and the Discovery Channel. The playful idents co-produced with Iris use traditional 2D animation that interacts with Daniel Greaves' hand.

Despite the months of preparation for the all consuming role of the hand in the VW Idents, Daniel Greaves managed to find some spare time to direct the third in a series of adverts for Sun Dishwashing Detergent, co-produced with Lowe Strateus and 85Bis in Paris. The spot is currently airing throughout France.

Simon Tofield, Creative Director on the VW Caddy idents, released a second Simon's Cat book entitled 'Beyond the Fence'. Already the fifth most subscribed UK channel on YouTube, the views of his YouTube channel over Christmas smashed through the 100 million mark and have now surpassed 110 million.

Sun 'Race'
VW Caddy 'Explorer'
Simon's Cat 'Beyond the Fence'

have we got mews for you

Simon Tofield and his inspirational cats have been featured in the Daily Mirror (one of the UK's most popular newspapers). The Mirror has chosen to run Simon's Cat cartoon strips daily, starting today! The Mirror article introducing Simon to the readers can be read here.

Simon Tofield, the Mirror's Poly Hudson and a cat.

Non-UK readers can also enjoy seeing the strips online at the paper's website here.

stuttgart 10

A Happy NEW YEAR to you.
Here's wishing you all good things for 2011.

But first a little glance back to May 2010. While I was at the Stuttgart animation festival I recorded my experiences of the trip using the little Lumix camera I had with me at the time. It wasn't until I had some 'spare' time over the Christmas break that I put together this little montage of the event...

Stuttgart 10 : shortfilm by chrisgavin from Chris Gavin on Vimeo.

NEWS October 2010

On 28 October, Nathan Love unveil a new spot for Kodak. On 1 November, they release another new spot for Oregon Lottery. They've had a very busy summer including commercials for Stridex and NBC, completing series of five idents Baskin Robbins and following up on two previous campaigns with a new Pop Secret based on When Harry Met Sally, and a new Chips Ahoy spot for Draft FCB China.

simon's cat in "cat chat"

There's now a new and appropriately autumnal Simon's Cat film 'Cat Chat'. See this and the other films over on the Simon's Cat YouTube channel.

simon's cat book 2 hits shelves today

The new Simon's Cat book hits bookstores in the UK today! 'Simon's Cat: Beyond The Fence' is the follow-up to last year's Sunday Times bestseller, 'Simon's Cat in His Very Own Book'. Congratulations Simon! Take a look on Amazon UK here

NEWS September 2010

TANDEM has had a very busy summer, packing in jobs for the Royal Mail, Carphone Warehouse, Sun Dishwashing Gel, Swisscom, Betfair, DAP Dog, BBC and Feliway.

Directing collective Nathan Love have been busy in the US of A creating spots for NBC, a campaign for Baskin and Robbins – check out their website.

On 7 October the second Simon's Cat book has its UK release followed soon after by its worldwide release. Simon's Cat merchandise is now available at www.simonscat.com. Simon's eight films have received over 80 million YouTube hits.

On the festival scene, Jon Dunleavy's Film Crash! Bang! Wallow?, Peter Baynton's Save Our Bacon, Daniel Greaves' Speechless and Chris Gavin's TXT Island have continued to wow audiences.

shoot happens

Exciting times at TANDEM. It's good to see our in-house studio space being used again for another TV commercial shoot. It's been a week of intense stop-motion animation shooting and today the RED camera is here to capture some live-action / product shots. Without giving too much away, here's a wee glimpse behind the scenes.

The TANDEM studio space.

D.O.P Pete Ellmore working his D.O.P. magic.

The Red camera is fitted with a pretty special Borescope lens for getting close-up live-action shots of subjects in some pretty tight corners.

NEW simon's cat film is unboxed

Well here it is! Simon Tofield has completed a new Simon's Cat film. This time, everybody's favourite online feline encounters a cardboard box ...

a right pair of soho shorts

Well done to the two TANDEM directors with their films selected for this year's Rushes Soho Shorts Festival. Competing within the 'Animation' programme are 'Crash Bang Wallow' by Jon Dunleavy and 'Save Our Bacon' by Pete Baynton.

The RSSF 2010 Animation programme will show at the ICA and Soho Film Labs in July, details here.

postcard from annecy

Your roving Festival Correspondent has just returned from France after attending the Annecy Animation Festival. This year celebrating its 50th anniversary, the event was a suitably grand and truly international affair.

Over the week of the festival, over two hundred films (shorts and features) were shown in the 'Official Selection' in addition to countless other supporting screenings and conferences etc. Two TANDEM directors had short films at Annecy this year; Jon Dunleavy's 'Crash Bang Wallow' and Chris Gavin's 'TXT ISLAND'.

NEWS May 2010

Crash! Bang! Wallow? by Jon Dunleavy is shortlisted for the "Official online shorts competition at the Cannes Film Festival presented by the National Film Board of Canada and the Short Film Corner." Known as OOSCATCFFPBTNFBOCATSFC for short – it's a competition that requires people to vote. Please click on the link below and vote if so inclined. All votes are welcome. Feel free to pass this link on to anyone who might enjoy the film.

YouTube vote: http://bit.ly/dskErg

Facebook group: http://bit.ly/97hxK9

Congratulations to TANDEM director Simon Tofield whose first book, based on his internet phenomena Simon's Cat, has sold over half a million copies since its release on the 1st October 2009. The book is on sale in 23 countries and his films have now had over 64 million views. The second book will be released on the 1st of October 2010.

crash bang winner

Congratulations to TANDEM director Jon Dunleavy for winning the National Film Board / Cannes Festival online competition. Jon's lastest short film 'Crash Bang Wallow' is the poetic tale of a down at heel Hollywood stuntman. You can view the winning film here.

postcard from stuttgart

The 17th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film has just concluded and your international festival correspondent can happily report that the screenings of Speechless and TXT ISLAND both received a nice response from the festival audience. Both films screened well with appreciative chuckles in all the right places.
The ITFS was packed with great work; lots of inspirational stuff, both in the International Competition and numerous other programmes.

Oh yes, and there was also some fantastic sousaphone-based hip hop...

Simon's Cat Book breaks 1/2 million in Sales

Congratulations to TANDEM director Simon Tofield, whose first book based on his internet phenomena, Simon’s Cat has sold over ½ a million copies since its release on the 1st October, 2009. Due to all the pat's on the back Simon has received because of this good news, he is now working out of his home, with his bruises covered in arnica. To avoid a similar fate on the 1st of October, 2010 when his second book is released, Simon is having an inflatable body suit constructed. The 1st book is on sale in 23 Countries and his films have now had over 64 million views.

rick's thick

TANDEM's very own Rick Bland is back on stage again, this time appearing in his self-penned play 'Thick'. 'Thick' is a black comedy in which we travel with Rudolph, a sweet-natured simpleton, through a bleak but beautiful landscape of chance encounters, deceased realtives and family secrets.

'Thick' will be playing for two nights at the Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington (2nd & 9th May); to be followed by a run at the Brighton Fringe Festival at the Nightingale Theatre (14th-18th May). Further details can be found here.

pete's pigs

Following on from the success of 'Over The Hill', TANDEM director Peter Baynton has just completed work on a new animated short film.

'Save Our Bacon' tells the story of an honest Lincolnshire farmer squeezed by the insatiable supermarket economy and struggling to survive. Dennis hatches a desperate plan to boost his herd and resorts to a spot of DIY genetic modification...

The new film was produced under Channel 4's 4mations Digital Shorts scheme and will receive its festival premiere soon.

in the mag

TANDEM director Chris Gavin (that's me writing in the third person again) wrote a couple of articles for Digital Arts magazine recently. Here's how the spreads turned out...

coming soon on dvd...

Simon's Cat 'TV Dinner' and 'TXT ISLAND' are amongst the many fine short films selected for the upcoming 'Best of British Animation Awards #8' compilation DVD. The disc will be available at specialist retail outlets soon, or check out the BAA website for further details.

sun 'theatre' has european release

Sun 'Theatre' produced by TANDEM for Lowe Strateus (Paris), began airing this week throughout Europe. The spot, for Sun dishwashing tablets, is directed by Daniel Greaves and in it he once again fills inanimate objects to the brim with character. TANDEM director Tobias Fouracre, one of the country’s top stop-motion animators, uses his sublime skills to hilariously bring the cups and plates to life. To see the spot, click here.

taylor james release first UK commercial

TANDEM directors Taylor James have released their first UK TV commercial, for Calor. Produced by TANDEM and co-directed with Yoav Segal, Think Tank combines realistic yet stylized CGI visual effects with 2D animation and has just been released. Though the first UK commercial, it marks Taylor James 3rd commercial in 6 months – After 10 years of honing their skills as a world leader in photographic retouching, their move to Broadcast is the natural progression. To see the spot, click here

baa uk tour continues

The British Animation Awards Public Choice programme continues its extensive UK tour until February 28th. Animation fans might appreciate an overview of the short films on offer provided by Nick Bradshaw on the BFI website. All three of the TANDEM shorts in the programme fare well in his summary; he gives a nice nod to Speechless, TV Dinner and TXT ISLAND.
Read the article here.

Special thanks to Jayne Pilling at the BAA for passing on this link.

cool for cat

Did we mention that Simon Tofield has released a new Simon's Cat film? Here's Snow Business for you to enjoy...

♪ this is the dawning of the page of aquaria ♫

Some of our web graphics / animation work is now on-line at the new website of Aquarium Architecture. As part of the relaunch of the site, Tandem's Chris Gavin was asked to make the 3D animation sequence on the 'Case Studies' page and the map illustrations on the 'Contact' page.

top cat

Simon's Cat is in the Sunday Times Bestseller Top 10 list for the third week running this month!

who wins? you decide ...

At 27 cinemas all around the country throughout February, the film-going public will be asked to vote for their favourite short, promos and ads for the British Animation Awards 'Public Choice' Award.

In amongst the 3 screening programmes BAA have put-together, 3 short films by TANDEM directors will be shown.
See the full list of films and venues and dates of the screenings.


'Speechless'
by Daniel Greaves


'Simon's Cat - TV Dinner'
by Simon Tofield


'TXT ISLAND'
by Chris Gavin