Hot eggs for breakfast

Three of the team from award-winning production agency Partizan came in to talk to us about their recent animation, live action and viral projects, and give us a peek behind the scenes.

First of all, Henry talked us through the Mr Red campaign for Vodafone, working with Israeli director Eric Learner.












We saw how painstaking it is to get animated characters looking realistic - how you get shadows of characters reflecting in water, interacting with real people, and moving in and out of objects.

Then Pia talked about her work for the recent Cadbury's creme egg campaign with Chris Cairns, who recently won Best New Director at Cannes. The campaign shows Creme Eggs devising and executing ingenious ways to get at their own goo. The finale - hundreds of creme eggs all committing mass suicide - was shot in a non-stop, one take only, 24 hour chunk, where they recreated 200 Creme Eggs (real ones would melt under the lights) and laid each one in a mouse trap. When they launched the chief egg into the crowd of his devout worshippers, the team just had to cross their fingers it would all work. It did. Check it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSMrH5PMXg4

Finally Jordan talked us through some of their recent viral work, like the X-box free runners campaign 'Master Your Environment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9ajMfjjX6I

Q: What have a footballer called Nobby Bottomshuffle, the C word, Mexican Wrestlers and a monkey’s arse got in common?

A: Mark Denton.

What a fine morning it was when Mark Denton - designer, advertising creative, opportunist, fashion designer, eccentric, President of The Creative Circle, I must stop now or this sentence will never end – spoke to a roomful of attentive, croissant munching Republicans. Mark has had a salubrious career to date. It all began when he was a young boy and spotted a comic strip in an Eagle Careers Annual entitled “I Want to be a Commercial Artist!”

So as he grew he drew and drew, and then he designed things, and then he had some ideas for some adverts, then he set up his own advertising agency which became famous and successful, and then he won lots of awards, then he got fired and made some more work, and then he founded his own design agency. And along the way he created work for clients such as Nike, Heineken, Levis and Wrangler. Mark also taught us some of his philosophies:

- He makes sure he only does the work that he wants to.

- He’s pretty sure that every silly idea can be made into something great one day.

- And he reckons the nation is crammed with people who want to do things for you for free. We like his style.

There’s no doubt Mark inspired us all by revealing his inspirations and the method that sprouts from his madness. Great thanks.

Here's the vid, pretty much unedited so it's a long one.....

Mark Denton Agency Republic from Tim Sparke on Vimeo.

Turner Prize: publicity machine or taking Art to the masses?

The Turner Prize (http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/) has been controversial since its start in 1984. So it was a tough gig for our Creative Breakfast speaker Lizzie Carey -Thomas, responsible for coordinating the jury, curating the exhibition and acting as media spokesperson for the prize.

Lizzie gave us a brief history of the infamous art accolade awarded to artists like Howard Hodgkin (1985), Gilbert & George (1986), Anish Kapoor (1991) and Damien Hirst (1995). But it wasn't long until questions started pouring in. The first was about whether a Channel 4 sponsorship trivialised art. No doubt an hour long program watched by a mass audience gives 'the Arts' a massive reach. But who said art was just for those with 'elevated brows'?

Then we discussed the prize entry criteria and the way in which it's judged. Most of us thought that the public should have more of a say on who wins the Turner but Lizzie argued that the judges are professionals who really know an artist's portfolio and how it has developed over time, therefore they should be in a better position to evaluate the work.

And finally we talked about the effect that so much publicity can have on artists. Some of them thrive on being involved in a huge PR machine that lasts for six months whereas others feel totally overpowered by it. Grenville Davey (winner 1992) completely ducked out of the spotlight following all the press exposure he had .

Controversy aside, the Turner Prize has been instrumental in democratising art. It's very common nowadays to see an artist's whole collection sell out in hours and the ever growing popularity of shows like the Frieze Art Fair leaves no doubt where city stockbrokers' bonuses end up.

Here's some highlights....

Turner Prize - Lizzie Carey-Thomas from Tim Sparke on Vimeo.