8-Bit Spirited Away

I posted about ‘8-Bit Cinema’ last summer, when I first came across their amazing videos. But until recently there hadn’t been any 8-bit-style Studio Ghibli videos. Strange really as anything Japanese seems greatly suited to the classic 8-bit style to me! (The Japanese being at the forefront of the 8-bit gaming era in the 1980s.)

The Spirited Away 8-bit video was posted online at the end of April, this year, but, as is the way with me and popular things on the Internet, I have only just seen it. And it is brilliant. It did make me realise, however, that I haven’t watched the actual film for quite some time. I must re-watch it soon…

CineFix presents Spirited Away retold via old-school 8-bit (and a little 16 bit) game tech. No quarters or controllers required! (Just some imagination and magic.) 8-bit a.k.a. the third generation of gaming started in 1983 with the Japanese release of the Nintendo Family Computer and Sega. Can you guess what games inspired our 8-bit version of Spirited Away?

The San Fan

To celebrate the release of Isao Takahata’s Academy Award nominated and ravishingly beautiful new film, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, released in UK cinemas on Friday 20 March, 2015, we’re launching a brand new creative brief and offering a great prize for your efforts. – Little White Lies

I was kindly pointed in the direction of this creative competition by my friend Chrissy (she’d previously asked me a Ghibli related question so it was an appropriate share). I didn’t think I’d have much free time to come up with a suitable design, what with putting the finishing touches to my Japan book design… but I have ended up putting together a fairly simple design today.

The task: to design a Studio Ghibli themed fan (focus of each artwork must be on the amazing female heroines of the Studio Ghibli universe).

My design: The San Fan – inspired by my favourite Ghibli heroine, San, from Princess Mononoke and repeated patterns within Japanese art.

I’m aware that my design is far from groundbreaking and I probably could have produced something far more impressive had I got the time. But it was fun and I’m happy that I have something to enter. I do love Studio Ghibli!

[Hypothetical] Ghibli Land

I saw this in a tweet by Tofugu late on Thursday evening (I’d just finished my book, after reading for around 3 hours prior) so could be forgiven for thinking that I’d dreamed up Ghibli land. Except I hadn’t… someone else had!

This hypothetical Tokyo Ghibli Land illustration is the masterful work of Japanese illustrator Takumi. The thought and effort that has gone into making the perfect Studio Ghibli theme park is beyond impressive. I’ve been to the Studio Ghibli museum in Tokyo, Japan, which is probably about the closest real-life thing to a Ghibli theme park but it’s certainly no where near as impressive as a full-scale Ghibli Land would be – and I don’t even like theme parks!

The structure of the park is based on the circular shape of the original Disney Land: a circular park divided up into many ‘worlds’ along the side and an iconic castle in the middle. However in Takumi’s version Cinderella’s Castle has been replaced by Howl’s Moving Castle. Tomorrowland, Fantasyland and Adventureland have also been seamlessly replaced by attractions modeled after Totoro, Laputa and Naussica. And of course encircling the entire park is a Cat Bus monorail. – Spoon & Tamago

Goodbye Ghibli

Not so long after Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder, director, producer and animator, announced he was retiring from Studio Ghibli, came the unsurprising news that the studio was to cease making movies (at least for the foreseeable future). Obviously it was going to be difficult to continue without Miyazaki anyway, the anime master that he is, but ultimately hand-drawn-animation is an expensive and time-consuming business.

‘Animators the world over have been inspired by Ghibli films; this is Animation Domination High-Def's small tribute to Studio Ghibli. We want to say Thank You. And we hope they don't go away for good.’

A fun, little bit silly but sweet tribute:

Goodbye, Ghibli by Animation Domination High-Def on YouTube

And if you don’t know what Studio Ghibli is or who Hayao Miyazaki is or any of these films:

Tribute to Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli from zeta69 on Vimeo.

The Studio Ghibli museum in Tokyo was one of the highlights of my visit to Japan earlier this year and I, like many others across the world, adore the movies. Lucky for me there are still a few I haven’t seen. Although I love watching my favourites again and again anyway.

8-Bit Cinema

*SPOILER ALERT*

…if you haven’t seen these films. If you have then you may continue to watch, because these are brilliant. There’s plenty of other films, on the 8-Bit Cinema YouTube playlist, as well – some of which I haven’t personally seen.

’zilla

I will get back into proper blogging at some point… soon. I have just been really busy with moving house/town and popping over to Northern Ireland for a mini holiday, as well. Plus, I am generally trying to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts and explore my new home location – Bedford – rather than sitting at my computer!

So anyway, here’s a cool poster of Godzilla by Andy Fielding.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I was recommended, the film, The Grand Budapest Hotel by a few different people – all of whom I trust to have good taste. I hadn’t seen the trailer and I didn’t know anything about the film. I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t seen any Wes Anderson films prior to this one – actually that’s a lie, I have seen Fantastic Mr. Fox which I liked – but if the others are anything like The Grand Budapest Hotel then I don’t doubt that I’d love them too. Anyway, it’s no secret that I am terrible with films – I haven’t seen Mary Poppins.

So anyway, I watched the trailer on Tuesday night – was intrigued – and went to see the film on [orange] Wednesday.

I really, really liked the film. It was fun and quirky and I like how it was filmed… although I couldn’t tell you what I mean by that because I don’t know a thing about film making technicalities. I also felt the way it was put together appealed to me as a graphic designer. Although I couldn’t quite put into words why… Aside from the amazing lettering used for the ‘Part One’, ‘Part Two’ etc. interlude images. (I can’t find images of these or I would be sharing them all.)

It wasn’t until the next day when I read this article on the Creative Review Blog about the graphic design used in the film that I realised just how much that beautiful underlying design had an impact on my opinion of the film. Afterall, I am a graphic designer and that is first and foremost how I view the world.

The LEGO Movie

I went to see The LEGO Movie last night, on it’s release day – which also happened to be Valentine’s Day but that’s really irrelevant because I didn’t go for a date… I have to say it was probably the best animated film I’ve seen in a very, very long time. Just saying it was good is a massive understatement.

The animation was absolutely perfect – it couldn’t have looked any more like a convincing world of Lego even if it was all filmed stop motion with real Lego pieces, which it wasn’t. It was witty, fun, clever and the characters – including known Lego stars such as Batman and Gandalf (although he only had a tiny part) – were great. Plus the storyline was simply wonderful.

“The LEGO Movie follows Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world.” – official movie summary

But what I enjoyed the most is that it really wasn’t just a kids film, if at all. I mean, sure the kids would enjoy it but they wouldn’t get it on the same level as us adults. It was all a bit 1984. Which you should get from the two video clips above.

This review on The London Film Review sums up everything about The LEGO Movie in it’s first paragraph (which I can’t copy and paste to quote here because they’ve done something to the website that prohibits copying text!)

And here’s what Rotton Tomatoes have to say:
“Boasting beautiful animation, a charming voice cast, laugh-a-minute gags, and a surprisingly thoughtful story, The Lego Movie is colorful fun for all ages.”

Finally, this ad break that aired on UK TV last weekend, made entirely of Lego, has been doing the rounds of design blogs this week so you may have already seen it. But I can’t post about The LEGO Movie myself without sharing it too. Who doesn’t appreciate a Lenny Henry Legoman?

Miyazaki masterpiece

c3nmt.deviantart.com

Sinister Santas

The weekend before last I met up with some of my Falmouth friends for a little pre-Christmas/end of the year get together. We did the typical Christmas time things of eating gingerbread, drinking mulled wine and watching a Christmas film (as well as Pitch Perfect, but that’s irrelevant). However, it wasn’t your typical cheery and merry, child-friendly Christmas film…

“In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 metres deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up! This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.” – Rare Exports

Rare Exports is a Finnish [subtitled] film set in Lapland, on the border of Russia – a place as dark and cold as the humour in the film. It made for a far more interesting film than most festive rubbish.

The Santa in the film is a ‘Joulupukki’ or Yule Goat – which might not sound so scary but legends tell of a devil-like creature who terrified children.

“Joulupukki was once a symbol of fertility and more of a frightening figure back then than today. He was clad in thick fur-lined coat turned inside out, wearing a mask and a pair of horns on his head.” – dlc.fi

But Finland isn’t the only country with a more sinister kind of Santa, in fact many countries around the world have their own variations. I read a great little article at the weekend, courtesy of Scroobius Pip on Twitter (as in, he led me to it – he didn’t actually write it).

“Earlier this year I set out to research the history of Father Christmas. I was fascinated by this mythical housebreaker who rewards the good and punishes the naughty. Santa struck me as being an older, gentler Robin Hood and I wanted to discover how and why the fabled gift-giving of St Nicholas had transformed into this magical character with a home at the North Pole and a workshop of elves.

What I discovered instead were stories of strange and terrifying creatures that wandered the winters of medieval Europe. Before Santa, and before Christmas firmly took hold in Europe, the middle of winter was seen as a harsh, sinister time filled with deadly and demonic monsters.” – Paul Hawkins, Naughty or Nice?

On Paul Hawkins’ blog he has been posting a different Bad Santa article everyday as part of an advent calendar, which accompanies the book – Bad Santas: and Other Creepy Christmas Characters. The first two of the illustrations below are featured in the advent calendar (and book) and link to those posts. The others I’ve found elsewhere on the Internet.

The Greek Kallikantzaroi (illustration by Mel Four)

The Dutch Sinterklaas (illustration, again, by Mel Four)

The German (and Austrian, Hungarian, Slovakian, Croatian… etc.) Krampus

The Icelandic Yule Lads

Merry Christmas!

Back to the Future Birthday

I made this birthday card for my favourite Back to the Future fan person. When I say made I mean I drew the letters several times, referencing the BtF logo, then re-drew them once more on the computer and added a gradient. I think I did a fairly good job of making it look like the original logo lettering? It was well received by the birthday boy at least.

This is the most creative thing I've done outside of work for ages. Life is busy. But Christmas is coming.

Screen Actions

“Screen Actions is the extraordinarily talent-rich youth bash that has sprung up beside its parent event, Cornwall Film Festival, and is run in partnership with Falmouth University’s School of Film and Television. This young person’s festival does what all the others try to… it makes a school trip extremely cool.” – Screen Actions, 2013

Having worked with Cornwall Film Festival to produce their branding and promotional materials for 2012 and 2013, I was asked to design a logo and create a visual image (to go on posters and the programme cover) for Screen Actions. I had good fun playing with pictogram-style imagery. There may be more to come…

For some reason the pink won’t show the right colour, despite being saved in RGB. Hmmph.

 

 

The chough is back… again

And this time he’s eating 2013… or holding it in his beak at least. Either way, I’ve designed a poster – in a selection of colours – for this year’s Cornwall Film Festival. Following on from the Call for Entries design I did earlier this year. This year, the festival is taking place in two venues – Redruth and Newquay – visit the Cornwall Film Festival website for more information.

 

The white space at the bottom of the poster is for sponsor logos, by the way.

Hayao Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli

I like films as much as the average person. I’ve even started going to the cinema fairly regularly (Orange Wednesdays, wahoo!). But I’m not the kind of person who knows anything about directors or producers of films, I only just about know the names of the actors. And only sometimes, because chances are I’ve probably not seen all the famous films they’ve been in. I won’t go into all the classic films that I’ve never seen…

I appreciate the title or credits sequences and the film posters, because I’m a graphic designer and that’s what I know how to appreciate. But something I really admire, and have no concept of just how complicated and time-consuming creating it is, is animation. But while I think Pixar is great at what it does, I don’t feel the same love for it as I do towards Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

Earlier in the week it was announced that Hayao Miyazaki – one of the founders, directors, animators and general face of Studio Ghibli – is going to retire from the film business.

“Miyazaki, 72, is one of the most celebrated figures in animated film-making, with iconic movies such as 1997's Princess Mononoke, 2001's Oscar-winning Spirited Away and 2004's Howl's Moving Castle in his canon. With Isao Takahata, he co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985. The company has produced 18 feature films, with several taking the top spot at the Japanese box office for their respective years of release.

Miyazaki, who won a lifetime achievement award from the Venice film festival in 2005, previously retired following the international success of Princess Mononoke, but returned to direct Spirited Away four years later and then stepped in to take charge of Howl's Moving Castle when original director Mamoru Hosoda unexpectedly quit the production. The Wind Rises, his 11th feature-length film, is a fictionalised biography of Jiro Horikoshi, who designed Japanese fighter planes during the second world war.” – the guardian

He will be missed but, of course, he is not the only person who creates the amazing Ghibli films. The studio will continue without him and I’m sure the future films will be just as excellent as all those that have come before.

Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away

Trask Industries

So, I finally got to see The Wolverine last night and it certainly did not disappoint (and not just because Hugh Jackman is the most attractive man in the world).

I’ve been waiting for his Japan storyline to make it to the big screen ever since I read this graphic novel by Frank Miller four or five years ago – although I think the film was set slightly before that. Maybe there’s another book, I haven’t read many comics in the last few years and I’m out of touch. Anyway, it was excellent but this blog post is not going to be about that film…

The next X-Men film, Days of Future Past, isn’t going to be out until next year but posters have already started emerging. Not only that, but a detailed and well-designed fictional website has been created for Trask Industries – the company responsible for building the Sentinels, a robot army designed to destroy all mutants.

“As the world's leading full-spectrum genetic security and containment company, Trask Industries continues to uncover new ways to control the mounting X-gene threat. We are proud to bring decades of experience, along with 118,000 innovative minds as we continue to secure human freedoms in every nation on Earth. Our goal is to solve tomorrow's problems, today.” – Trask Industries

Watch the advert for Trask Industries:

Now I think these posters and the effort put into creating a fictional website are awesome, but a fair comment was made on Creative Review’s post about this: “The big question for me is how can viral campaigns break out of just appealing to the core audience. They are typically adopted by the ‘fan boy' audience who, it could be argued, are going to see the film anyway.” I could disagree, but I am a typical fan boy – or girl, rather – so hey.

I’m also a mutant myself. Or a low-affect one anyway, as I have central heterochromia.

But I don’t have any of these abilities…

Is that… Tyrion?

However these aren’t the only posters/visuals for the new X-Men film to emerge on the internet recently. These amazing images combining the young and old Xavier and Magneto were posted on Entertainment Weekly a few weeks ago. Admittedly, the two Magneto’s faces merge together far better than the Xavier’s – or maybe I just love Magneto – but both pretty cool.

I might buy some more comics, or at least re-read the ones I have. Maybe.

The Wolverine

I am very much looking forward to this.

Here’s a much less handsome Wolverine that I drew over 4 years ago. I actually referenced the graphic novel that part of the new film is based on, by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, in which he is not as good looking as Hugh Jackman. I’ve been looking forward to Wolverine in Japan for years.

Happy Birthday Saul Bass

Today’s Google doodle is celebrating the birthday of Saul Bass, iconic graphic designer of film posters and title sequences, in an excellent animation. I think I speak for most graphic designers in saying that his work is some of my favourite. It is certainly nice to see a graphic designer featured in a Google doodle anyway.

 

Bass died in 1996 but during his 40-year career, he produced film credits, posters, logos and ads for the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese, who praised his talent for creating "an emblematic image, instantly recognisable and immediately tied to the film". – Creative Review

The illustrations featured in the animation are by Matthew Cruickshank who, among other things, has done a few other doodles for Google. Nice!

CFF Call for Entries 2013

Cornwall Film Festival is now taking submissions for 2013, follow this link to find out more. In the meantime, I made a poster calling for entries.

Wolverine. Japan.

Wolverine. Japan. Need I say more?