Cannes Lions: Senthil Kumar's blog

There was no really long queue outside the palais de festival this time? There was no phenomenal opening act? There was however, some stunning visual drama and some great storytelling and a few new directors who would stand up to the greats like Stanley Kubrick ?
Maybe the most awaited session at the Cannes Lions had lost out to the recession or had everybody forgotten to rise early and rush to get into the main hall ???
But things changed within 5 minutes and suddenly there was a queue being formed and slowly the hall was filled to the brim with great expectations of " WHO'S NEXT "
Was looking forward to something that would better than last year's fantastic opening act by Bob Isherwood and his group of theatrical stuntmen but was disappointed with what followed.
The 2009 show opened with Richard Meyers of Saatchi & Saatchi being attacked by Zombies on Stage. And Richard was literally bitten into, eaten {at least his hand was mutilated } and chewed upon live by Dead Zombies from the debut film of Marc Price, which trailed on to open this year's Showcase :
01: COLIN - Directed by MARC PRICE : ☆*
A short feature film now famous as " The 45 pound movie " is a low budget Zombie Versus Humans, Zombie kill Man Eat flesh and Make more Zombies ( haven't we seen this in many films over the years ?) movie but made with homemade special effects and accidental home recorded sound design like the sounds from fireworks night recorded on tape and used to accentuate the movement of the Zombies like distant gun fire. Mark Price spoke about how he wanted to evoke a genuine emotional response with every scene and about the 2 different camera styles used, a hand held shaky despo style for humans and cameras on tracks and at heights for the Zombies. His attempt was to capture the conflict between two sides of the same coin: Humans and Zombies. Layered with Blood Gore Cannibalism Flesh Eating Orgies and conflict between self and soul. Saw the Trailer but don't think i will ever queue up to watch this one in a theatre. The audience at the Palais clapped but there were many who whistled, meaning we don't like this, can we move on to who's next.
02: BEN STEIGER LEVINE:  ☆☆*
An interesting music video with a fresh treatment of A house full of Bees. We watch a bunch of bees taking shapes of Mr. Bee Man Beast, and the bee filled character starts moon walking and even break dancing around the whole house as the camera shifts from room to room with the singer musician duo are surrounded by flying bees in all the rooms. Song: Don't Mess with the Beast Mr. Hurricane man....
03: CHRISTOPHER HUTSUL:  ☆☆☆*
A wild ass animation film set to a hip and happening Harlem beat. The story of Rodney and Geoffrey who go up the hill to air force one and consult "The Great Shoe ", sheer coincidence but the shoe happens to be the Nike Air :). A novel and sticky way to tell the stories of all the Heroes and Players who used the Nike Air to seek new adventure and win the Great Race of Life. Awesome. A great example of how Nike is embracing the simple art of storytelling that becomes content and invites end users to create their own versions of great Nike stories.

04: ROMAN KAELIM & FLORIAN WITTMAN : ☆☆☆*
An amazing symphony score supports a sporting contest between a brave ant and skateboard. Loaded with 500 fps shots, extreme slow mo captures and extreme close ups alternating with quick cuts and speedy stunts on the skateboard make for a mind blowing sporting contest. The brave ant trips the skateboard that almost kills it earlier on. Sweet revenge. Sweeter Short film. Loved it.

05 LAURIE THINOT : ☆*
Animation film featuring various life cycles and animal graffiti and two men with heads of hen and rooster shifting from one tantric animation space to another. Nothing phenomenal here except maybe for some cool graffiti and characterisation if you like.

06: KOSAI SEKINE : ☆☆☆*
A beautiful Japanese story of a delivery boy who runs The Big Smile Big Break up service. He goes around the city reading letters of "it's over" from one ex lover to another breaking up relationships and getting chased around by the rejected lovers. He even uses the same service to reject his girlfriend and move on before she almost kills him by throwing everything at sight at him. Love is Dangerous. Stay Safe with Adidas Safety Wear.

07: DVEIN : ☆*
Alien Grafitti and Space age organisms and their reactions to heat waves captured using animation and some stunning visual effects by various digital artists from around the world. But did it really move the audience at the Palais. Not sure.

08: ERAN CREEVY : ☆☆*
Between The Eyes: Cops and Junkies open this music video by a blind folded singer because of exposure to radiation. Fresh TC work with a really Nice treatment and an extremely watchable music video. It can even push you to shake a leg on the dance floor but hey is it the most outstanding new music video like Tarsem's debu video for REM ? Do I want to forward to all my friends. Heck. I don't think so. But if you are a band looking for music video, Eran may be a great choice.

09: ANTONIO BALSEIRO : ☆☆☆*
The Human Race animation using post its to make stick man kind of characters that break free from walls and start to run across the city, ending with that famous swoosh formed entirely using multi coloured post its. Basically don't forget the Nike 1o k race, coming up in your city. Fresh and a distinctly sticky treatment. The sound design was also pretty cool but reminded me of some other films that use human voices and burps and sighs and vocal clicks to bring the track alive.
10: AARON DUFFY : ☆☆*
Woollen characters and worms and a man of wool versus a spidey kind of wool character until the man woos the woollen character and they fall in love and everlasting embrace inside a suitcase. Interesting short film and like the fact that the director has explored wool as the medium of this story, which am sure i have not seen before.

11: MEGAFORCE : ☆☆*
A music video for a three member band using mirror reflections and different images in each frame. For NNBS the band. Live Now. Cool but have seen similar treatment in music videos and even some commercials before. The director has worked hard on showing a different style of composing moving images onto moving objects that look like they are part of the background as well. The reflections add certain weirdness to the whole video. But you go watch it for yourself.

12: JAMES FROST: ☆*
Interesting technique using negatives and inverse images and playing with grains and florescent lights and lines. But beyond some stunning visual effects.

13: FEDERICO GARCIA: ☆☆☆*
Beautiful story capturing the insight that most men scream out for their wives or partners when they screw up on some home work or the lights go off or the bathtub overflows or the pant rips whatever unexpected happens to them. A nicely cut montage of all these men calling out their wives' names when something happens and guess what. It's a commercial inviting women to leave their men alone for a while to head to become more beautiful at the ALTO PALERMO store.
14: DANAKIL: ☆☆☆*
Antibodies: A Woman like a fish out of water in this metaphorical music video and guess what, this was the only film that showed some nudity in the Showcase. But this time, shot aesthetically and almost matter of fact storytelling of a nude woman contemplating pregnancy post sex, acupuncture abortion or maybe even suicide in the waiting room of an airport and holding on literally to a fish that's struggling for  life and a floating bubble that's yet another metaphor for something that will burst soon.

15: IRINA DAKEVA & CLEMENT DOZIER : ☆☆*
An interesting animated commercial for Scrabble powered on by a track that sounds like it is from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Not sure if there's a bid idea hidden in this one but it is about pictures becoming words and the power of letters maybe that can shape a beautiful world for children.
16: NICK HOOKER : ☆*
A very different Black and white video of called the man eating machine. Good visual effects but not much more in the video or the song.

17: THE CONSORTIUM : ☆☆☆*
Pain without borders, because for some of us: pain never stops. A stunning animation film that captures the journey of a small child near the war zone or the border, separated by bullets and dead bodies as he walks on in pain. The end reveals two worlds separated by two conveyor belts and in the middle is the war zone. Simply awesome treatment.

18: CORIN HARDY : ☆☆☆*
Paper art set to heavy metal animation. Characters made from cigarette packs and paper in a dance of death and self immolation over fire on the dance floor. Crazy shit but hey you can't stop watching the innovative graphic style but it sorts of fizzles out in the end when you have the expected real guy walks into the room and sees everything burnt out. Expected more ?

19: OREN LAVIE & YUVAL AND MERAV NATHAN : ☆☆*
Music Video with the bed as a frame and all that's happening to the girl who's on the bed throughout. Interesting and seamless transitions but surely we have seen this treatment before.

20: ANDRE MAAT & SUPERELECTRIC : ☆☆☆*
CULT TV or Not TV promos that are pretty whacked out and bang in the MTV promo space. Interesting graphic design on the characters as well.
21: DENNIS LIU : ☆☆☆*
User Generated Music Video treatment using all Mac applications like iTunes photo booth and all Mac stuff out there showcasing the apple iMac world in a really refreshing music video format. One treatment that was true to everyday life and really stood out in the showcase for its simplicity and the connection it makes with the viewer instantly.

22: ZHU JIN JING : ☆☆☆*
The Bruce Lee Viral Videos where he is brought back to life and is alive and playing  nanchaku ping pong and smashing the ball all over with extreme kung fu precision. And next he is lighting up match sticks aging with his nanchaku and kung fu precision. A fantastic way to announce and launch the special edition Nokia N95 in China. One of the watched and downloaded video this year on Youtube. Love the black and white grainy treatment that sets this film in the past while promoting something in the present.

23: KEITH LOUTIT : ☆☆*
Long shots with stop motion of life on the beach makes it visually very fresh and very different, making people and ships and copters mostly like miniatures. We've seen stop motion only up close but this sudden distance actually refreshes the treatment and technique to a whole new level.

24: SIRI : ☆☆☆*
See the world from the eyes of a master. We are taken on journey through various rooms which are actually completely different sets with people working backstage, crew setting up cameras, last minute adjustments and so on from a wild setting outdoor to several completely different settings indoor, from day to night as we move from room to room until we find out that we are watching this whole video through the point of view of Stanley Kubrick. Simply awesome way to announce the Stanley Kubrick season on TV.

That's Who's Next! Check out for yourself some of the NDS films which are now live at http://www.youtube.com/NDS