Napoleon Creative

Interview at SKF in Sweden

2007-07-10T12:09:00.000+01:00

We're just back from filming at SKF in Sweden. SKF are the leading manufacturer of the ball bearings. It was a long day, given that we had to take the 7am flight to get to Göteborg, but luckily it was just a single interview.

And we got to taste a traditional Swedish prawn sandwich!

S2000 Track Day Shoot

2007-06-30T12:26:00.000+01:00

We spent two days at Prodrive's track near Coventry, filming a track day event for Honda. We had all weathers, it both rained and shined, so the footage looks like it was filmed half in autumn half in summer!

We also got to try out our lastest bit of kit,a really simple clamp that sticks to the windscreen.

Motsem Fashion Show

2007-06-21T12:45:00.000+01:00

We filmed at this fashion show which was part of StokeFest on behalf of Motasem, one of the designers exhibiting at the show. We are cutting together the material to feature on their website.

Daily Mail-o-matic

2007-03-30T00:09:00.000+01:00

qwghlm.co.uk » Daily Mail-o-matic

This is just genius. Every click's a classic and yet painfully real headline.

Virtual Soccer

2007-03-21T22:06:00.000Z

A fantastic new piece of technology, a virtual football pitch.

Animated spam

2007-03-15T10:48:00.000Z

This is one of my favourite animations on the net. The script is taken from those spam e-mails that are filled with chunks of text, which hide a jpg with a share alert on it.

The Brother McLeods have taken the text and turned it into art. Shades of Yellow Submarine and Terry Gilliam, but uniquely sublime.

The Good German

2007-03-14T11:03:00.000Z

I went to see the Good German at the weekend and was thoroughly gripped by it.

Steven Soderbergh shot this as thought it were actually filmed in the 1940s, shooting in black and white, with no radio mikes or fancy grip gear.

It takes a while to sink into the style, because it's a completely different visual style than today. I also found I was missing the odd line here and there, because the dialogue wasn't always crisp.

The story-telling style owes more to theatre than film, with the locations becoming characters in their own right, telling as much about the scars of war as the people living in them. Everyone has a part of themselves they have to sell in order to survive. Cate Blanchette, who channels Garbo/Dietrick/Bergman throughout, is simply, stoically brilliant. And the ending has "Casablanca" stamped all over it.

PS3 vs Wii

2007-03-13T10:55:00.000Z

There's a been a lot of spoofs of the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" video going around, but this just had me HOWLING. Is that bad?

PS3 vs Wii
Uploaded by UrbanX

Arts and Business Awards Night

2007-03-08T12:39:00.000Z

After filming the judging panel last year, tonight was the awards ceremony itself. The Hayward Gallery was heaving and the atmosphere was buzzing.

BBC NEWS | Business | BBC strikes Google-YouTube deal

2007-03-02T23:37:00.000Z

BBC NEWS | Business | BBC strikes Google-YouTube deal

YouTube is being flooded with Channels showing off their wares, you can't click on a single page without seeing a "Lost" catch up, and now the BBC is joining the fray.

Raises some issues with licence fee; some of the BBC content will feature advertising and will be viewable in the UK. So therefore if you're watching via the internet and being exposed to ads surely you don't need to pay a licence fee too?

However, it will surely raise the BBC's exposure outside the UK. Not that it's unknown, it's a well established and respected brand, but more people will be exposed to BBC content through the various clicking throughs on YouTube.

The next big turning point will be when YouTube raises its clip limit above 22 mins, the average length of a half-hour TV show in the states. Then you'll start seeing a whole load of whole episodes becoming available.

Laptop sports

2007-03-02T14:32:00.000Z

It gets to the point in each day where you really should stop staring at your computer screen. However, for those of you who are reluctant to be parted from your laptop, here are some other ways of playing with your computer.

The Passenger

2007-02-28T10:03:00.000Z

Stylish website for Nokia's new handsfree device. Nicely filmed, not overly demanding admittedly, but definitely has a quality to it.

www.the-passenger.com

BlackBerry reversioning

2007-02-16T14:39:00.000Z

Today we shot a new insert for the BlackBerry training video we created last year.

This time, we shot a territory-specific section for the Pakistan market. Ireland is next, with more to follow!

Porn Wars - get your money on HD-DVD

2007-02-15T16:33:00.000Z

This is a clip from Popbitch.com's weekly newsletter about the format war:

"Back in the 80s when there were two
competing video technologies, VHS triumphed
over Betamax largely because Sony, who
owned Betamax, refused to allow their format
to be used by the porn industry. Hence
VHS became the industry standard.

There's a TV format war brewing again -
HD DVDs versus Blu-ray. Sony own Blu-ray
and, guess what, they don't seem to want
porn on this system either, having backed out
of a deal with adult film studio Digital
Playground. HD-DVD is easier to produce
anyway so the porn industry is 100%
behind this format. PS3 uses blu-ray so
there is some hope for Sony but we're still
sticking our money on HD-DVD."

Hoxton Square in the snow

2007-02-09T18:17:00.000Z

It snowed early on Thursday morning, and althoughour MD had seen snow before, he'd never seen it this thick. When he first walked into the Square, he just barked at the whiteness in front of him, wondering what the heck had happened!

Playful Darth Vader

2007-01-29T13:48:00.000Z

This is such a great clip, a brilliant edit of an uneventful scene from Empire Strikes Back.

With just a few repeats and time-reverses, the creator show a surprisingly playful side to Darth Vader we've not seen before. The General knows too well that no matter how his patience is tested he really can't do much about it!

How to make an actor wet himself

2007-01-25T08:54:00.000Z

Someone posted on Shooting People's daily bulletin asking how you could create the effect of someone wetting themselves on cue. Today they got two quite different responses:

"I did this on a film about 6 months ago and it worked beautifully. Basically it was a 500ml empty soft drinks bottle with a tube attached (the tube in question was from a water filled skipping rope, Toys R Us!. With a hole drilled in the cap and the tube tightly fitted, it was placed on the actors back and taped onto him, under his clothes, pointing down. The other end of the tube ran into his trouser pocket with a small stopper in the end. On cue, he reached in his pocket, pulled out the stopper and the water flowed. Movie magic! For the cost of about £5."
From Ricardo Lacombe

" Whatever happened to method acting? Get the actor to drink lots of water, at least a litre or two, about half an hour before the shoot and let nature take its course. It should be water and not other beverages as it passes through the system much quicker. "
From Chris Patmore

While we appreciate the lengths that actors go to to create a moving, believeable performance, we'd go with the former approach.

Fingers are so last year

2007-01-15T12:25:00.000Z

Our indents for Douwe Egbert's sponsorship of Loose Women are about to begin airing today. Tune in 12.30 on ITV 1!

BBC's pic of best ads of the year

2007-01-05T14:28:00.000Z

The BBC has published its pick of the best ads of the year, with some interesting analysis.

Loose thumbs

2007-01-05T08:51:00.000Z

We've been commissioned by Douwe Egberts and their creative agency Strawberry Frog to create a series of idents for ITV's Loose Women. Today was the first shooting day, here are some pics of us on set... or rather under it

Happy Birthday To Us!

2007-01-01T10:00:00.000Z

Today is Napoleon Creative's first birthday.

Formally started on 1 January 2006, we have gone from strength to strength, with a lot of help from some great clients like Honda and Douwe Egberts.

Let's hope we continue to do as well this year as we did last!

Lottery Webchannel

2006-11-29T04:59:00.000Z

Looking through cyberspace, I came across a facinating site. On the surface, it's just a pyramid lottery subscription service.

What's interesting is the way the website is being promoted. The key compentent of the site is video. There's a lengthy infomerical-style broadcast on the site, high production value, good encoding, well put together. You rarely see that level of investment on a website.

To have broadcast this through Sky would have cost £100,000 just to get started, let alone the annual bandwidth costs. It's another example of how I believe certain sectors will, within a few years, abandon TV broadcast altogether. There's just too much competition out there for schedule space, where as they can broadcast world-wide for a fraction of the start up costs. And add to that video-on-demand and you're surely on to a winner.

A&B Events judging panel

2006-11-28T17:57:00.000Z

We recently filmed the judges selecting winners of the Arts & Business awards. It was fascinating hearing the wranglings behind the selection of each winner, which in some cases was a very close call.

After than, we filmed the chair of each judging panel explaining what made the winner stand out.

And although we know who won, we're sworn to secrecy! The awards event takes place in March 07. This footage will be used on both the awards night, and then posted on A&B's website for people to watch again.

TV as we know it in critical condition?

2006-11-28T11:51:00.000Z

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Online video 'eroding TV viewing'

Well, this on one hand startling, on another entirely predicatable. If you think about the shifts that are made in viewing habits, they simply take time. The young are embracing this, and I'd imagine for the young 16-24 year olds it's free, it's their parents or college or university that pay the broadband bill.

If you think about DVD, it was something you had to invest in, in terms of purchasing the software and hardware. Plus the player was in the front room, so young adults were restricted in what they could watch when.

If you look at the way DVD has envigorated the collectability and viewing of content, the TV via the internet will simply go the same route. Rather than a collection of physical DVDs, we'll soon end up collecting playlists and favourites on youtube, which at the momemnt is free.

In commerical terms, there's never been a better time as a small company to get an ad campaign; don't bother with traditional tv, go and shoot a low-budget but catching ad, then stick it on youtube. And how do you distribute it? Just add a link on your e-mail signature.

As with all new ideas, you have to be quick off the mark; youtube is fantastic but there's now SO much media being put up that it's almost impossible to find, and even with tags it can be difficult to find what you want. Ultimately, you have to push your clips out there, not just sit back and hope people will click on you.

BA's AVOD system

2006-11-20T10:03:00.000Z

I've just come back from the States and enjoyed BA's new AVOD system while flying.

With the Audio and Video On Demand System, the small TV screen in front of your seat is touch senstive and you press it to work your way through the available options.

Rather than a series of rolling channels, you get to choose what you want to watch, when you want to watch it. And most importantly, pause it when you want to sleep or stretch your legs.

I started watching Lady In The Water but this being a supernatural thriller mainly set in darkness, it was hard to really get into on a 5" screen, so I gave up and tried Pirates of the Carribean instead. This was a much more watchable, both in terms of entertainment and suitability to the small screen.

Also available are CDs, TV programmes and BA inflight information videos.

Doubtless this AVOD system will roll out across BA's fleet, and I'm sure there must be a saving to be made here. There will be all kinds of data captured about the kinds of things people like to watch inflight. Also, this data might be used for billing purposes; ie rather than buy a licence to screen Lady In The Water regardless of how many people actually watch it, the costs may be linked to how many times its actually requested from the AVOD system.