James Goss from E4 got in touch recently and asked for something on theme of internet culture possibly in the style of an old Ladybird book.
Taking the idea and running with it, we (me and Dave of course) turned to the I Spy books of the 70s and combined it with our 50 favourite web memes.
Really hope you enjoy this, as to create this project was a joy.
Doing more songs and animation for JibJab – for this batch we (yes, that’s me and Dave) used claymation.
Stupid Clients
Not the easiest thing to pitch – “Dear client, please buy this song and animatiod. It’s called ‘stupid clients’. It’s not about you.”
The smashing phone thing, I’ve done that too many times.
Background? A pile of CDs.
Snowman
Song written muttering under by breath waiting for a meeting. I probably looked utterly mad – tapping out the rhythm with a pencil on my forehead.
Background? Twigs and tissue paper for snow.
Rotten Christmas
Pleased with the melody on this one – partly written in a waiting room at Wittington Hosptial.
Background? More twigs from the garden.
This little thing likes you
The most throwaway one – maybe the simplicity is charming? Or maybe it’s just RUBBISH.
Background? Out of focus wall.
Happy Birthday Groovy Chick
Has a walking a bassline. Never tried one of those before, ended up so pleased with it I reused it as a cheesy organ part.
Background? Postit notes.
Dave and I in a moment of bordem challenged each other to create celebs from Blu Tack.
Commissioned to make a short animation for Amnesty to promote The Ball is Back, me and Dave have come up with this.
http://www.protectthehuman.com/videos/the-ball-is-back-
Stuff to note:
* Visually – our most ambitious stop-motion to date.
* Produced on the edge of my desk – as the photo should make clearer
* The wooden sets? They’re offcuts from Angus’s shed
* Mostly referencing Indiana Jones, although I confess the Boosh shot is obviously Star Wars
* We flmed this thing 2 times, losing the first version in the Great Hard Disk Crash of 2008
Production photos
We (me and Dave) have been doing a lot of work for JibJab recently – found it quite an education attempting to quickly bash out songs and videos using different styles. It’s certainly improved our chops.
We’re like a Brill Building of novelty song.
Mondays suck
Releasing our inner calypso band. And yes, it does look like Howard from the Halifax ads.
Thank you
Ardman, the Blutack years.
I love you more than…
Video written via visiting Woolworths and looking for props. Aha! Some own-brand post-it notes for less than £1. The original punch-line, “I love you more than Amy Winehouse loves drugs” still amuses me.
Thank God It’s Friday
In my head this is an Emo version of the Friends theme. What I most remember about the video was walking round shops in Camden looking for a cheap diary.
My Master Fancies You
BTW: We also did a ‘fan edit’ of this using Kraftwerk’s The Robot but we can’t stick that online as Kraftwerk aren’t actually the client.
Hurty Blister
Notable for its Windows Vista bashing, born from irritation at Joel Veitch spending £££ on a dell machine that didn’t work properly.
You Rock
One of the few we bought props for. Spent about £7 on cheese. My son likes the messiness of this and shouts “urgh!” when we play it.
Old People’s Cancer
If Roger Waters made birthday cards.
Slash
The most perfunctory birthday greeting possible. Hopefully people get this point rather than think it’s just crap.
Halloween means
If cannibalistic pedophiles are your bag, then this is for you
I’ve been asked to make a game and keep a diary for E4 – first bit launched today. Read it here and see the feedback on b3ta.
Thanks to Joel Veitch for redesigning my diagram into something MUCH ruder.
BTW: Are you a PHP coder who can bash me out a quick script? I need help with this game and will reward you with a mighty b3ta pen. – Have someone to help now, thanks
Hello peeps, here’s a bunch of stuff we did recently. Lovely Dave helped.
Scroll Wheel Cheese – inspecting the crud in my mouse.
48k Celebrity Awards – looking at spectrumy pixel art. BTW: I drew Clive myself – such talent.
Coin Stack Challenge – I’ve got a jar of change, we had a little game to see who’d make the biggest tower. Oooh the thrills!
2 cups 1 bag – a complaint that everyone should use less teabags.
Recently we (that’s me and David Stevenson) were contracted to produce 40 quick websites – I’d love to tell you about them but I have to keep hush at the moment.
Here’s two that we liked so much that we kept back from the project to give to you, dear internet, to give to you.
So here is Internet Fatty Toasted Sandwiches and Who’s Younger.
BTW: I very much recommend attempting to think-up and produce 40 odd websites in two weeks. It certainly clears out the the brain a bit and makes you a bit mad and high.
EDIT: ALL FIXED NOW. WOO HOO!
