We typically shout about how proud we are of our client work BUT today we have a hugely exciting exception.

Drumroll please………

The latest self-funded, self-produced project from Joseph Fellows of Make Productions and regular freelance GFX creator at Plastic Pictures, has just won The Guardian Film Award for Best London Travel Documentary Film, with his film ‘Primrose Hill’.

Proving that Joe is truly versatile, this stunning portrayal of a lone runner who journeys through his neighborhood early in the morning, has not only won him a commission to produce a second film for The Guardian Travel website but also a fresh barrage of mainstream attention!

This immaculate piece of work features the North London Borough at its most serene, capturing a side of London that can only exist when most of the city is sleeping.

“I was up at 5:30am three weekend on the trot so I could capture the sunrise over London.”

The film was made to enter the This London short documentary film competition in association with The Smalls and The Guardian. The brief was to create a provocative film reflecting what London means to you. From personal tales to abstract expressions, the entries came in many different shapes and sizes.

Joe’s original portrayal of a lone runner has the real sense of owning the streets and the whole city from the view from Primrose Hill.

From all of us here at Plastic, well done! We can’t wait to see what you come up with next.

Click here to watch PRIMROSE HILL.

Shot on a Canon 7D with Tokina 11-16mm and Tamron 17-55mm lenses. Smooth tracking shots achieved using merlin steadicam whilst riding a longboard.

“The longboard I rode had special wheels (75mm 78A), which means they are big and soft. This was important because I needed to safely ride over cracks and small stones.

Credits:

Written, Directed, Filmed & Edited by Joseph Fellows, Make Productions

Running man & Co-Editor Zoran Nacev

Voice of Don Campbell

Music “Lea Navigation” by Saint Etienne (Catt/Stanley/Wiggs) (Copyright Control/Kobalt/Kobalt)

Thanks: Cath Campbell, Tom Fellows & Nick Esdaile

Following Nokia’s recent and epic Lumia 800 light show launch and sponsored Deadmau5 gig at the Millbank Tower on London’s Southbank, the Plastic crew have been filming into the early hours of the morning at Brixton Academy for the Above & Beyond gig.

Voted as the 5^th best DJ act in the world by DJ Magazine, Above & Beyond are a hugely successful English trance and progressive house music group who performed a sell-out gig at Brixton Academy.

But the story doesn’t end there…

Nokia’s Lumia association with the hottest DJ’s on the planet just keep getting better and better!

Our super cool friends over at Nokia arranged a super cool met and greet for four lucky lads – all thanks to Nokia’s Lumia 800. The competition saw the winners stay overnight in London’s Sanderson hotel followed by back stage access at Brixton and a special on-stage appearance for one of the lads.

“One minute I’m listening to them the next I’m hugging them on-stage”.

Above & Beyond, a trio of producer/DJ’s including Tony, Jono and Paavo said on the night…

“You’ve got to pull something out of the bag. If you play in London you’ve got to get that audience adrenalin”.

Here’s a few photos from the night. Stay tuned for the final film from the night – accompanied by the groups biggest track Sun & Moon.

The Plastic crew are on a high today after shooting at the most magnificent location last night – The Natural History Museum. Dream location!

We’ve captured some fantastic still photography which really shows off the location, crew and kit (checkout our jib – it’s almost as big as the famous dinosaur – almost…).

This shoot forms just part of a series of films we are producing which will see us shooting in high-tech hospital environments over the weekend.

In the scene last night we see a large group of people (30+ extras) walking down a set of stairs; And we can’t think of a better set of stairs!?

That’s about all we can divulge about this project at the moment. But before taking a look through the photomontage we would like to send a huge amount of thanks to our Director Joe Tunmer – your brilliance and likeability never fails us. Also to the crew: DOP Fabio Calascibetta (praise you!), Simon Priestman and his jib crew, Producer Kevin Giblin, Production Manager extraordinaire Ada Almeida and Location Manager Tori Harte at The Natural History Museum.

At Plastic, we have the opportunity to work alongside some of the brightest and most creative minds in the industry. Developing treatments and scripts, producing shoots, filming and creating state of the art GFX are a big part of what we do, BUT the down time is just as important.

So as part of a fresh new series, the blog will now feature PLASTIC PEOPLE’S PASSIONS. The aim is to share some stories about the kind of people we spend the majority of our waking hours with and let people not only into our work, but also into our world.

The first of our talented staff to be featured is Mark, our Head Designer. Mark creates the majority of the materials our clients and their customers read. Be it a distinctive piece of print, finessing pitch presentations, creating tailored websites or honing our brand identity.

Now Mark’s a modest fellow. An unassuming Xtreme sports champion. In fact, it wasn’t until after a few drinks at the recent Christmas party that any of us knew his level of  ‘awesome’. When I quizzed him about his BMX racing passion, I never expected to hear that he is a sponsored team rider and placing in the Top 10 in the National Series – 2012 World Championships he here comes!

Read on to learn more about Mark’s BMX racing journey and achievements:

“I started BMX racing in 2008 when I moved house and discovered that there was a newly built track in a park near by. I used to ride a BMX when I was young but never got the chance to go on a proper race track, so I thought I’d pop down and have a look. After buying a cheap bike off eBay and having a go, I was hooked. I began by competing in club races, which lead to regionals and I finally plucked up the courage to do race a local National Series event.

I’m the rider with number 766 or 4.5 on my plate and also the person on the stage holding a 7 plate.

BMX racing is really growing at the moment, there are some top level facilities popping up and lots of new people are coming into the sport. With race classes for everyone from 6 year olds to 45+, the sport caters for everyone and there’s lots of exciting action.

2008 saw BMX racing make its Olympic debut in Beijing and 2012 will see the UK host not only BMX at the Olympics (I have tickets for the finals), but the BMX World Championships in Birmingham.

This year will be my 4th season BMX racing. I’ve competed at tracks across the country and even been to Belgium for a Euro race. I finished the 2011 National Series in seventh position in the 30-34 cruiser class. I came fourth in the South Region. The 2012 season has just started, with early winter rounds being held at Manchester’s £24m indoor BMX centre.

This season I have been asked to ride for Love Not Money, a BMX race team and lifestyle clothing brand that supports up and coming riders (lovenotmoney.net).

At the start of last year I set my self the target of a National Series top eight finish, having just missed out on getting on stage to collect a trophy when I finishing 9th in 2010, so I was really happy to finish seventh in 2011.

In 2012 I’d like to go one better than that and get a top six finish in the National Series and top 3 in the South Region.

This year I will also be riding at a World Championships for the first time, having qualified through my national position in last year. This years event takes place in Birmingham and I’m looking forward to representing my team, Love Not Money and wearing the Great Britain jersey with pride.”

Good luck Mark!

We here at Plastic pride ourselves on our story telling capabilities. Often this is not an easy task when working in the field of corporate communications…

Corporate films should do more than just convey information. Every aspect of a films conception and construction should affect the way people feel about things. Lighting, angles, lenses, framing, staging, scripts, music, pace, style and tone are just the beginning. For us, it’s about more than just pretty pictures; it’s narrative, it’s structure, it’s clarity, it’s creativity, it’s appropriateness – this is precisely what keeps us challenged and motivated.

True to our founding principles “to make a difference to the quality of corporate and branded films”, our latest project filming one of London’s leading PR agencies Ketchum Pleon has proved that we truly can evolve corporate communications.

Having produced two separate films, which aim to welcome both clients and prospective employees to the company, we show you some of the faces around the agency, the people you could be working with and what sets Ketchum Pleon apart from the rest. And it’s not just the drinks trolley!

We are truly proud of the work and a quote like this fills our talented team with pride:

“Too many corporate videos show employees looking ‘corporate’, saying phrases like “strategic objectives” or “global enterprise.” We didn’t want to fall into that trap! Instead, we wanted to put our people – our real, smart, great people – front and centre and let the visuals of our vibrant urban community speak for itself. We know we’re a great place to work and now our video succeeds in showing future colleagues why this is and in a way that authentically captures the spirit of our energetic and unique culture.” Avril Lee – CEO & Partner, Ketchum Pleon London.

To view the films head over to Ketchum Pleon’s YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/ketchumpr#p/u/0/0s7LWx0RxIQ >WHY HIRE US

http://www.youtube.com/ketchumpr#p/u/1/oNtqx9x7HfU > WHY WORK HERE

Credits (The Dream Team):

James Dark – Executive Producer & Director

Ben Archard – Director

Duane McClunie – DOP

Jonno Oliver – Editor

Plastic Pictures have continued our work with Unilever’s Dirt is Good campaign for the OMO/Persil brand by producing a new series of 12 short activity based films to inspire Mum’s, Dad’s and childcare providers around the globe to try out at home.

Following on from the first series of Have A Go films, which saw kids from different countries trying out exciting activities for the first time, like mountain biking, zip-lining and even giant cake building!

This new set of films called Play With Purpose follows a simple 5-step format to showcase activities for parents and kids that could help to teach values.

For example, we show how to recycle paper and make a homemade letter. Granted a messy task, but the time and effort the kids put in is worth it when they see something they’ve made themselves – from there, the kids are encouraged to write and send a letter to someone they love. Throughout the process they’ll build confidence in their own creative skills and learn more about rewarding relationships, too. Mum’s role is to stand back, give the children space and supplies to experiment and create, allowing them to exercise their natural creativity and imagination.

Other activities such as building a memory tree, a solar oven, floating lanterns, a nature magnet, a puppet theatre, recycled gardens, bird café’s and egg shell mosaics, aim to convey certain values including respect, responsibility, curiosity, community, self-reliance, sociability, relationships and of course relationships.

But how did we manage to encompass all of the above into one film format that could be used in multiple countries? We created a simple ‘5 step’ format using only voice over and stunning high-end 3D graphics over beautifully shot images, meaning that the films could be re-purposed for any country in any language.

Judging by the length of this blog post, all of us at Plastic are extremely proud to have devised, scripted, produced and delivered such an inspiring set of films and to be at the forefront of this new way for brands to communicate to its customers.

Currently launched in Australia, with plans for several other countries to roll-out over the next months, consumers can watch the films on the OMO Australia brand website and dedicated Facebook page – and even create their very own film – plus we designed pdf print outs for all 12 activities making it even easier to try out at home.

http://www.omo.com.au/

http://apps.facebook.com/omo_pwp/activities/

We think these films are the perfect medium to be able to convey messaging in a simple yet engaging manner and we hope that the activities will inspire and help parents see the OMO / PERSIL brand as a brand they can trust (for more than getting stains out!) and want to be associated with.

Children In Need and BT called upon the 2010 X Factor Winner, Matt Cardle to pay a visit to all the volunteers manning the phone lines at the BT Tower – and we were there to film his live performance!

Volunteers took calls from the 34th floor of the BT Tower and at call centres across the country.

Matt performed at the BT Tower ahead of the telethon. He said: “Children in Need is a cause that’s really close to my heart, so it was great to perform on the night and do my bit to help the telethon. The atmosphere at the tower with all the BT volunteers was amazing.”