Levelload's Yellow Fever
Babanuki at Another Film Company
"Yellow Fever" refers to a certain male type that seems fixated on women from Japan and other East Asian countries. Armed with an internet connection and some disposable income, they absorb as much about Japanese pop culture as possible in order to impress the Tokyo girl of their dreams. Sample quotes include "You like manga too? What are the odds!" or "I've seen Spirited Away ten times". They are usually beach-fearing, sport-avoiding, girlfriend-less creatures, more comfortable in front of a computer screen than other human beings. They are so common, the Japanese call them "Japasen" or, 'only Japanese'. One of these characters features heavily in Babanuki's new promo.
The idea of re-creating modern objects and slick websites using primitive pen and paper really appealed to them, however, they relied on not-so primitive laptops and software to bring their hand drawn images to life. They soon found themselves getting carried away tracing and drawing more and more props and clutter to fill the hero's flat; "We definitely wanted to make the kind of video that rewards repeated viewing," says Tom. "There's stuff in there that took an evening to draw but is onscreen for barely a second. It's quite a wasteful way of working but it was important to get across this idea of Asian obsession." says Ian. This is perhaps Ian's only excuse for drawing a dozen semi-clad girls in a variety of provocative poses. "He did pretty much all of the computer animation, so I had to indulge him a bit" says Tom.
The band appear on the screen of a karaoke machine in the man's flat. These were shot against chromakey with lights hired from a builders merchant nearby; a tip that evaded the most recent pressing of The Guerilla Guide to Filmmaking, but worked just fine for the high contrast black and white look.
Levelload's Yellow Fever:
More about Babanuki:
Babanuki, the directing due (Ian Anderson & Tom Palliser) represented by Another film company, are two chaps who met while studying at film school. When working individually they usually ended up knocking on each other's doors for help, so the two decided to pool their talents and start making things for people. And so far, their "two for one" offer seems to be ticking all the right boxes.
They kick started the venture with music videos for friends (and friends of friends) and then a series of band visuals for Keane. It wasn't long until they had built up enough work to land a promo for Katie Melua and two videos for the Mercury-nominated singer songwriter, Laura Marling.
Laura Marling's Crawled Out of the Sea / Cross your fingers
In the meantime, they worked on their advertising chops, creating a road safety test commercial that was screened in Cannes as a shortlisted piece for the CFP-E/Shots Young Director's Award. They also shot in the tunnels of London's underground for TFL and Keane approached them to create two adverts for their second album, Under the Iron Sea. The work so far shows their flexibility in their working methods and shared enjoyment in experimentation, moving from an in-camera approach, to post heavy techniques and back again.
TFL:
