Awards - BAFTAs 2009

BAFTAs 2009. Royal Albert Hall. The best of British... Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, In Cold Blood, Skins, and many, many more.

Past Blast - BMW Hire Series - Tony Scott's 'Beat the Devil' with Clive Owen, Gary Oldman and James Brown

Back in 2001, BMW produced a series of short films, coolly crafted by filmmakers including Ang Lee, John Woo, Guy Richie, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. The whole thing was groundbreaking, and ultimately lasted through to 2004. During this time the series was viewed over 100 million times, while BMW sales increased by a tidy 12%.

But here's the thing; while all the films are slick and smooth and provocative, there’s one that stands head and shoulders above the rest. In fact, it’s so out there, it’s nothing short of genius. Tony Scott’s ‘Beat the Devil’, stars Clive Owen, Gary Oldman, James Brown, and Marilyn Manson. It’s fast, quirky, quick and packed with bleached palettes and speedy, twitchy, action. It is, frankly, a bona fide work of art. Pure, utter, brilliance.

Commercials - Ram Madhvani's 'Himani Pain Relief'

More Ram Madhvani. Yes I know, I’m getting obsessed, but what can I say? The man is a genius. And just for the record, I’m not alone in my thinking. This month he was bestowed with a few more awards, most notably three – two silvers and a bronze – at Goafest 2009. Seems they were impressed with his ‘Himani Pain Relief’ commercial. Check it out. You'll probably be impressed too.

Commercials - Ram Madhvani's 'Happydent White'

Great Guns’ Ram Madhvani was awarded a Bronze and Silver Lion at Cannes for his 'Happydent White' commercial in 2006. Now, white that may be eons ago, the ad is, frankly superb, and as such would be remiss to leave it the Babzoo Blog. Madhavani sits amongst Asia Pacific’s top ten directors, and in 2008 was ranked 11th in the list of ‘Most Awarded Directors’ by the Gunn Report. Enjoy!

TV - BBC 'Ashes to Ashes'

We switched on, we sat, we watched - watched in our masses, all 7 million of us, after a taste of BBC's ‘Ashes to Ashes’. The second series, staring Philip Glenister and Keeley Hawes, is the even slicker follow up to ‘Life on Mars’, and attracted an audience share of 29% - which ain’t exactly bad pickings - but then again, this is a damn fine show.

Winner of the Best New Drama at 2008’s 'TV Quick Awards', the programme comes courtesy of Kudos, in association with Monastic Productions, with executive producers, Simon Crawford Collins and Jane Featherstone (Kudos), and Ashley Pharoah (Monastic) making the whole thing one big peachy, quirky eighties crimefest.

Promo - Gorillaz 'Dare' Jamie Hewitt Stylee

Just because animation is cool...S'especially when it's Jamie Hewitt's fine work at hand.

Movies - Eran Creevy's 'Shifty'

Shot on 35mm, over 18 days, on less than £100,000, movie debut of Eran Creevy, 'Shifty' is a stonker of a film, and comes as the second serving of Film London's Microwave series. Staring Riz Ahmed, Daniel Mays, Jason Flemyng, it is just genius in a pure, classic, gritty Brit flick way.

Commercial - "Isn't it time someone called cut?" - Woman's Aid, Joe Wright and Keira Knightly

Made by Grey London, directed by 'Atonement’s' Joe Wright, and staring Keira Knightly, Woman’s Aid domestic violence commercial is currently viewing in a handful of cinemas across the UK. Sooner or later the ad will run on terrestrials, however, transmission restrictions and ‘graphic content’ means that the agency is still in negotiations with Clearcast – which is vaguely amusing, because really the ad isn’t so much ‘graphic’ as dark and disturbing. It’s haunting and smart, and sassy as can be, connecting with the viewer, the abused, and the silent, on levels previously unseen in these types of campaigns. Pale yet visually stunning in an almost everyday way, it lulls into a false sense of calm before swinging into the insanity and eventual solitary that abuse is so often about. The hook essentially lies in its ‘reality-within-film’ angle, which is all very reminiscent of Peter Greenaway’s ‘The Baby of Mâcon’. And that’s a good thing, because it makes the reasoning behind the promo all the more concentrated yet accessible.

Movies - Sasha Baron Cohen's 'Bruno'

Directed by Dan Mazer. Written by Sacha Baron Cohen. Bruno. So wrong, it's right...

Commercials - Chris Cunningham's Gucci Ad

The God of cinematography and all that is visually funky, cool and quirky in a weird and wonderful distubing fairytale way, Chris Cunningham has done it again - this time with Donna Summer, Vanessa Paradis and Gucci's Floral scent. In a field. With a bit of dark, a of light and a little lively magic thrown in for size. Bam! Genius...

Movies - Duncan Jones' Moon

Can't be easy having David Bowie as a dad - especially after he named you Zowie. Still Duncan Jones, did the right thing and changed his name, and following his original ad man persona, is carving out a nice niche for himself as a director – a darn fine director too as it happens. This summer sees the release of indie ‘Moon’; a movie that’s a little like '2001: A Space Odyssey', on acid. And it’s a gem. It's just superb. Having debuted at Sundance Festival 2009, the film was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics and is now positively rippling thought cyberspace, with gossip, clips and reviews. Now while I’ve only seen the trailer, I’m already chomping at the bit to go see the full film. Check it out above and you'll be itching to catch it too...

Promo - Boost Mobile from Epoch Films - US

Talk about coming up trumps. These promos really are the business. Created for Boost Mobile, they were produced by Matt Aselton, who hooked up 180's office in LA (the mega agency first opened in Amsterdam in '98 and was named after a Francis Ford Copella quote), to spin out a bevvy of hilarious, hard hitting commercials; just like the one running above.

Idents - MTV Australia

If you live in Australia these are probably old news; if not, well-swell, because you’re in for a treat. Directed by Ash Bolland, DoPed by Jac Fitzgerald, and produced by Von Dekker, these genius idents were commissioned by MTV Australia as part of their 2008 rebrand. Under the for tags of ‘Aggressive’, ‘Calm’, ‘Lively’, and ‘Organic’, the classic MTV logo has been given a high-tech, super-slick kick, and dropped into various landscapes accross Oz. Hitting that in-between smooth point all indentities aspire to reach, the finished products are spot on. They are cool and cute, creative, and bang out there.

Idents - F1 2009 Idents - BBC

Check it out: Liquid TV, recent winner at Promax/BDA Awards, has rolled out the red carpet with the riotous new ident for BBC’s 2009 F1 show. Shot on the Red, the finished work is, a little like the eponymous movie, fast and furious, and oh-so slick. It’s all a bit Rockstar Games, in the best possible way. Indeed, this identity is the stuff boys dream about. A mash of CGI, created in Maya, and rendering with HDRI, the work epitomises everything about F1, and more.