Hotspur and Argyle

A secret boot camp where a battalion of anti-cooking chefs are put through their paces is the setting for David Kerr’s new campaign for Just Eat, the online takeaway food ordering service. The sergeant major figure is one Mr Mozzarella who has his troops destroying pots and pans and detonating microwaves as they train for their mission to eradicate home cooking once and for all.

The ads, for VCCP, were shot in the desert outside Almeria in southern Spain, where Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns were made, and feature photography from DP Alex Melman and production design from Jonathan Lee. Editor was Simon Willcox at Loaded Dice, sound design took place at Jungle and Paul Harrison at Finish was the colourist. Martin Galton wrote the campaign, Danny Fleet produced for Hotspur & Argyle and Ellie Gibb took charge for VCCP.

Currently whipping up a storm in promo land is this pulsating new video by Richard Swarbrick for China Rats’ N.O.M.O.N.E.Y .

Described by Promo News as ‘ingenious, brilliantly executed and mesmerising’ the video is a personal project that’s been taking shape over fully fifteen months.

Richard explains: ‘The idea came to me when when I first heard the song – I was shooting another video for China Rats and during a lunch break the band played me a demo of N.O.M.O.N.E.Y. At the time I’d been working on a series of stop frame animations made out of found objects (bits of string, buttons, bottle caps etc.) and I immediately had the idea of doing something made out of money. At home I had a ‘man draw’ full of coins so I set about working on animation tests.

I filmed the band performing the song in a rehearsal studio in Putney and cut together a live action edit which I used as a basis for the animation. As I sent sections of animated coins to the editor Simon Hargood we began to realise that we would need a few other animation styles and techniques in order to hold people’s attention for a two minute video. The idea of using banknotes seemed like a natural progression and blending collage with hand painted elements allowed us to add some detail.’

Richard’s team of animators consisted of Eva Wagner, Hannah Wroe, Lucy Watkins, Amy Philpott and Lorcan Kerr, son of Hotspur & Argyle director David Kerr.

Here at Hotspur & Argyle we like art and certain among us like football just as much. So we’ve have decided to put on an exhibition of football art. It’s called Fantasista and to help us tell the world all about it, Richard Swarbrick, who’s work features in the show, has made this exquisite film Moments In Football. It features some of the most celebrated scenes in the history of the game, drawn in Richard’s trademark rotoscopic style onto circular papers and then, using a record player, spun below the mirrors of a praxinoscope. Edited by Ruth Hegarty of the Assembly Rooms, we think it’s the very embodiment of football and art. Eva Wagner assisted Richard and music is by Keith Kenneff.

Baggio by Zoran Lucic

The film’s opening and closing sequences were inspired by works from fellow Fantasista artists, Steve Welsh’s ‘The Cruyff Turn’ and Zoran Lucic ‘s ‘Baggio’. Among the 19 other artists at the exhibition are Sir Peter Blake and Otto Li. For more details, visit the Fantasista website.

Cruyff Turn by Steve Welsh

There are few bigger events in American sport than the NBA basketball finals. So we are rather proud to announce that, this year, ESPN are marking the occasion with this stunning Richard Swarbrick film of great moments from Finals history.

As with Richard’s previous iconic sporting pieces, each frame of the animation was crafted by hand using a combination of techniques. After an experimental phase using inks, paints and paper, the bulk of the drawing was done using a Wacom tablet. The palette in each shot is limited to the three or four colours from the relevant team jerseys and the background colours aim to accentuate the different eras. Among the basketball legends featured are Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson and LeBron James.

The music is Mint Julep’s ‘Save Your Season’, the live action edit was cut by Simon Hargood of The Assembly Rooms and Richard’s animation assistants were Hannah Wroe, Eva Wagner and Estha Ajibade. Hotspur & Argyle’s producers were Danny Fleet and Victoria Lynn. Click on the image above to view the film.

The first of Theo Delaney’s new Unibet commercials for Albion, featuring former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, is on air (and has already bagged Campaign’s Ad Of The Day). The campaign, set to accompany a year’s worth of top quality sport, strikes a thoughtful tone in contrast to the shouty bookies’ commercials that so often feature in the football ad breaks. Instead, we hear from a string of ‘Armchair Experts’ imparting their considerable knowledge and dropping in some salient betting advice. Always seated in the bespoke Unibet armchair, the experts are filmed against a variety of rugby, cricket and tennis club backdrops. As well as Ivanisevic, cricket legend Sir Ian Botham and former British Lions rugby captain Gavin Hastings feature as Unibet ‘ambassadors’.

The Armchair Experts idea was the brainchild of Albion’s senior creative Aaron Hinchion, the DP was Fraser Taggart and Simon Hargood of the Assembly Rooms was the editor. Head of film Petrina Kilby produced for Albion while Adam Lyne took charge for Hotspur & Argyle. Click on the above image to view the spot.

Lionel Messi has been named the world’s greatest footballer for an unprecedented fourth year in a row and within seconds of his receiving the Ballon D’Or trophy in Zurich this sumptuous tribute film, created by Hotspur & Argyle’s Richard Swarbrick, was released by Adidas.

Richard has achieved pre-eminence as a football animator with his widely lauded films of Gareth Bale, Wayne Rooney and others so he was the obvious choice when Adidas charged agency Iris Worldwide with the task of marking this unique moment.

The stunning film was rendered in apposite gold by Richard and his animation assistants Hannah Wroe and Amy Philpot. The editor was Simon Hargood at the Assembly Rooms, Iris Worldwide’s producer was Fiona Campbell and creative was Adam Fish. Danny Fleet produced for Hotspur and Argyle.

There is no Great British festive season until the BBC1 Christmas campaign is in full swing, so it gives us great pleasure to announce that this year’s star studded extravaganza – directed by Hotspur & Argyle’s David Kerr – is now ringing out on TV screens up and down the country.

It tells the story of a vainglorious BBC producer played by Rob Brydon who takes on responsibility for the channel’s Christmas output after Danny Boyle turns the job down for being ‘too big’. Assisted by Sarah Alexander, Brydon’s other recruits include David Walliams, Miranda Hart, Matt Smith, the cast of Call the Widwife, Lee Mack, Mrs Brown, Strictly’s Craig Revel Horwood, the starts of EastEnders, Pudsey the dancing dog and Shrek.

Yes, Shrek.

The campaign was scripted by RKCR/Y&R’s Algy Sharman, Al Brown, Steve Moss and Jo Finch, David’s DP was John de Borman, the editor was Simon Wilcox and the producer was Carrie Hart.

Click here to view the first episode of the campaign. To see the second episode, click the image above.

Merry Christmas!

Richard Swarbrick’s new film for Google’s Crisis response service was rushed out ahead of schedule last week as Hurricane Sandy battered the East coast of America. The service is part of Google.org, the company’s nonprofit arm, whose focus is to use Google products and engineers to help solve problems. Richard’s trademark painterly style was employed to bring a visual unity to the disaster footage with compelling results. Assisting in the animation were regular collaborators Amy Philpott, Hannah Wroe and Lucy Watkins. The film was produced for Google by Across the Pond and Fred & Eric in collaboration with Hotspur & Argyle.

Richard Swarbrick‘s latest football animation is of arguably the greatest goal ever scored. Using a new, newspaper-collage technique Richard reincarnates Maradona’s second for Argentina against England in the 1986 World Cup quarter final with renewed beauty and resonance. The film will be part of the Fantasista project celebrating football art, devised by Richard with Chris Platt. To find out more read the duo’s interview with seminal football blog In Bed With Maradona.