Th1ng Th2ng Blog

Based in the heart of London’s Soho, th1ng, pronounced ‘thing one’, is an animation, graphics and mixed media production company, creating commercials and moving image content. th1ng also creates feature film title sequences. th2ng represents a lovely and talented bunch of live action directors who compliment nicely the animation and postproduction expertise of th1ng. Together th1ng and th2ng have had fun creating some stunning pieces of work, challenging one another to produce the best films possible.

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Ink and water technique mastered by Shay Hamias

Th1ng talent Shay Hamias has developed and mastered a gorgeous technique for the launch film of Misys Capital Markets Fusion.

Going back to basics using just water, ink, gravity and an awful lot of patience, the film shows various fragments of a bird and fish coming together.  The piece reveals to create a beautiful flying heron.

When you take a big idea, a brave client and have time for lots of experimentation anything is possible - and this is what you get.

Click here to view.

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The lives of others: reaching into the hidden depths of the teenage mind

Anxiety and worry about self-image are things that you tend to associate with adults:  TV would tend to reflect this with the variety of reality shows determined to fix our lives.  So how to convey to a younger audience that you know these things affect them too? The answer is in really showing you understand what a typical teenager can go through and in a way they can relate to.

We worked closely with MindFull, the new charity that launched last week in creating a commercial that uses a mixture of live action and animation to show the reality of emotions that young people often hide. We were really able to get our teeth into this project and had a great brief from M&C Saatchi. The coverage has been very positive from Campaign, to this great piece in The Guardian, written from the perspective of someone who has dealt with depression.

It has been a really illuminating experience for us and was a great chance to really use the creativity of directors and designers Will Barras, Shay Hamias and Yui Hamagashira. MindFull aims to help teenagers with depression, bullying, self-image issues and other problems, with mentoring and counselling from children of a similar age.

Doing great work is always something we aspire to; doing something that broaches a fairly unspoken subject that has the potential to effect change and awareness of these issues, is something we can be truly proud of and we hope MindFull will make a big difference.

Click here to watch the video.

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th2ng produces Daughter's new music video with a premier on VEVO

th2ng have produced a music video with The Mitcham Submarine for London's new indie band, Daughter. Today the video is premiering on VEVO. The Mitcham Submarine gives his insight into the music video. 

'I went to see Daughter perform at the Hackney Empire in London on January 24th. I was mesmerised by their performance and the lights, especially the lights. I thought to myself 'I would love to make a video for this band', we'll keep it simple and use three elements inspired by their live show - darkness, space & light. Daughter were with me every step of the way on this journey and I'd like to say a massive thank you to them. Also, very special thanks to Ed Horrox at 4AD for his priceless inspiration, Executive Producer Hannah Cooper for putting it all together and Director of Photography Alex Ryle for making the magic happen and being a master of his craft.' The Mitcham Submarine 11th June 2013 Director : The Mitcham Submarine Executive Producer : Hannah Cooper Director of Photography : Alex Ryle Focus Puller : Jason Wingrove Producer : Lucile Weigel 1st Assistant Director : Andy Young 2nd Assistant Director : Sam Barry-Parker Key Grip : David Bradshaw DIT : Robert Mila Audio/Video Playback : Paddy Owen Gaffer : Wouter Poppink Hair / Makeup : Brigitta Smart Stylist : Jakob Brondum Editor : James Harman @ TC Soho Post Production: Sean Martin @ Th1ng Colourist : Tom Knowles @ The Joint Runner : Matthew Hoare Runner : Owen Porter Very special thanks to Ron at Vintage Guitars / Crispin, Rob & Dom of Regent Sounds - Denmark Street London.

Click here to watch the video.

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Chris Shepherd's film 'Anatole's Island' on C4 Random Acts Tonight at 23.35

th1ng commercials director Chis Shepherd has teamed up with film maker Robert Popper to create a magically charming little film called Anotole's Island. Those used to Chris' off beat comedy and gritty style might be left disappointed as Chris himself describes '(Anatole's Island) is not like my other work, it's lovely'.

Voiced by comedian Peter Serafinowicz the film tells the story of Anatole 'a clever little Marmot. We all agree with Chris. It is a lovely film and everyone at th1ng will be staying up to watch it.

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th1ng signs BAFTA winning talent Will Anderson

You may have seen the exciting news that we have signed a 2013 BAFTA-winning director, Will Anderson. We're really excited about having this young Scottish director on board to add to our diverse and creative animation team. Will won the Best Short Animation BAFTA for his graduation film: ‘The Making of Longbird,’ a fictional documentary combining live action and animation, which has garnered a whole host of other awards at film festivals all over the world. Showings at Edinburgh, London, Warsaw and Brooklyn, to name but a few, drew a multitude of plaudits as well as quite a few gongs!

What Will brings to the th1ng team is his fresh spirit, bold imagination and a real love for design and character animation, in which he specialises. He has worked in both film and television adding his special touch to many different professional productions. These include feature-length documentaries and short animation series. You can see the trailer for The Making of Longbird here - you’ll soon see why this film project for his Edinburgh College of Art course has got everyone talking.

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James Partridge's music video on Promo News and Video Static

James Partridge has been working at the th1ng/th2ng office in Soho for just over a month, he joined the company with a back catalogue of music videos he has directed. The latest release from him is for the upcoming rapper, G Frsh. The video places him in a series of still life fashionable imagery. The video was instantly shared around, with features on Promo News and Video Static.

Fantastic work James, and great video.

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And the beat goes on: excitement builds about our new signing of Tony Petrossian

There’s been a fair amount of press about our signing of award-winning director Tony Petrossian since the news went out. Sounds like the media are just as excited about it as we are about the deal. And for us it is a big deal: this is our first signing in the US for th2ng and boost for our global expansion as well as the growing success story of the whole group. Having someone of Tony’s calibre on board is a great addition to our diverse range of directing talent; his visionary commercial and music video output is much sought after from the likes of corporate clients such as Nike, McDonald’s and Sony Ericsson to music artists like Rise Against and Ludacris.

Tony has a developed a keen mastery of visual illusions as well as a great ability to build great stories and that is what we are all about: storytelling in myriad creative ways to different audiences, so we’re really pleased to be working with someone who shares our ethos, vision and values. Tony’s groundbreaking work in America and all over the world has earned him an immense amount of recognition too. He has gained multiple nominations and awards from places like The New York Times, Forbes, AdWeek , SHOOT– he’s even been up for the Grammy Awards. So, join us in welcoming Tony on board the great ship th2ng! Click here to view Tony's profile.

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Our director Anthony Chen really showed the Cannes judges a thing or two

Great news this Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival: our award-winning director Anthony Chen has been awarded the Camera d’Or for the best feature film debut at the Cannes Film Festival, for his film Ilo Ilo.

Anthony was spotted by th2ng when Hannah Cooper saw his NFTS graduation film, where he was completing his MA in fiction directing, and knew immediately that he had to be represented. ‘What I saw then was not only his talent, but what really struck me was the bond he had clearly formed with the cast and crew that attended that screening, there was something really special there and you can see this in their performances in that film, The Lighthouse. I just knew he would be an amazing fit for th2ng. This award represents a great win for Anthony, it’s the first time a Singaporean feature film has won an award at Cannes and the judges voted for it unanimously and you can’t get better than that.

Anthony Chen celebrating his win with Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi

Ilo Ilo looks at the relationship between a young boy and his family's new Filipino maid during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It’s even got the attention of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who posted his congratulations on Facebook. Well done Anthony – we are really proud of you!

You can check out a clip from Ilo Ilo here.

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Michael Wright directs two spots for Quick Quid

th2ng's Michael Wright, is just back from Film Cannes, and has also just delivered these two comical spots for Quick Quid, both involve a scientist explaining his imaginative ideas to help people apply and receive their personal loans. The first spot features Rocket Man, who sends customers personal loans instantly to their doorstep.

The second features Robo-Quid, who follows you around all day...

...we think it could be easier to download the app...

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th2ng wishes Graham Sherrington the best of luck at the BAFTA's

th2ng's Graham Sherrington directed the hit UK reality television series, The Young Apprentice. This weekend the show is up for a BAFTA for best 'Television | Reality And Constructed Factual in 2013'.

Everyone at th2ng congratulates Graham on this prestigious nomination, and wish him the best of luck!

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Sylvain Chomet's first live action film 'Atilla Marcel' heads to Cannes

With only 20 days until this years Cannes Film Festival kicks off, Sylvain Chomet's first live action film is already predicted to be a success at the festival. Set in the 30's the film tells the story of a young boy who witnesses his parents die at the age of two, the trauma causes him to develop amnesia making him unable to speak.

The film stars up coming actor, Guillaume Goix who has receieved attention for his role in David Lambert's Beyond The Walls. We look forward to the final cut, and there is more to come from Sylvain. Click here to read more.

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Film Club's Hayley Morris stop-motion music video for Iron & Wine

Here's a new music video from our sister animation company, Film Club. Their New York based director, Hayley Morris has created a stop-motion music video for Iron & Wine's new track 'Joy'.

The music video received an exclusive premiere on NPR's 'All Songs Considered' and is now been reviewed on Motionographer, the creative industry blog built to showcase and discuss digital filmmaking, including stop-motion.

Hayley has created a beautiful colourful world within a fantastical stop motion animation. Click here to the watch the music video.

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Frame's hilarious campaign for Sprite

th2ng's Frame (Thomas Bay and Anders Schrøder) have just finished an hilarious campaign for Sprite. Here is the first spot from the brand spanking new campaign, 'My Hand Gets More Than I Do', some comedy for the Easter weekend...

Click here to watch the first spot.

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Justin Dickel's music video for Misha B

th2ng's Justin Dickel has finished directing the explosive new music video for Misha B's new single 'Here's To Everything (Ooh la la)'. The video marks Justin's return to music videos, having  previously directed videos for Take That and Just Jack. In the three minute execution Justin creatively explores fire and water themes to produce some stunning visual effects that communicate the up tempo message of the song.

Of his return Justin said; 'It’s been a while and I really had forgotten quite how crazy a music video shoot could be – in terms of time and money. But, in a bizarrely masochistic way I have kind of missed the mayhem, it was a lot of fun'

Since the release yesterday, the video has received wide spread coverage on the web. Misha B's Twitter account was flooded with quick reviews from fans.

Fantastic work Justin, you can watch the full video here. We look forward to his next music video. 

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Matthew Hoare's work featured on Promo News

Matthew Hoare is an assistant at th1ng, whilst working here he shoots and edits music videos with an old friend from college under the directing name, Fenixx. Their latest music video is for Kid Champion, and is a one-take performance video with speed changes, filmed at Twickenham Film Studios. The music video has received a great response, and has been featured on Promo News.

Click image to watch the video

Great work Matthew!

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Justin Dickel's music video for Misha B featured in the Daily Mail

th2ng's Justin Dickel has just finished directing the new music video for former X-Factor contestant, Misha B for her new single 'Here's To Everything (Ooh la la)', filmed at Shepperton Studios.

The Mail Online have featured an article about the whole shoot, including a behind the scenes video from Relentless.

Click here to read the full article.

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Clive Booth joins th2ng and works with Henry Holland at London Fashion Week

Last week there was a new signing to th1ng, now more big news this time from th2ng. They are delighted to announce that Clive Booth has joined its directors rosta. A photographer and film maker, Clive is known for his distinctive style of selective focus in natural, available, continuous and found light which gives his work an atmospheric, intimate and etherial quality.

Click here to view his profile on the th2ng site. Clive has is just finished working with Henry Holland for the House of Holland 2014 Autumn/Winter Collection for Look Book, filmed with Henry at this years London Fashion Week. With the concept of linking together technology and fashion.

As a Canon Ambassador, Canon have made documentary style films about Clives collaboration with Henry Holland, you can watch these videos on YouTube by Clicking here. You should check back to our blog in the next few weeks, we have more news to announce on this already fantastic project.