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The Funmaker Recital Series

 

It’s happening here at Creature. As you may have read, we did a music video here recently for the Long Winters to provide some content for  www.giveseattle.org. You can also check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWX2DNIOdxo. Lot’s of great previously unreleased tracks from the bands that participated. For our part in this non-profit charitable event, we received some karma, a fun shoot with talented performers, and a Wurlitzer Funmaker organ. As far as we can tell, it’s from the 70’s. I’m not sure why anyone would buy a Casio or any other keyboard when you can pick up one of these things of beauty for like $40.00.  It does it all. But with unequivocal style. The keyboard has three levels. It simulates banjo, has the full drum kit, and everything else you can imagine. The only thing our amazing Funmaker doesn’t have, is someone to exploit its glorious sounds. John Roderick of the Long Winters is on the list to be one of the first to perform at our Funmaker Recital Series. The plan is simple. Every 4th Champagne Friday or so we’re going to bring in artists to spend a little time playing the hits of their choosing on the Funmaker. We will most likely document this for those of you who want to witness some choice organ numbers. We’re looking for talent. So, all would-be Funmakers please send Hilary an e-mail at hilaryl@creatureseattle.com. We’d love to hear what you’ve got. Champagne will be served of course.

Thanks,  Jim

Happy Holidays, everyone!

A few people here at Creature put in some extra hours outside of work to make sure we spread some holiday cheer. Enjoy!   

 

http://singingchristmassandwich.com

The Give Music Video Teaser

We're always up for a challenge, and even more up for a good cause. That's why when Singer/songwriter John Roderick of The Long Winters approached us about doing a music video for The Give, we jumped at the chance. 

The challenge of course was to do a music video with a small budget and even less time. To get this done we assembled a dream team that included Director Branson Veal, Lenz Film, Olin Padilla (Editor) and Angela Morgan (talent). We then propped for 4 days straight, painted through the weekend, and got little sleep. Despite the exhausted state we were in, we knew all the while it was worth it. 

We recorded the song on December 7th at Clatter & Din in Seattle:

                                                 

Art Director Kristi, Copywriter Sarah, Producer Kaylin, & Director Branson 

                  
 

                                    John At The Studio 

We started filming on the 8th at 3pm in the Creature conference room, which you won't even recognize in the video. That's what 4 days propping will get you. Thanks to a lot of coffee and some dedicated folks, we went all through the night and wrapped at 6:00am the next morning.

The video itself combines both stop motion with real time motion to create a great story.  We even got animal talent, Mischa (one of our designer's dogs) to make an appearance in the video...SO CUTE!  Stay tuned for the final cut in the coming week...

Ryan Berkley

At Creature we are extremely fortunate to partner with talented folks all around the world. This year, one of those very talented people was Portland based illustrator Ryan Berkley. We worked with him to create eight different personalities for eight different types Sherry (secretsherrysociety.com). One of those Sherries, Cream, was featured in the 2009 Communication Arts Design Annual. 

      

      Amantialldo is slightly nutty.               Cream Sherry is sweet and velvety. 

     
       Fino has a dry and delicate wit.        Manzanilla comes from a seaside town.

We were searching for the perfect illustrator for the Sherry project when we happened upon Ryan’s booth at a craft fair in Seattle. We were smitten right away. Who wouldn't be, his entire body of work sheds a unique light on the personality of our furry (or feathery or fishy) friends. Check out some of our favorites:

       

            A real self starter.                       He is quite the ladies man. 

     
 
   You'd best stay on his good side.                       It's business time. 

You can view all of his work on hits etsy page: http://www.etsy.com/shop/berkleyillustration?page=1

Or read his blog to keep up with the latest and greatest: http://letsshare.typepad.com/berkley/

iLingual iPhone App: Speak 3 Languages With Your Mouth

 

Out there in the land of iPhone apps there are an abundance of funny apps. However, as funny as this app seems don't be fooled by its sillyness. iLingual is actually a fun clever little app that takes language translation to the next level. For those of you who travel, learn new languages or want to just see what it looks like to speak German, French or Arabic with your own mouth this app is for you.
 
 
Here's how it works: you snap a picture of a mouth—yours, your girlfriend's, or just a photo from a magazine—which iLingual then analyzes and converts for animation. Then, you choose a phrase from the app's 400-strong library, hold your iPhone over your mouth and there, you sort speak French, German or a little bit of Arabic, with a disconcertingly segmented, animated pair of lips. Félicitations! [iTunes] 

See it in action. It apparently works well with locales in France.

 

3 amazing days in San Francisco

I just returned from Creative Social SF and wanted to share some highlights. First, a bit about Creative Social, this is a bi-annual gathering of about 40 of the world's best digital creatives directors and  agency owners in the world.  A few of the highlights for me: The trip to Pixar. Amazing to meet the artists and directors behind these incredible feats of animation. A couple others: Drinking coffee at Blue Bottle and then later, absinthe at St. Georges distillery. Aside from the culinary field trips and cool speakers (Craig Newmark, Saul Griffith, Brad Bird, etc), there was some great worked featured from the Socials. Here's a link to a few of my favorites:

http://www.ommwriter.com/

http://www.spezify.com

and see some more cool stuff here:

http://www.creativesocialblog.com/

 Matt

No Mas Presents: Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No by James Blagden

Secret Society induction party: live art, cocktails and Mike Cina interview

Trade in a secret for a Sherry cocktail. That was the basis for a San Francisco cocktail-party-turned-live-art-event where hundreds of culinary, entertainment, music, design and fashion personalities were inducted into the Secret Sherry Society.

Attendees confessed a secret, got their drink and then watched as their secret was transformed into printed pieces of original art. The art was put on display (about 50 or so pieces) for all the guests to take with them and will be part of an online gallery built this winter. There’s even some rumors of a limited edition collectors book.

Seattle-based Heaters DJ’d the perfect vibe for the night where literally hundreds of secrets were turned in (free delicious Sherry cocktails helped people find their muse). The crowd loved the entire experience and passionately debated the merit of various secrets. Some guests even left with a dozen or more pieces of the artwork.

To create the live art, Creature's own Steve Cullen partnered with Mike Cina, founder of the legendary design firm You Work For Them. After the event the two caught up for a quick chat.

SC: We kinda had some sweaty palms the day before hand.

MC: For me it was the day before when we "practiced" a bit. Since the live element was not there and we had never done it before, it was hard to know what to expect. I like being prepared and there really was no way to know what to expect. But after getting the first secret, I realized that this was going to be like riding a bike. As soon as I read the first card, I felt more relaxed and ready to have some fun. The rest of the night was very enjoyable.

SC: Ever done anything like this?

MC: I have done some live work before but it is normally controlled and planned out. This was amazing on many different levels and I got a lot of inspiration and insight by designing in the moment. I definitely think we pulled it off. When you consider the amount of time spent on each work (about 5 minutes) and the nature of it all, I think it turned out amazing. People were very thankful to have their secret done visually and I am sure they talked about it a lot to other people. I feel like we really touched people through the work.

SC: What secrets stood out to you?

Secret Sherry Society Road Trip

At Creature we’re willing to do whatever it takes to get it done, even if that means driving a 10 - foot Uhaul filled with props from Seattle to San Francisco. So that’s just what I, along with our Associate Producer, did last week. The reason: a fabulous party we were throwing for Wines from Spain (more on that later in its own post). It turns out driving vs. shipping the amount and weight of our props would save us several thousand dollars, so we had some trucker hats made (obviously) and away we went.

Some highlights of our drive down include:

• Literally 5 minutes after we left is started thundering and hailing. It took us five hours to make the usually 3 hour drive to Portland.

• Immediately on leaving received 5 calls from worried co-workers. Aw- some sweet Creatures. xo

• We rode the entire way with our favorite prop, a stuffed Pheasant named Fred, in the cabin. He was a good sport about it.

• Dinner in Portland at The Observatory- delicious Chicken Fried Chicken and cute décor. Highly recommend it if you’re in Portland craving some classic American cooking. theobservatorypdx.com

• An overnight stop in Salem, OR where I met the lovely night manager at the Marriot Residence Inn.  His name was Tar.

  The only room they had was a full bed. Thankfully we survived without any awkward snuggling situations.

• Breakfast at Word Of Mouth Neighborhood Bistro in Salem. Their breakfast changed my life. Biscuit, fried chicken, fried egg, bacon, cheese, gravy, and home fried. Suicide by grease never tasted so good. wordofsalem.com

• Some errands in Medford, OR. That is where we saw this gorgeous snuggie display. If it looks this good on the mannequin, imagine how it could look on  YOU!

• Hitting the first In N Out in Redding, CA. In retrospect, consuming a Double Double + Root Beer + Milkshake + fries immediately after driving through curvy Shasta Forrest in a Uhaul was not the best idea.

•  On completion of our trip we heard BEP "Boarderline" approx 2,910,324 times, and Miley Cyrus "Party In the USA" 39,230 times.  

• Arriving in downtown San Francisco at midnight. FYI, The Clift valet parking does NOT take Uhauls. 

Thankfully we were able to ship the props back via ground and flew back. After setting up and breaking down the fabulous party, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have survived the drive back. 

FIVE IDEAS OF THE FUTURE

These five innovations are not necessarily the coolest or newest ideas off the block, at the least, they are the 5 most un-tapped gold-mines in my very very credible opinion.

Let's do this David Letterman style. (That is not a sexual proposition, I just mean we'll count backwards)

5. 3D WALL PROJECTIONS

New technology by Nu Fromer Digital Media allows projectors to render realistic 3D looking objects on buildings.

Can you imagine hooking this thing up to a Nintendo NES and playing duck hunt in the windows. Or shooting my next commercial on location of the location it will be played.

4. MULTI DIMENSIONAL CAMERA

Imagine linear story telling + google street view technology. Yellow Bird has created a linear video camera that you can control. Can you imagine telling a story from every angle? Will this be the beginning of 360 degree movies?

 
The possibilities are endless or maybe orgasmic.