Friday Found.
"the past is a place of reference, not a place of residence"
Happy New Year!
As 2025 revs the engines, the best way to look ahead is to look back first. Or is that, to never look back at all? Either way, here we’d like very much to have a look at some of the delightful pieces that floated on the radar through 2024. So here’s a roundup of Friday Finds. Go through them over a few sessions maybe- worth dipping into the emotions, craft, laughter, vibrancy, writing, visuals, depth and joy in these.
Here we go.
1. Steely Stuff.
Sometimes you watch something that is so masterful, innovative and high on the craft, other aspects fade into the background. This is one such fine example- bold and brilliant with sound, incredibly layered & diverse with visuals (like the country they represent), this demands multiple viewings.
2. Mont Blanc. Wes Andersen. Enough said?
The storied pen brand works with the auteur to craft a story that has all the Wes Andersen hallmarks of craft, art, oddity, humour and subtlety.
And Wes Andersen himself. On camera. As a character. Oh look, he created his own pen too.
3. Don’t Visit Oslo.
In travel advertising, what if ‘many’ and ‘much’ was not the point? What if masses of inbound tourist groups was not the main ambition? And what if droll, self deprecating humour draped in mundanity was found appealing?
I have no idea if these questions were contemplated (or consciously ignored!) when Visit Oslo made their latest TVC, but it certainly seems to speak to many of them. Its also pretty amusing, but in a very particular sort of way.
4. Stop! Motion!
Stefano Colferai is an illustrator & photographer who, a few years ago, started working with plasticine. He looks to add some quirk and even the surreal to everyday moments. The results are amusing, cute, weird, vibrant... sometimes a bit of all!
5. Amnesty
This trailer wasted little time in sucking us right into the uncomfortable premise, weaving through three key characters, with suggestions of inevitability & despair, a glimpse of redemption. Except it was not. It was not a new series.
6. Of Scents, Craft & Art
The Arezzo region. Rolling greens. A cycle. “Buongiorno”. An orange. Kids on the street. A purple flower in a breast pocket. Birds. The breeze. A sunset.
Luxury fragrances are not on my radar. Ffern hails from a place which is the opposite of transactional, disingenuous, opportunistic, immediate. When so much of what we see and consume are marked by those traits, it is both refreshing and reassuring.
More here.
7. Turf Finder
This was Gatorade India's 'Turf Finder' initiative / campaign. A smart, data led idea for hyper-urban and crowded spaces & lifestyles.
Yells without shouting that Gatorade is not just selling a drink – its championing a lifestyle.
8. Too Many.
We are surrounded by commercial messages telling us to buy, buy, buy.
This doesn’t.
9. Look Twice.
Precise creativity, a knack for surprise, minimalism & a touch of delight combine in the creations of Anna&Daniel.
The other delight though, I find, is in watching their tiny setup videos, showing the intricate and precise craft behind some deceptively simple looking work.
10. Always story time.
Unrelated, mundane, quirky, and some very random situations come alive in the eyes of this motley group very plugged into their IG life. The core thought pushed through? There’s always a right time for stories on the ‘gram. The tag line punctuating every situation loosely translates as, “You gotta do a story for that”.
All eight films are stacked up here.
11. Somebody You Used to Know?
This mesmerising piece from earlier in the year takes Gotye (and Kimbra)’s 2011 hit breakup song “Somebody that I Used To Know”, and douses it with brilliance in choreography, costume, art, hair, filming, editing and delightful attention to detail. It all comes together with the whimsy, the oddity, the bursts of energy and even melancholy that, for me, also define the song.
It came back into my radar because this troupe- CDK, helmed by Sergio Res - did the new GAP commercial with Troy Sivan.
12. Apartament
‘Apartament’, a beguiling, smooth and lush 3D creation from Joan Garcia Pons, is well worth two of minutes of your watch time. Or very possibly more, if you feel compelled to keep staring at it- there is much to be drawn into, between the mesmerising camera movement, rich environments and fine detailing.
13. Edith & the Olympics
Olympic year saw many themed spots. Here is one, beautifully crafted, from the BBC. The mood and idea might feel like smatterings of cliché, but there are some refreshing moments and the look is quite lovely.
14. Selfishly speaking.
There was a lot of chatter around Nike’s campaign leading up to the Olympics. Creatively, it was powerful and riveting, especially the film. Beautifully written. Visually stunning. Iconic athletes. And the cherry - Willem Dafoe's singular, intense, provocative narration.
“Am I a bad person?” captures the ruthless drive of elite athletes- raw, unfiltered, obsessed, even narcissistic. There's a line between celebrating ambition and glorifying a win destroy-at-all-costs mentality. Nike clearly chooses to walk across that line, not merely smudge it.
15. Big Dawgs
Coming at you from Bengaluru, via Kerala, Texas, a Well of Danger and Def Jam India, this burst in pop culture was an adrenaline-fuelled music video that hit hard.
No hip hop tropes of jewellery and branded clothes and flashy cars. Great beat. “Gritty, no-holds-barred rap”. Huge props to Hanumankind’s partner in crime Bijoy Shetty who has done most of his videos (many worth checking out). The track went on to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard Global 200 singles in August.
16. Startafight
A brief, brilliant and wild little animation mixing 3D and 2D, done by two blokes as a side project.
17. Desk Break.
Did you bump into Logan Roy? If not, here he is in all his cold, abrasive glory!
Ok, its not Logan Roy (for those who never got into the world of HBO’s Succession, that’s the wealthy, controlling, self-obsessed, often despicable patriarch at the centre of that media-corporate-family saga). Here is Brian Cox channeling Logan liberally, while delivering a decidedly not self-centred message in this spot which promotes... well, you'll see.
Also, f**k bananas.
18. Mother Does The Washing
There's so much going on here in this spoken-word/song/commentary. A charming mix of being easy and pleasant, sharp and incisive, chill and slightly uncomfortable. Nice groove, too.
Oh, and did I mention thought-provoking? Clearly, repeat watching/listening demanded.
19. Everything & Nothing.
Boxing advertising can be quite powerful, often because of its sheer rawness. Here’s one that stylistically builds a larger narrative around its protagonists (the fighters), giving us a very real glimpse of who they are and how they got here- from Omaha 1995 and Khiva 2003, to LA 2024.
Director Rich Hall’s approach of using the four sides of the ring as windows into their lives makes for a captivating piece, really more a little short film than mere promo.
20. Chomp Chomp
Eat or abstain?! The Daily Grind is a breathless chomp romp through a day in the life of an Indian father, ricocheting from one intended bite to the next unintended one, with an interlude for a few casual crunches & munches.
The point to all this showcased gluttony? Your teeth are overworked- give them a break and take care of them.
21. High-Fashion Fonts
If you like fonts & you like fashion, you’re in luck. Here & here.
22. Shaolin Sushi.
At the foot of the Himalayas takes refuge the insensitive tyrant Shaolin Monk Back Mei. After selling his soul to the darkest powers, he toured all of China, becoming the best exponent of Kung Fu...
Have a look at this short that “seeks to represent the epic battle that restored balance to the region despite only fighting for the last sushi piece.” What?? Yes, exactly.
23. Charm the Weather.
I like when mood leads the way. This can’t happen always, for all brands or messages, but when it can and does, it has the chance to make a deeper mark, leave a ‘feeling’, if you will.
‘Its Always Burberry Weather’ comes to us with some very autumnal vignettes for an outdoor line, from a luxury brand that here eschews loud luxury for warm, moody and gently quirky pieces. Each film is quite distinctly its own and worth looking at, but here’s ‘The Quilt with Olivia’. Why? Because Olivia Coleman.
24. Museum of Boobs.
A confidently unabashed message delivered through what seems like a collection of oddities. A real museum of sorts was created for the film, and every installation we see was made by hand.
The particular context of this ad (in India, but not unique to it, surely) is captured candidly by its writer, Shikha Gupta. “How lovely it was to be able celebrate our weird bodies without once having to show a woman dance in her underwear.”
25. Atwood on Democracy.
In a year where more than half the planet went to the polls, here is Margaret Atwood on Democracy. A wonderful monologue on its erosion, depicted entirely in illustration and motion graphics.
26. The Trojans
Arrival of the Trojans- a powerhouse spot with some nifty match cuts, an infinite dolly, seamless transitions...
27. Late Checkout?
Ritz Carlton looks to “capture the joyful, carefree spirit” of a vacation in this collab with fashion house Late Checkout.
28. Nobody Cares!
Do you care about AI? Fiverr doesn’t! Or does it? Watch this spot and figure it out.
Though the aesthetic is not quite my thing, I think this is a clever way to upend something that is very much in the zeitgeist.
29. Serious Fun.
BGMI India’s spot to tell us that Indians love playing their games and mean it, is a fun watch, even if you (like me) dont play BGMI or similar games and are not ‘into’ the genre.
FYI, ‘TPP’ and ‘FPP’ are third person and first person perspectives respectively, referring to what ‘view’ you play the game through.
30. In Hot Water
WWF’s “In Hot Water”, was released in time for COP29, to tell the story of how climate change impacts our ocean. Incredibly here, this story of a boy swimming with fish, is a stop-motion film shot entirely on a thermal camera. Just watch, even if the technique means nothing to you.
In every shot different objects needed to reach different but very exact target temperatures to stand out from one another. We used ovens, heat lamps, heat guns, and freezing sprays to keep each object’s temperature accurate to within 0.1°C!”
31. Create!
This incredible piece from filmmaker Roman Dunashenko features some seriously brilliant levels of mixed media, editing and attention to detail.
A power-up for anyone in a creative rut, eye candy for anyone who needs some, a visual delight for anyone who plays in the field of making anything like this.
32. Class
“From the visionaries that brought your Love, Death & Robots”. Secret Level’s epic trailer.
Secret Level is an anthology series with stories “set within the worlds of some of the most beloved video games”, and looks smashing.
33. Class
I was charmed by this gently confident little piece.
Oozing class, a certain charisma and unlikely relatability, despite not having any idea who this gent is. That, in a nutshell, was my view of this little video from fashion brand Aime Leon Dore where Davide Beroncini recalls nuggets of his Sicilian childhood. It is the kind of assured marketing piece I like very much from brands who know what they want to portray and are unafraid to do so.
34. A Monologue from the Future.
Louise send us a message from 2050. She is part of a collective called We The Hopeful, who reach back in time with an underlying message of hope and conviction. Yet, we can’t quite escape a sense of dread as we watch.
#WeTheHopeful’s mission is “to turn the science behind the sustainable transition into stories that inspire people to act.” They also received a message from another Louise, who lives in another 2050. The drone is the same, but the dread more visceral. Watch that too, here.
Give it a few minutes of your time. Louise will appreciate it.
Hope you enjoyed that!