DC Comics is developing a new TV series based on a character called Blue Beetle, basically a guy who transforms into kind of a robot beetle. Here’s a test shot they released:

Here’s a shot from a music video I directed and which was released in April, about a guy who transforms into a robot:

You can see the entire video here. It was widely lauded on release (the fact that it involves giant robots destroying the Bronx kinda helps), has had over 50,000 views across all its internet postings, and was featured strongly on genre film sites such as Twitchfilm and comics news/gossip site BleedingCool.

While we’re charmed that a big company like DC would choose to use our $500-budget indie music video for inspiration, we do however wish their version of our transform sequence wasn’t so… rubbish. If only they had considered hiring the people who inspired them, we could have done a much higher-quality job of ripping ourselves off. DC, for further projects, I’m with RSM Creative for directing music videos & commercials, and WME for film & TV.

In 2005, a group of students at ESRA made a short film called “Above Then Beyond”.

In 2009, Pixar released a feature film called “Up”.

If you’ve already seen “Up”, you might find it remarkably similar to “Above Then Beyond”.  Click HERE to watch “Above Then Beyond”.

I found an interview with Pete Docter, writer and director of “Up”, and this is what he said about building the film’s concept:

Pete Docter – “We came up with this idea of a floating house, and we worked backwards from that, thinking, “How did this guy get into the floating house?” And we came up with this whole backstory of him meeting this girl, and they fell in love, and they had this whole relationship. And this failed promise, that they didn’t ever get to go down to South America to live this adventure that they always wanted to do. And so it was kind of based on that.”

The resemblance to the students’ short film made me uneasy, so I had to look into this.

I contacted Yannick Banchereau and asked:

“Did someone in your team go on to work for Pixar?”

“Did Pixar buy the rights to your concept?”

“Was this purely a coincidence?”

His response (translated by Google Translate):

Yannick Banchereau – “Well, no, none of us went to work at Pixar, if you know someone who is in Supinfgraph, you should know that ESRA has a partnership with Pixar, so we concluded that for Pixar to see our film among those that ESRA had sent them, and they “kept” (stolen?) the idea into a feature film …
Unfortunately the film does not belong to us because this was done as part of our studies, so we can do nothing …
Thank you for your interest, it’s good to see that someone has acknowledged our film (even if the quality is far from the Pixar)”

Personally, I can’t help it to think that Pixar used the students’ idea. If they did, it’s disappointing that the acknowledgment for these students cannot be found anywhere.

(Thanks to Dorian Fevrier for first pointing this out to me!)

I could not believe the absolute identical score on this documentary to the superb Hans Zimmer score from Gladiator.

I was sure it would have a credit given to Hans Zimmer or Gladiator, but no, just one Martyn Swain.

The documentary (from 2002) start for just one of the many, many examples (auto starting at 25 seconds in)

BBC Documentary opening music

And now track 3, The Battle from the movie Gladiator (2000) (auto starting at 5 mins 52secs in for the same portion)

Gladiator Soundtrack – The Battle

This is just one example, it uses the Gladiator soundtrack music all the way through it, it’s a disgrace.

How does someone get away with this? Especially as the Gladiator soundtrack is SO well known… I only own two soundtracks, and that’s one of them!

In the UK this advert from Weight Watchers is doing the new year rounds. The TV ad and digital campaign both feature brightly coloured characters that look very closely inspired from a French student project “Reulf”. The TV spot involves the characters following and interacting with people in different aspects of their day which is very similar to the short films content.

Weight Watchers

Here is a link to the TV Ad (no embeddable version available)

Here’s a sample of their online ads (more can be seen on www.weightwatchers.co.uk):

“Reulf”

Here’s a link to the video hosted on vimeo.com:

http://www.vimeo.com/4870899

The characters are shaped differently but the colours, movement and interaction are all very similar. If you colour pick the torquoise and the gold/orange character their values are too close for coincidence.

http://www.vimeo.com/4870899

SO. This is a book I found in a small shop and read start to finish in one night  because of the insane pace, and how the Title describes the book perfectly. I’m more for hesse and all those older heads, but this was a nice break, and was especially vivid to my mind as I read it when I was a little younger. Enough of that.

So. maybe 4 years had passed since I’d read the book, and nothing had really made it stick out in my memory, until I was hanging with some of the guys and my friend put on this movie called “HIGH TENSION”

THIS MOVIE IS A LINE FOR LINE RIP OF DEAN KOONTZ’S NOVEL.

I Literally watched the first 4/5’s of this movie thinking to myself that Dean Koontz had A. Finally made his book into a movie B. Had left 90% Identical to the book, but had randomly changed a few scenes. C. Had fucked it up by cutting out the last few chapters and switching them for an Inane Plot twist which made little to zero sense….

The KICKER was the ending which was clearly thrown in because Alexandre Aja didn’t know how to cut the film off properly. Basically, the plot twist in Koontz’s Book is alright, while the plot twist in Aja’s ripoff Is FUCKING RIDICULOUS (it’s one of those clichè main character is psychzo and was a bunch of different people at the same time type deals)

This is a really bad callout, but still…….. I feel bad for Koontz, and you should too.

DOWN WITH ALEXANDER AJA

first the video:
Charlotte Gainsbourg feat. Beck – Heaven Can Wait

now the images from William Hundley’s Flickr:

now Hundley’s Flickr post after i emailed him the link to the video:

not only did Keith Schofield rip Hundley, but the whole video is rips of other works from fffound.com. Who needs to come up with new ideas when you can just use flickr or fffound?

I just saw an architecture projection advertising campaign for Volvo realised by Nuformer Digital Media in cooperation with Saatchi & Saatchi. For promotion purposes They did a “3d-projection” during the IAA in Frankfurt, Germany. It contains a scene where hands seem to disappear into the building facade by pushing cubic stones inside the house. As for me it is a very strong visual idea that stays in mind I checked my bookmarks and found the project “555 KUBIK” realised by Urbanscreen for the “Hamburg Kunsthalle” in Germany which was all over the web some times ago for it’s outstanding concept in the field of projection mapping. Even if it is not a direct copy like a logo or something I think it is a shameless rip off of the idea. That it was stolen by a well known international advertising agency like Saatchi & Saatchi makes it even more shocking from my point of view. Shouldn’t they have a certain decency?! However, see for yourself:

Rip-Off:

Original:

You can find the Original Video here.

And the Rip-off here.

hello out there in the world. This music video for Japanese band Sour’s “Hibi No Neiro” we made back in June has been seen all over the world via youtube and then blogs, film festivals etc, and got a lot of exposure which is really great.

but the bad part is seen quite few rip-offs from all over the world: one cellphone commercial from Israel, one music video from France, snack commercial from Philippine as far as we know.

Please see them for yourself and compare. We want those heartless people to feel ashamed. We don’t really know what to do since they are all in different country hens apply different laws, and getting lawyers seems like lot of money. but We need them to feel ashamed and do something about it.

Here is the original video

Sour Hibi No Neiro

sour hibi no neiro

Here is Israeli cell phone commercial

Israeli cellphone commercial

Here is French music video for Hakimakli Feat. Jamie Shepherd – One Love

Here is Phillippine snack commercial

Philippine snack commercial

This is not right.

I made this clip 2 years ago using still images on my commute to work and added some audio in post.

Or look here: http://www.vimeo.com/284468

Morning Commute from keith on Vimeo.

Two years later a few friends pointed out this Nutri Grain ad they spotted on T.V.

Or look here: http://www.artworknotavailable.com/videoplayer/?f=nutrigrain

Sour – Hibi No Neiro

Cellcom advertisement by BBDO