Hotspur and Argyle

Richard Swarbrick hand painted every single frame of the animation in this beautiful new tribute to Ballon D’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo. He then packed twenty five sketchbooks’ worth of pictures into his suitcase and set off for Manchester United’s Old Trafford home where it all began for the great Portuguese playmaker before retracing his steps to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium stadium in Madrid where Ronaldo now weaves his magic for Real Madrid. Accompanied by producer Tom Mallion (those are his hands), Richard shot stills of every illustration along the way,  cutting them together to produce the stunning tribute you can watch by clicking HERE. This is a companion piece to the Lionel Messi film Richard created for Adidas when the legendary Argentinian won his third Ballon D’Or in 2012.

This film made by insane genius Kevin Curtis

Coldplay have just premiered their groundbreaking new video for ‘Ink’. Directed and animated by our animation collective BL:ND, fans can plot their own storyline through the interactive tale about a lost traveller who journeys to the edges of the world in search of his lost love. Viewers can make real time choices throughout the video, altering its outcome – with more than 300 possible journeys available. BL:ND conceived the video and worked directly with the band and used proprietary software built by interactive video specialists Interlude.

Click the image above to see the video.

For enquiries on BL:ND’s availability please contact attilio@hotspurandargyle.co.uk

A one ton Gloucester bull called Isaac co-stars in Theo Delaney’s new Quotezone commercial for agency Red Brick Road. Isaac plays the part of Bill, the hapless bovine employee who is reluctantly ‘let go’ by his boss – played by Matthew Houlihan – because Quotezone is all about price comparison ‘without the… you know’. Shot in sunny Barnet, Isaac was provided by legendary animal coordinator Trevor Smith who advised no sudden movements or noises around the beast. In the event the shoot passed without incident apart from a moment of panic from a camera assistant (we won’t name him) who tried to escape through a plate glass partition when Isaac looked at him funny. Red Brick Road creatives were Matt Davis, Richard Megson and Tom Skinner and agency producer was James Tracy. Victoria Lynn produced for H&A, production designer was Toby Stevens and the spot was lit by Ben Butler and edited by Rebecca Luff of Tenthree.

We are beyond excited to announce the signing of wunderkind director Edward John Drake.

Currently taking the world of music videos by storm, uber music site 405 describes him as having ‘mad heat’ adding: ‘With genre-defining artists like Klangkarussell, the Stanton Warriors and Kat Krazy paying generously for his time, he’s become the go-to guy in electronic music for brave characters and thought provoking themes’.

His latest music promo for Austrian electro duo Klangkarussell is an extraordinary nine-minute single-shot Steadicam affair that follows a protagonist through a South London council estate as he encounters a series of strange and unsettling characters.

Australian by birth and splitting his time between Los Angeles and London, Edward brings a lateral and fearless approach to his work as you might expect of a 23 year old who is the former assistant of iconic filmmaker Mark Romanek and he is straining at the leash to apply his abundant gifts and energy to commercials.

Find out more in this 405 interview and view the Klangkarussell video here.

This whistle-stop tour of contemporary Blackpool conducted by seven year old tour guide Oliver Nelson is Theo Delaney’s personal paean to Britain’s greatest seaside town. Featuring a host of attractions and an astoundingly assured performance by its young star, the film aims to reinvigorate the nation’s love of the Las Vegas of Lancashire. Scripted by TBWA Manchester’s Becci Tyrrell and Adam Richardson – who recently cleaned up at the Roses Awards – the commercial benefits from cinematography by Danny Cohen (The Kings Speech, Les Miserables etc) and editing by Scott Crane of The Quarry. TBWA’s producer was Rose Bulow and Victoria Lynn took charge for Hotspur & Argyle.

If you have an important message on a sensitive issue, say it with dildos. That’s the lesson learned from the story of David Kerr’s PSA for Evolve Inc which campaigns for greater responsibility among American gun owners. The film shows a couple of kids sword fighting with marital aids discovered in the family home while their embarrassed mothers look on. Evolve’s co-founder Rebecca Bond explains:  “Our PSA is humorous, but the message is serious. Parents need to take ownership of safety in the house. If you don’t want kids to play with it, put it away – it’s up to you to keep your stuff locked up. We’re using humor to cut through political correctness and deliver a simple message. Americans can have a serious conversation about firearm safety that doesn’t devolve into a political abyss.”  The film’s naturalistic performances are deftly handled to deliver maximum humour and resonance and at the time of writing it had achieved two and a half million youtube views in less than a week.  Shot in Los Angles with Hotspur & Argyle’s US partner company Private School Entertainment the idea came out of McCanns New York.

This beautiful film celebrating great goals from World Cups down the years is the work of the inimitable Richard Swarbrick and has been made to mark a special pop up fantasista exhibition hosted by our friends at The Assembly Rooms from Monday 23 June. The inaugural exhibition from fantasista, the football artists group, took place a year ago in Waterloo and this new compact show, specially mounted to coincide with events in Brazil, features work from Quiet British Accent, Dave Merrell, Ezequiel Suranyi, Haarala Hamilton and the aforementioned Mr Swarbrick.

The football obsessives here at Hotspur & Argyle are so excited by all this that they’ve decided to lay down this simple competition-challenge for fellow devotees of the beautiful game: can you name all the scorers in the film? If you can, drop us an email to worldcup@hotspurandargyle.co.uk. All the correct entries received by the closing date of July 14 (aka World Cup Final Day) will be placed in a hat and one lucky winner will receive a signed, one-off, super high quality Richard Swarbrick print. Listen carefully and you’ll find a couple of the answers in the soundtrack – as for the rest, good luck!