To celebrate our 10th birthday, we bought an ad spot during classic daytime viewing show “Dr. Phil”. The spot aired to the 27000 viewers of Dr. Phil on Friday the 3rd of September on Channel 10. The 15 second commercial was basically a series of nested pull outs from a television of various characters and real people sitting in a lounge room, watching each other on TV and saying “Yaaay”:
We held a small party so people would be able to see the spot sitting in the same lounge room that all the characters were sitting in watching each other.
After waiting on tender hooks, eating party pies and drinking champagne we were rewarded with the oddest TV viewing experience ever. We filmed the event and continued the nested pull out in-camera, creating the ultimate Droste Effect.
We’d like to thank everyone who chipped in to create this commercial (Scott Collins from Plush/Noiselab, Evan Newby, Dean, everyone at Sixty40) and also to Channel 10 and Free TV who didn’t blink an eye when we insinuated what we wanted to do (though they mightn’t have really grasped the full wonder of it).
As some of you may know, Sixty40 has now been around for 10 amazing years of work. Amidst the many things we’re doing to celebrate is buying some ad time to put some art on TV during Dr. Phil. It’ll be screening between 12:15 and 12:20 this Friday the 3rd of September. Be sure to tune in to Channel 10 for a very brief bit of wonder.
We are very proud to announce that amongst Sydney’s Design Heavyweights, Sixty40 has reigned supreme in the sold out Iron Designer contest held as part of Sydney Design Week. Against massive competition from Frost Design, Digital Eskimo our supreme ability to create magic out of nothing shone through.
From the beginning, we knew what would win in this performance focused situation would be any of the 8 steps of any creative development: evaluate the environment, listen to the brief, add humour, add heart, add sex, add robots, add puppies and let it be great,” said Sixty40′s Mark Simpson.
Senior Designer and Art Director
Sixty40, Sydney, Australia
About Sixty40: We are a small Sydney-based animation and design company with a penchant for funny,beautiful, charming and unique work. We are passionate about creating awesome work with awesome people.
Position Summary:
The Senior Designer / Director is responsible for leading the design and production of commercials, broadcast design and animation.
This position is a 1year contract (ideally starting Jan 2011, but this is moveable) with the possibility of a full time position after the contract expires.
Overall responsibilities:
Conceptualise and design pitch boards
Lead 2d and 3d departments
Animate and composite in After Effects
Work to deadlines and budgets
Some 3D (cinema 4d or max) a plus, but not mandatory
Requirements:
5-7 years industry experience as designer with a strong interest in animation
Ability to generate and develop creative excellence either with a team or on own
Strong creative vision and passion for story and design
Ability to translate briefs into animation and design treatments and then execute them
Ability to direct narrative work as well as make it look great is a plus
Strong presentation skills and experience in working closely with clients.
Please send reels and CVs to: Nicky Marshall, Executive Producer
nicky.marshall@sixty40.com
+61 2 9357 1441
www.sixty40.com
We’ve got two projects competing against each other in the Australian Effects and Animation Festival awards for Title Idents and Stings… whoops. Good luck TV1 and Foxtel. Find out more here.
By now you’ve all scoped the new site and watched the new reel and you’re scratching your heads wondering who did that tight Rick Ross remix. It comes courtesy of Seattle’s own Prince of Ballard and you can find more of his fresh blends and edits here…
As part of Sydney Design Week, Matt and Mark will go head to head with other amazing Sydney Design companies in a high-intensity creative gladiatorial fun-fest called “iron designer”.
Sixty40 brings in an Gold International Promax for our TV1 Summer campaign. Check out all the spots here.
If that wasn’t enough, we then bring in 3 Silver International Promax’s for our Foxtel Winter Games spots. Check out those spots here.
We’re very thankful to our clients for bringing us in on such awesome briefs. Both of those jobs were treated very much like a series of short films from script to concept to execution so we’re very glad to see them do so well out in the harsh light of broadcast.
Sixty40 were asked to be one of 10 curators who choose 10 creative movers and shakers to be saluted at the 10X10 project for Creative Sydney. We were amidst a big spread of creative superdudes including Margaret Pomeranz, Rob Hirst from Midnight Oil and the founders of Sass & Bide.
Here’s who we selected and why:
Ash Boland from Umeric. Ash is a 3d design super ninja, whose beautiful, abstract and organic animations are receiving attention both here and at home. Starting to bust out big moves on the world stage, Ash, as a director, has a strong unique vision and is one-to-watch.
Benja Harney.Self taught and dedicated to the art of high-end pop-up books and paper engineering, through his company, Paperform, Harney has been bringing his creations to the world of advertising, fashion, illustration, invitations and fine art.
Mini Graff.Mini Graff is continually refining her position as both a street and traditional artist, doing residencies at such old-timey places as Megalo while continually making the streets of Sydney more interesting.
Joseph Allen Shea.Joseph Allen Shea is the backbone of several creative communities. Shea is a curator at Monster Children Gallery in Darlinghurst, a fine illustrator himself and the producer of ongoing excellent book work and more under the izrock title.
Rob Barton and The Commons. Landscape designer and restaurateur, Bob, and the hard working crew at the Commons are bringing a much needed slice of Melbourne to the Sydney Bar Scene.
Renny Kodgers. Performance artist, Burlesque compere, radio game show host to name just a few of his talents, he is part man, part amazing.
Chris Wu. Chris’ record label and promotions company is bringing all the latest indie sounds to a range of new venues, with a cult following ever growing in his wake.
Billy Goat and The Mongrels. Billy Goat and the Mongrels are a balls-out romp into a deranged musical forest where you’re not sure if anyone will ever get out. They’re as heartfelt as they are troubled and for this reason are unsung wunderkinds who Sydney should be proud of.
Pia Van Gelder. Pia is an artist and curator of Serial Space and manages the Sydney chapter of “Dorkbot” = Mover + Shaker
Doug Bayne. Doug is one of the unsung heros of the animation and special effects in Sydney. Consistently making hilarious and polished work. There’s a lot to love.
We’ve been all over the festival this year, apart from being selected to be 10X10 curators, Mark and Matt appeared in the promotional material for the Vivid Sydney.
Oh, and here’s a photo of Mark at the festival in 3D.
Photo by Alex Fry and Jamie Nimmo. Check out more here.
Matt and Mark appear as hot models in the promo shots for Creative Sydney this year where Sixty40 represents the face of “Ideas”. Apparently: Not only are we creative but we are beautiful as all get out.
If you’re a creative, you should get along to this excellent event based in and around the city.
No, that’s us in the back. For the Zimmermann parade at Sydney Fashion Week we helped extend the catwalk into an infinite illuminated hall. The LED screen at the back was aligned to create a trompe l’oeil for the (many) cameras at the end.
We’re starting up an award to celebrate hot young animators working in all media and rewarding them with moola, mentorship and screening at the Sydney International Film Festival. Here’s the press release.
With the second UTS: Sydney International Animation Festival set to launch in Sydney on 24 September 2010, emerging animators have a chance to get a leg up in the industry through the Sixty40 Proto-Ninja Award.
The Sixty40 Proto-Ninja Award will consist of $999.99 cash plus a two-month mentorship with Sixty40, a design and animation company that combines the love of creativity with the reality of commercial production.
Entrants must create a new work of between 40 and 60 seconds length, which follows the theme “Underdog”.
Deadline for entries is 6th August 2010.
“The focus of the entry should be on telling a story that strikes an emotional chord around the theme of the underdog,” said Sixty40’s Animation Director Matt Taylor. “So, we’re looking for films that are funny, sad, inspirational or evoke some other emotional response.”
Production techniques used are completely open and could include stop-frame, traditional 2D, motion graphics, 3D, photography, puppetry, film or video. The result must ensure a compelling experience for the viewer rather than just a display of technical prowess.
“We use the term ‘ninja’ to signify an animator or designer with superior skills, vision and passion who can be relied on to not only pull their own weight in a studio but also to bring fresh unique qualities to their work. A ‘proto-ninja’ is a ninja-in-the-making who has not yet had the chance to unleash their talents on the world. The mentorship will give the winner time, resources and guidance to help them develop their film, experience and secret powers on their path towards full Ninja-dom” continues Taylor.
Ten finalists will be screened and the winner announced at the opening night of the UTS: Sydney International Animation Festival, Friday 24 September, 2010. As well, the ten finalists will have their work streamed from the Proto-Ninja award website for a period of 12 months or until the 2011 winner is announced.
In 2010 the Festival will showcase sessions such as the Australian Panorama, SIGGRAPH Highlights and the wonderfully twisted Late Night Bizarre, along with a new batch of animation from France, the US, UK and China to mention a few. After the success of last year’s international guest speakers Clare Kitson, former commissioning editor for the UK’s Channel 4, and Oscar winning Canadian animator Chris Landreth, 2010 will continue to provide access to the movers and shakers of the global animation industry.
The nice folk at Digital Media World took the time to summarise the production process we went through to make the TV1 idents. The article will appear in their latest issue but of course, it’s also online.
Apologies for the exclamation mark, but that’s major news! The Creative Hotshop awards identifies Australia’s most interesting/charming/innovative/coolest/sexiest production house of the year.
We are very flattered to be included amongst the 3 finalists in the animation category.
Big ups to Motionographer, Drawn and Boing Boing for sending some viewers the way of the TV1 Summer spots. You can tell when one of these blogs take an interest in your work: your internets go crazy.
We’ve just finished a series of stop motion idents for TV1 that featured objects coming to life to explore the quintessential Australian summer. The themes were Celebrations (which ticked off christmas and new years and general summer parties), The beach (which was about hot summer days, getting burnt, hot sand, cool water and summer fruit) and finally backyard barbecues (which was about impromptu summer sports, barbecues and cricket matches on the radio. It was affectionately titled “Sausage Party”).
Here’s a photo of the dog relaxing in the set for the logo resolve for “Celebration”. Download the greatest desktop pattern ever by clicking the image.
Battlestar has already been selected by and appeared in a variety of sweet film fests: The Holland animation film festival (HAFF), The Portable Film Festival (here), The Fantastic Planet Film Festival (here) to name a few. But in massive news, it has also been selected to appear in the very exclusive DotMov Festival out of Japan. It’s one of only 18 movies to appear, and we are proud as hell.
…and Psycho Teddy is still out there, making an impact in the world. This is pretty amazing advance: someone is Vlogging their reaction to the video. It’d be good to play them both at once so you can see what she’s seeing, feel what she’s feeling. You certainly know what she’s thinking, because she’s saying it out loud.
Wooo! it’s been a while in the making but we just got our copy of the 15th anniversary IdN anthology. Our work is sandwiched between Shilo and Stardust, which is great company to keep, and on the enclosed dvd we have made a mind-blowing film which prophesises the not too far away future when pandas fly in hover cars and we work in the park in our email enabled space helmets. Available at all fancy book shops around the globe.
Check out the film Sixty40 was asked to make top mark the occasion here:
If you happen to be strolling down Burton St. Dalringhurst one of these nights you’ll notice 2 massive projections in the front garden of an old timey restaurant. The animations going at timelapse speed and represent a neglected space being reclaimed by nature. The projections run for 6 weeks and each week we release a new phase of growth. Eventually it will become a beautiful overgrown garden to to match the transformation going on behind the screens.
As part of our on going strategy of putting characters everywhere, we’ve started a project of putting characters on top of poles around the neighbourhood. Keep an eye out for them.
People, get in their and vote your asses off for us. We’re catching up to the other people in Median Vote score (currently we’re at 4.32 the next film is at 4.61 or something). Vote early. Vote often. We might just win something. If we do we’ll split it with you.
The Battlestar clip has been accepted into the Portable Film Festival which launches this Saturday. It will also be featured as one of the festival highlights on their site on Sunday which is excellent (and a great choice might we add). It is in the Music Video category and naturally we want to win as we have made the best film clip ever.
From August 1st – 31st, Portable Film Festival will present its biggest festival program yet of nearly 180 films, from over 800 submissions from 46 countries, across the festival categories of Short Film, Music Video, Look at Me, Get Animated, First Hand Capture, and Feature Film. From widescreen vistas to webcam confessionals, Portable will present the zeitgeist highlights and the under-the-radar prototypes of the big names and future talents of contemporary filmmaking, direct to your laptop, iPod, PSP or 3G mobile phone!
I love you guys, how do i vote? To register to vote please go to:
The category winners will be decided by audience voting; you’ll see your film player page has a simple rating system of 1-5, with 1 being subjectively regrettable, and 5 being possibly the Best. Film. Ever. Viewers can also post comments, critiques or talk to you directly via the comments pane on your film’s player page. Voting is open for the next month. And I guess like any good election, you can only vote once.
Our film title: Battlestar
Director: Sixty40
Category: Music Video
Please forward this onto as many friends, family, pets with internet access as you can think of as it would be great to get the awesomeness of “Battlestar” out there wherever we can. The world needs to know.
A very sweet animation about love with a terrible warning. To find out more about the very accomplished Doctor Prawn, check out his blog. Thanks Ran Ran.
The “Throw us a Bone” campaign we worked on last year continnues its awards run winning a yellow pencil at last nights D & AD awards in London, taking out the mobile marketing category. Congrats to all involved.
Check the work out here, and read about the awards here
Comments about “Battlestar” collected from around the web:
“That’s blowing my brain to shreds…. Awesome clip & the remix really flips it from the original..Tasty! - http://www.juslikemusic.com/
“Ooh very nice. It’s like lenticular vision in 3d. Is this 4d? :O” – http://gadgets.boingboing.net
“From concept to execution, it’s impressive. And you know what? They just made me an insta fan of the company, the producer, and the emcees. Ahh, I love freshness! =$”
- http://silver.sterlingsanders.com
“the video to Harmonic 313 ‘sBattlestar got me tripping, how did they do that? http://bit.ly/WQrjE (ace!)” – twitterer onpoint
“one of the dopest music video’s I’ve seen in a long time” - twitterer Azer
This Friday, May 29 at 8pm Sixty40 will be talking at “Behind the Screens” at the MCA as part of the week long Creative Sydney festival, which celebrates the wealth and diversity of the city’s creative talents. Also speaking will be Host – Jay Katz (Mu-Meson Archives), Ian Cope (Rising Sun Pictures), Ben Briand and Basil Hogios (Cherub Pictures), Deborah Szapiro (The Good Fight), Phil Lloyd and Trent O’Donnell (Review with Myles Barlow on ABC2). It’s free and runs from 8-9pm, there’s a bar, so hey… see you there.
To register for these free events and for more info hit creativesydney.com.au
Creative Sydney runs May 27 – June 12 2009, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay, The Roxy, Parramatta
Holy Maceroni. Warp records have released our clip for the artist Harmonic 313 onto their main page to hype up the impending release of the amazing sounding single. The album, from which it comes is reviewed thus:
” A head splintering masterpiece”- Dazed & Confused “a brilliant re-wiring of post-rave sonics” -Q 4 **** “Joins the dots of Detroit’s recent musical history,drawing a line between hip-hop legend J Dilla, the electro futurism of Drexciya and the hi-tech soul of the likes of Kenny Larkin”- Plan B
For the clip, we’ve pioneered a technique of stereoscopic editting that lives up to the sprit of “head-splintering”. Follow the link to check it out. Watch out if flashing imagery is a problem for you, there’s a lot of it.
The ringtone inspired a film clip and that film clip has inspired someone, possibly in a strange way, one million times. That deserves an exclamation mark, maybe two. It’s great to read the comments that are left on the youtube page, so check them out here. We really are touching some people out there in internet land. Respect.
Update: Sony has removed the 1 million plus video and changed their embedding options for some reason. Visit their new one here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLeYEcHHs5E
In its first appearance of the award season, in a really tough international competition – ‘Throw us a Bone’ picked up a Bronze Lotus!! Thanks to the SDCH, Gen, Hannes, Moxi Sound and the hard working guys at M & C Saatchi.
Anna burns invited us on to be the weekly guests on FBi’s “Out of the Box” weekly show, where creative types get to present the music that floats their boat. We got an hour which we filled with Muppets, Budos Band, Mudhoney and more. Thanks, Anna, we had a ball. If you missed it, then check it out here…
Here we perform live the haunting “Pandas who need people” in front of an adoring crowd. Or they were adoring to begin with anyway. Then they turned ugly.
Sixty40 is shooting a new video clip for harmonic 313. It’s a dance base clip using a steroscopic technique which will make your eyes pop out of your head. The dancer is the indubitable Andy Uprock. We’ve just finished shooting it and commencing the edit. Then we saw this. Which reminds you: it’s all in the performance baby.
The indubitable Dr. Prawn has released a film clip to welcome in 2009. He combines haunting insights with a groove reminiscent of late night Neil Young sessions.
The last message in Sign form from Evan Newby, a fine animator who is moving his pencil on in the world. He was responsible for much of the hard drawing work in The Eduganda Panda show. We salute him.
http://www.vimeo.com/2877123Here’s a blast from the past. A karaoke video with no words. This haunting reworking of the Streisand classic was created in 2003 for Sixty40′s 3rd birthday and performed by man in a panda suit. It was filmed in Kings Cross, Sydney. Now, we’re 8 and a bit, it’s like a blast from the past.
Matt has a doll in Cupco’s upcoming group show, amongst a legion of your favourite artists. Opening’s on the 16th down at Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern. See you there, whooo!
THE UNITED NATIONS OF CUPCO
100 international artists received a felt template
of a Cupco Doll from Luke Temby/CUPCO.
Come and see the 70 that came back.
DAMIEN MINTON GALLERY
61-63 GREAT BUCKINGHAM STREET REDFERN
damienmintongallery.com.au
December 10 – 20, Opening Party December 16th
Artists include APAK + Bwana Spoons + Nakanari + Euan Macleod + J. Otto Siebold + Sixty40 + Diego Medina + Leo Robba + Abi Temby + Scrappers + Le Merde + Furi Furi + Kazmo + Little Frends of Printmaking + Arbito + Snaggs + Oliver Hibert + Wrecks + Dehara + Sam Gowing + John Yates + Shawn Wolfe + Yupyland + Kiyoshi Nakazawa + Shawnimals + Jeremyville + MCA + Peskimo + Steven Moore + Johnny Ryan + Abe Lincoln Jr. + Chris Magnusson + Nerissa Lea + Reg Lynch + Reach + Jude Fowler Smith + Chris Magnusson + Tado + Jon Burgerman + more…
Next in the series of fresh signs to illuminate the multi-use park out the front of our office is the double-faced Dan. Paying homage to one of our super-ninjas, Dan. Take that drifters.
two weeks ago we held the first ever Sixty40 Social, to celebrate turning 8 years old. It was upstairs at the world bar and had a Groucho Marx theme. Masks were worn, chocolate cigars were smoked, cake was eaten, booze was consumed and good times were had.
The “Throw us a bone” campaign for Sydney Dogs and Cat’s Home launched Yesterday. Sixty40 created the worlds most endearing dog to encourage people to contribute money to the dogs home charity via their mobile phone. Generous tourists and drunk office workers have been texting the 9m screen at Customs House in Circular Quay to see Frankie thanks them by name and then do a trick.
Meanwhile there’s a collection of very glowing reviews:
“Move over red rover, let sixty40 take over” – Marketing Mag
10 x 3 meter wallpaper for an attic space. A bamboo forest in anaglyphic 3d. At the very least, it’s a massive, abstract, beautiful image… at the best, you’ll be able to put on the Red-Blue Glasses and listen to your mind go pop.
The hype film we made for the home games of the roosters has been selected to show in the Holland Film Festival. I wonder if they’ll like it as much as 15000 screaming football fans?
Sixty40 is helping judge this competition for iRiver. Apparently one submits ones animation/motion graphics or song and if one wins, one gets to be the official video of their new player plus tour the country in one’s own balloon. Or something. Check out their site to find out what exactly is going on. Some time with Sixty40 is even part of the main prize. Respect.
We were at the shoot for a new show we’re doing the show packaging and identity for Disney’s “Alpha Breaks”. It’s great to walk into a place and see your logo made real, not just real but with flashing lights. This brings to 2 the amount of times that has happened to us. The other one was for the very neon “The Lair”:
here is a shot of Nash Edgerton and our muppet, chillin’ and discussin’ the film industry, whilst we were filming our haunting new promo film for SPAA Fringe.
Sixty40 is in the middle of making a promo for the SPAA Fringe. In the film, the main character walks past a poster for a movie, the type of which he hates. That movie is “Spider Monkey”.
We held a small party so people would be able to see the spot sitting in the same lounge room that all the characters were sitting in watching each other.
We’ve got two projects competing against each other in the Australian Effects and Animation Festival awards for Title Idents and Stings… whoops. Good luck TV1 and Foxtel. Find out more 
