dropping science (and fruit)

We're making a new TV advert. The clever ones among you will be able to tell that it features fruit. Using the latest "dropping fruit from a rickety bit of scaffolding" technique, we are hoping to make something beautiful, entertaining and innocent in its nature.

Pete ("the best in the business") is looking after the fruit. He picks it, preens it and sometimes talks to it.

Helen is the director. She's firm but fair, and is guiding us towards sunlit uplands.

And the fruit just keeps rolling. Down chutes, from wires and pretty much every other way you can imagine that fruit could be propelled. We will stop at nothing until we have made fruit do every trick in the book.

special times, special friends

We don't usually advertise other things on this blog, especially heavy heavy liquor, but this poster seen in a Spanish airport caught our fancy.

Unbelievably.

a little film about little films

On a very rainy Saturday four weeks ago, we held a little workshop here at Fruit Towers to launch our mini movies competition.  Ben Wheatley- film director, very funny chap, and the maker of our superhero ad- spent the day with us, talking about his own experience, sharing top tips, and helping our film makers' make their own little mini movies on the day.

This is our little video about the day- thanks to Mark and Dan for all the time they put into making this for us: 

To find out how you could get your work on TV, and win £5000, take a peak here here.

ninjas & chips

It's that time of the week again, as we pull out a rather battered gold envelope and announce that the winner of this week's mini movies weekly competition is...

The Ninja Biscuit.

Cue rapturous applause, mass adulation, and a year's subscription to Lovefilm, which will be whittling its way, at speed, towards you shortly.

No film based awards ceremony would be right without a nod to the contenders however, and this rather excellent late submission on Friday last week put in a seriously heavy fight for the prize and was beaten only by the clock. 

This week, we'll be giving £150 Amazon vouchers to the mini movie that racks up the most views between now and noon next Monday- so get those mini movies in as soon as possible and then be sure to tell your mates, your Nan and that nice chap at the bus stop about your masterpiece.

As mentioned last week, this weekly competition and number of views has no bearing on the overall competition- the judging panel will decide the top 5 shortlist against originality, adherance to the brief, and the selected criteria shown in our special terms and conditions. Check out our special youtube channel for more info on this and on how to get involved in the competition.

a special film makers' workshop

Saturday 19th Feb, 2011.

For many, this will go down as the day when it rained a lot, or as the weekend where they had a particularly tasty croissant for breakfast.

But for me, Sat 19th Feb will be marked as my favourite day at work. Ever.

A few weeks ago, we blogged a post inviting people to come along to a special film makers' workshop here at Fruit Towers. 60 soaked, but surprisingly chirpy, budding film makers came through the doors of the Towers on Sat for a very special workshop with Ben Wheatley - film director, funny man, and chap who made our advert.

  

With beanbags and biscuits, and a Wizard of Oz style presentation from up on the balcony, Ben shared some of his top tips for film making, ranging from how to use storyboards effectively to the importance of time management in directing.

We'll let you into a secret...the number 1 rule of film directing?

Never, ever sit down.

 

In the afternoon, our budding film makers were set loose to create their own 30 second mini movie superhero movie, armed with Ben's tips and a no expenses spared* film makers' kit.

 
*this may not be strictly true

They looked up for the challenge, so we threw in additional angle of artistic opportunity/anguish and gave them each a genre or theme for their mini movie, ranging from slasher horror to circus chic.

They spent a bit of time brainstorming...

 

...and then the magic started to really happen as the gaffa tape came out, the fishwire was attached, and a selection of Fruit Towers' finest random props were put to excellent use.

 

The result? 9 truely excellent films watched with lashings of popcorn that had us in stitches.

 

Check out some of the results, and find out how you can get involved in our mini movies competition here.

Thanks so much to those of you who came down for the day. We'll be smiling about it for a while to come.

calling all budding filmmakers

Ben Wheatley (the rather brilliant chap who made our advert) is holding a film making masterclass at Fruit Towers in a couple of weeks and we'd love it if a few of you could come along. After gleaning Ben's expert wisdom on films of the lo-fi and handmade variety, you'll be set loose to make your own. All you need to do is be keen, come equipped with your own filming device (whether it be your mobile phone or something distinctly fancier) and be prepared to master stick-and-string based productions.

So if you're free on the 19th Feb from about 10-4, tell us a bit more about yourself here to throw your superhero director's cap firmly in the ring.

perilously peckish moments

We’ve made a new advert for the telly, featuring a superhero smoothie bottle, who flies around saving people from those perilously peckish moments between meals (especially relevant in January, with all of its resolutions). Take a look at it here...

a tweet would be nice

Here's our new telly advert that's on the box at the minute. It's probably not the first to feature a rabbit, we've made two in the past alone. But it might be the first to feature twitter. At the very least a rabbit requesting a tweet. You can follow innocent here if you're into tweets, and the rabbit here.

rabbit, rabbit, rabbit

Chas and Dave once sung a song about rabbits, it went like this. We've probably made more rabbit mentions than both Chas and Dave did in their entire careers in the last month alone. But we still feel there's more room for rabbits in our lives.

So here we have some fancy new posters featuring rabbits and our tasty veg pots that you might come across in the next few weeks when you're out and about.

 

We've also gone all green and veg pot like on our rabbiting on website where we're still accepting questions. And we've got a brand new Facebook game on our hands; the veg pot jack pot. Go play it here and try and get to the top of the leader board. There'll be unofficial prizes for the people at the very top in 4 weeks time.

another advert with a rabbit in it

A while a go we made our first ever advert for the telly with a chicken in it, and then we made an advert with a rabbit in it. We quite liked it so we've made another one, and here it is.

If you fancy seeing it on real life telly here’s a selection of the most choice appearances in his schedule: Today at 21.45 during Slumdog Millionaire, tomorrow at 22.50 during Ocean’s 12 and on Saturday at 20.45 during All Star Mr & Mrs. Keep your eyes peeled.