Our new video!

WATCH: COLDPLAY - 'Paradise'

This already feels like a year ago. Incredible.

Meine beine sind gefickt!

A massive, heartfelt thank you to everyone who sponsored myself, Dom and Harriet, aka Team G.B. this weekend.

Despite an unabated rainfall, anxiety-fuelled insomnia, a ludicrously early wake-up time, blisters, chaffing, bowel-turmoil and not to mention the stupid matter of 26 miles between the start and the finish, I managed to get round in 4:09:58.

More importantly, we managed to raise over £4,000 for the Gideon Baws Memorial Fund, which is brilliant and makes it all worthwhile. Our legs might not be happy, but we are. I hope we did Gideon proud.

Very special thanks to the Berlin support team, who came out with a hand painted banner to cheer us on in the cold rain. Thanks also to our great friends at RunDemCrew who enthusiastically eased the task of 18 weeks of training. I doubt very much we could have done it without them.

(the smiles pictured are lies)

My shins

Long time since I posted. Been way too distracted with work, offspring and mortgage applications to be 'socially interacting.' Screw that!

And any scraps of free time have been dedicated to a kamikaze mission: a week Sunday I'm off to Germany with my good friends Harriet and Dom to run the Berlin Marathon. I never thought I'd be able to run a marathon and with 10 days to go I'm still to be convinced.

So far we've been training for 17 weeks. One word: Fucking Relentless. I must say that the canal-ways of Hackney, while occasionally stunning and always fascinating, have become unimaginably tedious. When we hit the starting line we'll have covered 430 miles in preparation.

I've got shin-splints, scabs on my nipples, a missing toenail and ankles that creak like a crap pirate ship. But it's all for a great cause; while thousands of gym-dorks run around half-heartedly collecting money for arbitrary charities, we really mean it, man. We're raising money for the Gideon Baws Memorial Fund.

We've joyfully smashed our target already, but if you feel inclined to contribute anything to a cause that is, needless to say, very dear to our hearts, then please do. HERE

Thank you KX

Shynola update #2

Here's a sneaky teaser of what we've been slaving over. Finished this week. Fun fun project and very happy with the way it came out. In your cinema 13th Aug. I urge you to see it.

Shynola update #1

This blog hasn't had a look in recently. Up to our armpits in work is the cause, plus hours and hours of training. More on which later. Very happy to announce that a few weeks ago the shackles were removed from our computers and we were allowed to go outside to collect our reward: a fine D&AD 'pencil' for our Coldplay video. The D&AD's are a hard bitch to please, so it actually felt like we had earned something. Jimmy Carr presented and died on his arse. Here's my review in a facial expression.

El Secreto

Photo by Draken

Congratulations to Juan José Campanella and the brilliant El Secreto de sus Ojos, which won Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. I saw this film a few months back and it really stayed with me. I've been urging my friends to see it ever since. It has an unforgettable sequence in the middle. Not sure it is better than Das weisse Band or Un Prophète, but neither of those films need the publicity El Secreto will now get. The lead, Ricardo Darín, stars in Nueve Reinas, which is good fun and also worth checking out.

Been waylaid in scriptwriting to do any drawing, but now we're done (!!!), I'll make an effort. Any spare time I've had recently has been spent doing this:



10 miles in 01:37:28.

It felt A LOT longer.

Update

Haven't even dreamt of updating this blog of late. Chris has

been gravely ill, which wasn't nice for anyone, especially him.

Meanwhile, either bravely or foolishly, Jason and I have

soldiered on, determined to finish our script.

I'm tremendously happy to report that not only is Chris

discharged and well on the way to recovery, but today we

finished our first draft. It is printing out right now.

Very exciting, but also a little bit scary.

Now Chris isn't the only one with bowel issues.

Penalty for being vain

Nice work if you can get it

Me and Chris washed and combed our beards, then went along to the UK Music Video Awards last night. We won for Best Animation, then for best Rock Video. Which was amazing.

Then we won Video of the Year, a category we didn't even know existed. Incredible, especially since they were all for our only piece of work this year. The president of Parlophone even wrote to say thanks.

Really though, the nicest part of the evening was the warm reception we got from the crowd. You make this stuff in complete isolation - and we always make work solely for ourselves - but you can't help but be cheered by kind appreciation, and from your peers to boot. My inflated head was throbbing this morning.

All told, a crazy week.

Epic win

Team GB - Before

My nipples bled, despite being slathered in vaseline. And Barney's knee looked like it was going to explode after only four miles. But, we made it. And in good time too.

Barney - 01:52:25
Nick - 01:52:35
Me - 01:53:48

Most importantly we raised a shed-load of money for CRY. So if you sponsored us - a massive, heartfelt, thank you. We raised a lot more than we ever imagined and the folks at CRY are ecstatic. If you didn't, you still can.

Also thanks to Dom, Baz and Mark who were great fun and vital for morale. Thanks too to Run Dem Crew, without whom I might have given up all hope long ago.

Gideon would have been proud.

I bloody hope so - I am knackered.

Team GB - Afterwards

Ones that got away #5

Old pitch I made for a Supergrass video that never happened.

For some reason I made the pitch as a comic. Looking back,

this was no great loss.

Ones that got away #4

Old pitch I made for a U2 video that... ok you get the idea.

I keep meaning to make this idea into a comic. In other

words, it will NEVER happen.

Ones that got away #2

Old pitch I made for a Avalanches video that

never happened.

New logo I gone done

Secret revealed!

Well its all done.

For various reasons, the hardest job we've ever done.



Very happy it is all over but also very happy with the result.
The journey from brain to screen is littered with pitfalls and

rarely does the end resemble the start. But this one worked

out pretty well. There's always things you want to change and

letting go is hard, but it is done and it has flown the nest.

Time to relax.

Went to test-screening in the cinema this week surrounded by

record company people who have appeared from nowhere and

are all wanting to hold the baby. Totally flattered by their

enthusiasm and seduced by seeing our work on the big screen.

If you are going to the Odeon after Monday 20th July then keep

your eyes peeled.

Top Secret!

Here's what I am working on at the moment.
Unfortunately, strict confidentiality prevents me from revealing
who it is for.