Pretzel D have produced a series of short docos for the new RBS recruitment website. The ninety second films show both sides of a career at the RBS group. Individual employees were selected to discuss their roles within the variety of businesses that make up the group. To underline the emphasis of work/life balance at RBS each film shows the employees enjoying their favourite out of work activity.

So far we have seen runners on the Forth Bridge, fly fishing in the lake district, and wine tasting in a 17th century cellar. Watch this space for more.    

RBS Jobs

Style Advisor is Topshops personal shopping experience.  The brief was to raise the profile of the service on the Topshop site with video.  We pitched the idea of providing a video with an interactive element allowing the user to chose various key pieces from the collection and style advisor would put combinations together for you, highlighting the transitional qualities of the collection.

This was all shot in one day, breaking down the shoot into video elements and interactive, the result is a seamless experience between video and interaction.

Topshop Style Advisor

Chivas Regal

She's cool, inspiring and has the best set of rings we've ever seen...

Pretzel-d would like to introduce the iconic Barbara Halanicki -founder of Biba, producer of gorgeous prints and recent collaborator with Topshop.

With the Topshop-Hulanicki collection soon to hit the shops, Topshop were keen to give fans an insight into the woman behind the clothes. A crazily hectic schedule meant spare moments with the 60's legend were few and far between, but the ever persistent Pretzel team got more than enough to produce a brief but intimate overview of Mrs H's impressive career for Topshop devotees. We're hooked.

 

Topshop BIBA

'True Stories' is a series of films featuring on the RAC's refurbished website. Digital Creative Agency 'Chemistry' developed the idea as part of their overriding campaign, and came to us to shoot the films.

The idea is to let customers and potential customers into the (sometimes extreme) world of the RAC team and what they effortlessly deal with on a daily basis. James Lawes Directed these very simple, beautiful stories in such a way as to subtly show how the individual team members go above and beyond their normal job remit.    

Pretzel-d have once again teamed up with Wunderman to deliver a interactive red button DiTV campaign.  The TV commercial travels through a shopping mall revealing the motif of the new Ford KA as it goes.  Hit the red button and you enter a continues loop of one of the shops in the mall.  The purpose of the film is to offer more detailed information about the car and the ability to book a test drive.

This was a steadicam shoot, shot on the Red camera. All post was handled in house with a little bit of help from Envy on the audio.

Pretzel-d teamed up with digital agency Skive to create blue screen assets to be incorporate into a series of banners and sky scrapers for Kit Kat's "Perfect Break" promotion. The online campaign mirrored the JWT's TV ad working with the same creative brief and actors.

Part of the rich media included a game that allows you to control and prod a little man on your computer screen, a task carried out by millions of women everywhere on a daily basis.

Who needs to go interactive?

As part of Network Rail's Level Crossing Safety Campaign, Pretzel were asked to produce a short film to remind young people that playing around on the railways is, let's face it, a stupid, reckless idea.

The outcome: A hard-hitting, frank yet emotive snapshot of eighteen year old Richard Fleming's 5 year sentence, imprisoned in Scotland's notorious Polmont Young Offenders Institution as a result of his dangerous driving on level crossing. An accident that resulted in the tragic death of his two best friends.

The documentary was filmed in a day by one self-shooting director, one producer and one sound recordist. Despite the strict timetable of movement within the prison, they also managed to get extra interviews with other high-risk offenders without disruption the other inmates, not something we would have wanted to have done anyway.

Pretzel-d was tasked by TopShop with the job of heading to Switzerland to catch the first of the winter snow, overnight in an alpine cabin (replete with sauna), and then film models skiing and boarding down Bernie Ecclestone's Glacier 3000 resort.

All this was to launch their 2008/9 'Sno' range of winter sports gear. When asked to summise the job, Paul Butterworth (Producer) responded "er, it was really tough. We had a terrible time". Jake (Director) concurred "Did we? Oh, yes, terrible"

Donning our driving gloves we headed across europe for a couple of days. Pretzel-d took a road trip with Nexus-h in the rather luxurious surroundings of the all new Honda Legend.

The film was made to sit along side the Legend brochure, and reflect a journey of discovery.

DOP Dom Bartels drove and Matt Fretwell gave directions.

This is one of a series of films we made for the Philadelphia Extra Light website entitled Gabby's "Get Ready for Summer."

But this was no ordinary website, this was an all singing, all dancing interactive blue/green screen masterpiece. Viewers could discuss issues of health and fitness with Gabby (our central character) and her celebrity friends.

Dan Smith, the director, brought his experience in comedy to the table, which meant that each element of the site had a fun and friendly feel. A spoonful of sugar is exactly what you need when exploring issues of a healthy diet. 

Your ticket to the MTV music awards is somewhere inside you, all you have to do is let it out...

By screaming. A lot.

Pretzel teamed up with animation experts Blac Ionica on this quirky little project for Esprit, to promote a competition to win MTV Europe Music Awards Tickets.  The 30 sec promo was aired on the student network Sub TV and artfully integrated into the window displays of the Esprit stores nationwide.

All you have to do is climb in a van and scream your heart out...

"Nothing at all to worry about, Officer. We're just going all out for some tickets..."

EDC by Esprit! Coming to a university near you!

Pretzel approached "Moose" the ‘Clean Graffiti' artist to collaborate on a film for the Discovery Channel season of shorts. This modern day Cinder-alfred uses his creative skills with soap and a brush to clean the grime of the city into extraordinary pieces of environmental art.

For this particular film, Moose created a completely new, intricate piece of work in the heart of London. The people at Discovery were so pleased with the result that they signed Pretzel-d and Moose up to promote their season of shorts -  commissioning a whole new piece of art that was used in as the branding for the season of short films, from DVD's to in house screen saver and even included a life size poster for Discoveries reception.

If you are an aspiring young filmmaker then you may have heard about Nokia's aspiring young filmmaker competition. If you haven't then you probably should aspire harder...

We were asked to produce a series of short films made by these keen creative types. In the end we had 18 of them slaving away over one very long weekend.

We also fashioned an animated loop to encourage other film buffs to enter their own shorts, which was placed in themed cinema booths in London, Rio and New York.

The final nominees were showcased at the Pangea Day Film Festival, a live global film jamboree. We also delivered a final highlights film of the whole event, including footage from LA, Rio, London and Africa. It was nothing really. 

Sewing used to be a treasured pastime handed down through the generations, but nowadays there are multimedia fandangos to guide your hand through every stitch.  

Not that we are complaining, Topshop's teamed up with Rubbish magazine and commissioned us to make a quick step guide to breathing new life into your old pants "Bagsy Mine" is a real cutie with a great soundtrack.

Say goodbye to the plastic bag.

This is the second time that Pretzel-d has worked with Wunderman for Ford. On this occasion Matt 'just-call-me-the -Ford-man' Fretwell was asked to film the all new Ford Fiesta

As you can see the boy done good. Shooting the car on the new Arri D21 for maximum visual pleasure. This 90 second film sits behind the new Fiesta commercial for those daring to press the red button.

The Ford client said he had never seen the car look so good. Can't say fairer than that really. 

To Uni or not to Uni?

Directgov's "Aim Higher" campaign is designed to help students answer this question.

Pretzel produced a full DVD of 12 comedy films presented by E4's Nick ‘Grimmy' Grimshaw and a whole host of menu pages with info on grants, bursaries and general student advise.

Research feedback has been exceptionally positive and Pretzel are currently updating the films for next year's intake. Lucky devils.

The 5-Point Step by Step guide to creating your ‘Eco Fashion'

Step 1: Buy some fairly traded bamboo from a sustainable source

Step 2: Attach it to a Loom,

Step 3: Spin bamboo on said Loom with the help of a (fairly treated, reputable) weaver in healthy working conditions.

Step 4: Cut the newly created material into highly trendy and ‘of the moment' pattern.

Step 5: Sew and fashion said material into a garment even Joseph would be jealous of.

And voila!

Well not quite but the guys at Topshop certainly know how to Eco it up, proving that style and sustainability can go hand in hand.

Check out their latest eco-chic look with our fun and fresh bicycle film. Yes that is sunshine you're seeing...

As part of our creative support for Momentum Worldwide on the Nokia Sponsored Pangea day, Pretzel (well, the chosen ones anyway - jammy gits) flew to New York.

The brief: To film a short online and satellite broadcast commercial to promote this global event.

Directed by James ‘Bugsy' Steel, we got up close and personal with the Big Apple locals to discover the true meaning of Pangea .

The interviews were edited in house and delivered on a range of formats with a bit of tweaking from our post production friends over at Envy.

Pretzel-d has worked with Ford/PHM to produce a series of teasers that showcase the new Kinetic design philosophy. These films have been used by Ford both internally and externally to create a buzz around this new design principles.

At same time we have produced bite sized clips that have been used as part of Fords dealer training programme, which is used across Europe.

These visual treats have been brought to life by Matt Fretwell.

Pretzel-d was approached by SOUK to make a viral for the RNID, as part of their drive to highlight the importance of children's hearing tests and the potential dangers faced if problems go undetected.

Director James Lawes introduced the idea of shooting the film from a child's point of view, which brought out themes of innocence, imagination and most importantly, vulnerability. Shot on the Sony EX1, MovieTube and primes, Pretzel-d was able to deliver a filmic look on a micro budget.

Meet Roddy. He's a businessman with a bitchy wife and accounts in Panama.

Afraid to speak to the taxman incase he ends up in trouble, Roddy keeps his business dealings to himself.

Our client BDO is no stranger to the average Bob with a prob, which is why they commissioned Pretzel to produce a series of lighthearted films to target this specific group.

Understanding their sense of concern about how their affairs might look the underlying message was simple; it's better to speak to a tax advisor before they come knocking on you door.

These films then went on to premiere on BDO's brand new island in Second Life, the internet-based virtual world.

Twice a year the Fashionistas of the world descend en masse for London Fashion Week. Leading High Street brand TOPSHOP call upon the Pretzel Team year after year to capture the magic.

Our multiple Sony EX1's are rigorously trained to spot "what's hot right now" as well as the excitement of the final shows, designers, celebs and those with the oversized shades.

And whilst the champagne flows and the after parties rave on, our editors work through the night to deliver podcasts and in-store films ready for the very next day.

Fashion as it happens. 

Where Does The Change Go?

Visit the Plan A site

Pretzel-d were on baby sitting duty last week. Working with de-construct we created video assets for the SCA baby site.

SCA - Treasures