We’ve just finished an animated trailer for the new Sega game Hell Yeah!  A completely Birmingham based project between ourselves writing, directing and art directing (and partly illustrating), Stevie Copter from Newtasty helping with the illustration and Character Shop doing the animation itself. The game isn’t released yet, but the trailer went out yesterday and its doing pretty well.

The other thing is a feature on a photographic book i’m working on over at CFYE in Amsterdam.

Here’s the trailer for the game:

I’m not just posting this because I think the idea of sticking Dappy on CiB is somehow amusing (although I do) but because there are a few agencies around Birmingham who work behind the scenes on big music releases, it just doesn’t get pointed out very often.

I know Clusta work for Polydor and Universal Music Group (the artwork for Jarvis Cocker’s last album was very Clusta). There was that Paul Normansell artwork for The Killers a couple of years back too. There are probably a fair few more I know nothing about.

Apparently that’s our own fair Bullring in the picture above, albeit with a fair amount of retouching done. And a horde of bloodthirsty zombies running amok. [insert predictable joke here]

In case you don’t already know of it, Dead Rising is a computer game. Fluid did the branding for the advertising, POS, packaging and so on.

I have two reasons for posting this:

1. It amused me that the site talks up ‘free entry to the splendid Birmingham Artsfest’ when entry is free anyway
2. It’s good to see Birmingham being talked about as a destination for an arty getaway

There’s a few other items bundled into the package that might make it worth throwing your name into the hat. Link to the competition.

Elsewhere on the site there’s a good profile of Studio 4 and mentions given to the Outcrowd Collective, Them Lot, Capsule, Beat13 and Fluid’s Lee Basford. ‘Log’ Roper from Studio4 ‘paints a rosy picture of a thriving, supportive scene, where musicians and artists intermingle’

Or maybe it’s that my radar doesn’t reach to where they work – their client list includes Sony Electronics, Capcom, UBI-SOFT, Electronic Arts, Coca Cola, Virgin, Parlophone, Chrysalis… the list goes on.

I can’t remember where it was, but someone (love that tenacious reporting instinct) recently made the point that creative agencies in Birmingham are often better at working with others outside the region rather than within it.  I wouldn’t know if that’s true or not – if it is then maybe Fluid would be the archetype for that.

Whatever, anyway, what set my off down this tracks was hearing that Jonny from Fluid is starting a new night at The Sanctuary called Bleep Bleep playing techno and such.  Here’s the (back of the) flyer:

and if that floats your boat then there’s a Bleep Bleep Facebook group with more info.

It’s been put together by talented localers Made Media, Maverick, Fluid & Stef Lewandowski.