Wednesday 3 September 2014

a GREAT summer


What a summer we’ve had. London has been (mainly) bathed in sunshine and the Gunner’s have been busying away throughout. We’ve traveled, tweeted, filmed, BBQ’d on our roof terrace, signed new directors, and won awards. We’ve had videos go viral, interviewed for D&AD and even spent time with Gromit. We decided to keep the blogging to a minimum over the summer months and hit you all with a massive update - so here goes... 


First up lets talk awards and screenings... we’re so proud of our directors who have collected an array of awards over the past few months. Mikko took home a Gold Lion for FragileChildhood


Jonty Toosey won Best Of Show for Molson ‘Beer Fridge’ 



and Shearer clinched a Bronze Clio for Nike Ordem at the first ever Clio Sports Awards. 



Olivier Venturini has had his brand film for the Fableists shortlisted into two fashion film awards so far. We've happy to say that Fableists 'Finn' has been selected for the London Fashion Film Festival and the Australian International Fashion Film Festival! If you haven't already seen the film you can watch it HERE

Ron Scalpello's new feature film PRESSURE is set to make its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival later in the year. A trailer is yet to be released - but have a read of this to get an idea of what to expect.


Olly Blackburn makes his return to UK television with E4's brand new series Glue - which starts this September. Written by Jack Thorne (This is England '86, This is England '88 alongside Shane Meadows, Skins and Shameless) Glue will tell the story of police officers investigating the death of a teenager found underneath the wheels of a tractor. Watch the trailer HERE

Olly has also just completed on his newest feature film Kristy


It's going to screen at the BFI London Film Festival in October. Here is a short write up from the BFI:  

British director Oliver Blackburn (Donkey Punch) proves that college life can still be a killer. As her fellow students depart for Thanksgiving with their families, Justine prepares to spend the holidays alone in her dorm. With just the campus security for company, she finds ways to fill her days, but her peaceful break is suddenly shattered when a gang of bloodthirtsy outcasts invade the halls and Justine finds herself on a desperate fight for survival. Blackburn expertly blends traditional stalk and slash thrills with moments of striking visual lyricism, and in the lead role Haley Bennett infuses Justine with the strength and ingenuity to forever ensue her place in final girl history.

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The world of social media has gained a new account as Laura Gregory joins Twitter for the first time! 
@blacknapkinT41 is Laura's personal quest to find the best food, bars, chefs, cocktails and black napkins for the solo traveller. 


You can expect great restaurant recommendations, links to interesting news articles, foodie pictures, her best hotel picks and more... think underwear that helps you fart with confidence!! - definitely worth a follow. 


She also has a busy lead up to 2015 with a diary jam-packed full of jury duty and judging. She re-joins the judging panel for the LIA awards 2014 as jury chair for Music Video, TV/Cinema/Online Film Production and jury for Post Production. She will also be sitting on the Eurobest Jury which this year takes place in Helsinki in December. Laura who is already on the D&AD Board of Trustees will also take on the role of judging the Black Pencil New Blood awards as well as the D&AD Next Director Awards.

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Speaking of D&AD - Andy Morahan has just done an interview with them, talking all about his life behind the lens... 


You can watch it by clicking HERE

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The next stop for the Gunners is Singapore for the Singapore Grand Prix followed by the Spikes Awards. After last years success choosing DDB's keynote speaker for Spikes (we sent over Game of Thrones and Great Guns Director David Nutter to speak) Great Guns was approached again this year to supply to the key note speaker. We chose Casey Neistat  who will speak about his path in the world of new media. 


From having written, directed and starred in a television show on HBO to building a personal YouTube Network with 100,000,000 views, he will walk the audience through his journey both professional and personal. Focusing on how never learning the way you are supposed to do things forces you to pave your own path and that process can yield unexpected successes. 

It's going to be good! 

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As you know we love a good lunch and what better way to end this mega roundup than with just that. Yesterday we took the lovely Shots team to Shoreditch House to chat about what we had been up to and what's coming up. 


It was a pretty glorious Tuesday on their rooftop! 


We went simple with a classic pizza


Ryan from shots plumped for the steak with perfectly cooked french fries. 


We shared the salad. Definitely going to try this at home. Strands of courgette soaked in lemon juice with warm haloumi cheese, smoked paprika and coriander. Simple and delicious! 

SH is members only but they have a fantastic sister restaurant downstairs called Pizza East where you can gorge on sourdough pizzas, gorgeous salads and as much antipasti as you like! 

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We promise to not leave it so long before our next blog post! 

The Gunners x