london is cooling down but great guns is heating up

For many the lead up to the festive period is a time to wind down, tie up those loose ends and gear up for the New Year - not for the Gunners, we're steaming ahead and are busier than ever! 

GG director Jonty Toosey has been even busier since the last blog post. He's just directed a gorgeous spot for Alpro Soya Yoghurt.

Shot in Slovenia this heart-warming advert focuses on the mantra 'stay curious', and follows a woman's rediscovery of her love of photography. 

You can watch it HERE. 

As promised here is the link to his advert featuring Antonio Banderas - Kaspi Bank 

Jonty is currently in full on production mode at Great Guns with an exciting shoot confirmed for next week - we can't wait for you to see it so check back soon! 

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Our mammoth project with Russian Standard Vodka officially launched this month and some of the team spent an evening sipping on Russian Standard Moscow Mules and watching the amazing new advert at the British Science Museum in South Kensington.

GG director Calum Macdiarmid teamed up with My Agency and Jason Silva (a filmmaker and performance philosopher) for the shoot. It was partly filmed on location in Russia and partly in a west London studio. 

Edited in house by GG editor James Demetriou the spot is slick and utterly fascinating, with one viewer stating on youtube  'what in THE WORLD is a vodka scientist? I want that job.'

The launch was a huge success and you can actually watch how the event unfolded here and of course please have a look at the spot HERE. 

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Steven Boyle just filmed a lovely promo for the singing duo Elephant titled 'Shapeshifter'. Described on Davids Reviews as 'blissed out wonder' Shapeshifter seems to be about appreciating the return of a love that was lost. 

Backed by the sparse and stretched out Snowday, as icily cool as it sounds, full of chiaroscuro contrasts and flickering atmospherics, it's a release that suggests their debut album is set to be one of the standout albums of 2014.

Have a watch of the video HERE

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We've been sending out LOADS of Turn DVD's as we continue the festival rounds. 

And we've just been accepted into another festival - The London Short Film Festival which is another Oscar and Bafta booster! 

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Our beautiful Gold LIA award for Best Music Video arrived in the post this week and has taken prime place in the London office. 

Other exciting post includes our Shots Tickets - we can't wait for next thursday night and are crossing our fingers! 

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Our directors are busier than ever with some really exciting work coming up towards the end of the year and some great stuff to kick off 2014. 

Ron Scalpello continues to cut his film at Great Guns and has just shot an action-packed spot due to air in January. 

Andy Morahan has just jetted over to LA to shoot in both downtown LA and Vegas.

Paul Shearer has shot a brilliant spot for a well known sports brand featuring some familiar faces so watch this space for a link in the coming weeks. 

And Klaus Thymann has just been featured on i-D online talking about his five top extreme locations to shoot. 

Extreme locations include The Blue Lake in New Zealand and the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda. 

You can have a read of that article HERE 

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We polished of the week as all weeks should be polished off - with a lunch at The York and Albany in Camden. We headed down with the lovely folk at McCann Health and GG director Olly Blackburn and gorged ourselves on spicy wings, calamari, pizzas and burgers. 

Sorry to disappoint but the food was so delicious and the company so brilliant we totally forgot to take some snaps. Anyway, we wouldn't want to make you jealous. 

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As always have a wonderful weekend wherever you are & check back soon for more updates. 

For more regular updates follow us on twitter @greatgunstv 

you can't rain on our parade

Despite the incredibly miserable weather in London today nothing can dampen the mood at Great Guns HQ. Since our last blog post we've won some awards, our directors have shot some awesome new stuff, we've screened a #greatgunsshort in Toronto, and celebrated Halloween in true New York style. 

It's full on awards season in the industry at the moment and we've been having fun submitting and screening our spots. Shortly after the team flew back from Vegas for the LIA's we found out that Neft Vodka - Bad Motherfucker took home GOLD for Best Music Video!

UK Gunner Kelly flew over to Berlin earlier in the week and teamed up with German Gunner Robert Leisewitz to attend the Ciclope Festival 

It was a jam packed few days full of talks, screenings and parties topped off with the awards ceremony tonight. 

we were thrilled to find out that Neft Vodka - Bad Motherfucker has been awarded GOLD at this years festival for Branded Content and we will definitely tweet a picture of our shiny little ciclopse after tonight! 

Here's Gunner Robert Leisewitz with Diane Jackson from DDB Chicago at Ciclope Festival 

We're also very happy to say that Olly Blackburn's spot for Erbitux has just taken home GOLD at the RX Health Awards.

Neft Vodka - Bad Motherfucker, Nike and Subaru have all been shortlisted for Shots Awards on November 28th - watch this space and cross your fingers for a win or 2! 

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We're steaming ahead with #greatgunsshorts as Turn continues to do the festival rounds. This week saw us screen at the Toronto International Short Film Festival which is both Bafta and Oscar recognised. 

To keep up to date with all things short check out our website dedicated to it www.greatgunsshorts.com  

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Mikko at Sauna International repped by Great Guns has just shot a powerful new spot titled Baby Love (#babylove). The team being 2011's chilling 'Monsters' spot for Fragile Childhood were enlisted by The Cancer Society of Finland to drum up some conversation around the topic of smoking while pregnant. 

This hard hitting spot racked up over 30'000 views in its first 24 hours online. You can watch it here and read the interview from Mikko and creative director Marko Vuorensola here.

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GG director Jonty Toosey has just come back from Kazakhstan where he teamed up with Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas and Kaspi Bank to shoot a spot for the banks new PR campaign. The idea was simple: to get an A-list Hollywood star to be officially employed at the bank for 2 days. 

It was a simple enough execution for Jonty - he wanted to get as many people together and unleash them onto Antonio. They cast 100 people to feature in the advert and then added a dozen real customers into the mix. The result is hilarious. 'Everyone was over excited to meet him so the job was to orchestrate everything so that I got what I needed out of the meetings whilst letting the action unfold naturally. Banderas was a dream to work with. We had 5 hours to film the spot and he gave me everything I needed, including a toilet pit stop I asked him to do. We had a lot of fun.' 

The spot hasn't been released yet but watch this space for a link  very soon! 

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GG director Jenny Ash has once again teamed up with More4 to mark Remembrance Sunday by shooting a trio of award-winning actors: Noel Clarke, Christopher Eccleston and Vicky McClure to read a collection of war poetry from Seamus Heaney, John Agard, Carol Ann Duffy and Dunya Mikhail. The poems are each read as a stand-alone short film and will be broadcast between programmes throughout the weekend. 

The films will be showing alongside poems from World War One which Jenny shot last year, starring Gemma Arterton, Sean Bean, Stephen Graham and Sohpie Okonedo. 

You can watch the films here and read more about them. 

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We like to round up all our busy weeks with a bit of fun and thats exactly what Laura got up to for Halloween. She hosted a dinner party at Sen NYC. Here she is with 'fanged' co-owner of Sen Tora Matsuoka 

Her top tip for Sen is not to leave without trying the 'Demon Woman' Hot Chili Sake! 

On that note go out and enjoy the weekend and check back soon for more Gunners News. 

A Gunners Weekly Roundup 2

We seem to be getting busier and busier - which is incredibly exciting for the Gunners team. We figured the best way to keep our readers up to date was to start a weekly roundup (more a fortnightly roundup but weekly has a nicer ring to it!) 

A few weeks ago we ended our week on a high by taking a group of creatives to dinner at the Hospital Club. This wasn't any old dinner, it was the launch of super-star La Maison Bouffe chef Maria Elia's new cook book 'Smashing Plates'. 

we started with scallops, soutzouki and watermelon and beetroot, apples and feta curd salad

followed by marinated lamb with feta curd, peas and artichokes and topped off with an amazing dessert of chocolate soil and goat milk & green coffee panna cotta. divine.  

Maria went on to appear on Sunday Brunch that weekend and cooked up a storm for a bunch of celebrity guests. One of the guests at our dinner loved the food so much she took home a copy of the book and whipped up the sesame buns the following day! 

While all this was going on Laura, Sheridan and one of our young directors Karel Van Bellingen were in Las Vegas for the LIA awards. They spent a week there immersed in talks, judging and meetings. 

Above: Laura and Sheridan speaking at the LIA's. You can read more about the whole event and the speakers here

Karel had a slightly different LIA experience going as one of the young creatives. LBB caught up with him post Vegas and he spilt the beans on his creative heavy week in the desert. Read all about it here.

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Back in the UK we found out that Ilya Naishuller has been shortlisted for a UK Music Video Award for best International Alternative Music Video for Bad Motherfucker. The awards are next week so watch this space! 

The good news didn't stop there... Sauna International / Great Guns director Mikko took home 3 awards at this years Golden Drum Festival for his spot 'Monsters' for Fragile Childhood - the special prize - virtuoso for Cinematography, a Grand Prix in PR and a Gold for the film. You can watch the amazing case study here.

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We also did a few interviews. The first was director Ram Madhvani speaking to Little Black Book on his new film for Greenlam. 

A fun, charming spot with Bollywood flair, Ram talks to LBB about the whole process. Here's a short blurb from the interview:

LBB> The idea seems to really chime with what's going on in India at the moment - do you see the ad as a political statement?

RM> It’s more of a social statement. If you give people beautiful things they will have better thoughts and therefore they will become better people. Better design leads to a better world. 

Yes, it does resonate with what is happening in our country. The election is around the corner. Though the film is a satire, it is pitched innocently. It's not cynical. It's meant to be charming. 

You can watch the spot and read the rest of the interview here

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The second interview was with 'King of Pilots' David Nutter who spoke to the Directors Guild of America on his amazing career so far.

Packed full of his feats, his advice and how he likes to work, this interview packs a punch and you can read the whole thing here.

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In other news, our director Klaus Thymann has been working with his not-for-profit organisation Project Pressure and has travelled to the Pallin Glacier Tunnel to document the effects of climate change. You can watch the feature on the Guardian website here.

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Turn is continuing its festival round and has just been accepted into the Toronto International Short Film Festival which is Bafta and Oscar recognised as well as the Big Apple Film Festival in New York. You can keep up to date with all the Turn news via Facebook www.facebook.com/turnshortfilm 

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And finally we end this Gunners Weekly Roundup with a screening and cocktail evening for Director Calum Macdiarmid. 

We launched our new website www.greatgunsshorts.com and our hashtag #greatgunsshorts this week by screening Calum's short films Liquid Spirit and The Farm at China Whites prohibition theme lounge Mankind&Reason. 

The evening was enjoyed by creatives and media over Gunners Fizz, Liquid Spirit bottled cocktails and Great Guns branded Truffle Popcorn. 

As always you can keep up to date on daily happenings via our twitter feed @greatgunstv or by facebook www.facebook.com/wearegreatguns 

Check back in a few weeks to catch up on all our latest news! 

A Gunners Weekly Roundup

It's been another busy week at Great Guns - we've been shooting around the UK, prepping for the LIA awards, jetting off to Dusseldorf, doing interviews, screening our short film at Raindance and launching book trailers. 

At the end of last week GG Director Calum Macdiarmid traveled to Dusseldorf for the BBDO Directors Lounge where he showcased his new short Liquid Spirit as well as his new trailer for 'The Farm' the new novel from Tom Rob Smith. 

Calum and Julia at BBDO 

Calum, Kelly and Robert at BBDO 

You can read all about the BBDO Directors Lounge on here on LBB and check out the all the other work that was showcased that evening. 

Calum got back from Dusseldorf and went straight in to making preparations for the launch of 'The Farm' on Vimeo, Facebook and Twitter while also doing a brilliant interview for Shots.  

Here's a short excerpt from Shots:

S: The film is very stylised and visually powerful but doesn't give much away in terms of story; was that a purposeful approach?

C: Yes, very much so, Tom was keen not to give too much away and spoil the book. It’s a detective novel as much as a thriller and from a technical point of view anything too overt could easily have spoiled it.

It was a game of teasing the audience unlike with Hollywood trailers where they tell you the whole story up front. This was perfect for me as I sometimes use a more expressionist style to communicate a sense of emotion and tension. In this way I was able to be more sensitive to the emotion in the writing.

Read the rest of the interview here: Young Macdiarmid had a Farm

You can watch the trailer here: The Farm

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We've started the festival trail with Turn and it kicked off with a screening at LA Short Film Festival at the start of September. This time we were in London at Raindance where Turn took to the screen for a second time...

Turn director Stuart Gillies 

You can follow all things Turn related through our Facebook page: TURN FACEBOOK and you can also watch the trailer here: Turn Trailer

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In other news Guns Director Ron Scalpello wrapped on his 2nd feature Pressure last week and has gone in to post production at Great Guns HQ in London. Screen Daily did a great post on his new film, read it here: Pressure 

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Laura Gregory & Sheridan Thomas are off to Vegas for the LIA awards. Gregory is on the judging panel and both her and Thomas will be speaking alongside some other great creatives. Read about what's coming up at the LIA's this week here: LIA 2013

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To round off a great week, Great Guns and Bang have been shortlisted for 4 Shots awards in the Interactive (Subaru), Branded Content (Neft), Mobile (Nike) and Music (Bridgestone, Bang) categories. Have a look at the complete list here: Shots Awards 2013

Check back next week for brand new Gunners news! 

silver sharks, bronze spikes, pilot whisperers & formula one

We admit it's been a while since our last update via a blog post - but we haven't been neglecting you on purpose we promise! It's been a very busy few months for us Gunners and we've just tied it all up with some exciting news and wins! 

We put forward GG director Ilya Naishuller's subtly titled 'Bad Motherfucker' for the digital category at Kinsale Shark Awards at the end of August and we took home Silver! 

You can read all about the win here: our silver shark 

Straight after our win in Ireland the team jetted to Spike's in Singapore for a week of talks, awards and the Singapore Grand Prix. 

Spikes started with the yearly 'DDB Presents' and this year DDB asked Great Guns director David Nutter to speak. Fresh off directing the most talked about TV episode ever - Game of Thrones 'The Red Wedding', Nutter shared his secrets behind developing, directing and producing television pilots. 

The talk was a huge success! He took delegates behind the scenes on set and along the way illustrated his directing techniques and his uncanny eye for material that audiences connect to emotionally. 

The Gunners then went on to win a Bronze Spike in the Branded Content and Entertainment category for Subaru 'The Big Night'.

The campaign for Subaru is the most ambitious branching-narrative film ever. Directed by Jeremy Haccoun the script was 45 pages long, required 2 producers to help realise it, has almost 98,304 permutations, 40 potential endings and they ended up with 46 minutes of finished edited film, the equivalent of half a feature length film. 

Steer your own adventure here: 'The Big Night' 

After an amazing few weeks the Gunners spent a few days in Singapore after Spikes enjoying the Grand Prix. Here's a small taste of what the view was like 51 floors up. 

Keep checking back for more exciting updates!