Open Arms

Kayleigh wrote:

Hey thanks for that, i'm abit disappointed tbh not really feeling the animation

Kayleigh, this might help?

http://trunk.me.uk/site/?p=3619

Phew! we’ve just finished making this video for Elbow for their new single”Open Arms”. It’s based on the illustrations of Elbow’s album cover designer Oliver East. The video is based on a loose narrative of Oliver’s depicting an evening in a Manchester Working Man’s Club. Directors Grigoris Leontiades and Layla Atkinson worked closely with Oliver to stay as close to his original vision of the story as possible. We drafted in a team of animators to animate in Oliver’s inimitable style. A particular challenge was animating the distinctive “ribbon people” which Ollie had designed in his original storyboard. Early on we realised the enormity of animating these in 2d so we turned to Trunk’s old friend and ace compositor Steven Azancot who brought flat 2 dimensional ribbons into cinema4d, animated them moving around a 3d space on splines then outputted as 2d elements to be composited with the rest of the dancers. We strove to match Oliver’s illustrative style as closely as we could, we animated on 8fps, added hand painted boiling textures and chromatic aberration to give it as much of a hand-made feeling as possible. It was a long, drawn-out and sometimes painful process with some disgustingly late nights but now it’s over and we can breathe a sigh of relief.

directors- Layla Atkinson, Grigoris Leontaides

designer- Oliver East

producer- Richard Barnett

commissioner- Emily Tedrake

animators- Nick Appleton, Nickolai Vorontsov, Jenny Lewis, Grigoris Leontiades

3D- Steven Azancot

compositors- Rok Predin, Steven Azancot

I like the animation style of the drawings... has all the band in, having a party with the ribbon people.
I like the kids outside with their mobile phones and the one kid who kicks a drinks can cos he hasn't got one.
I like the stacked tables being moved with the couple behind and the kids stealing drinks from behind the stage curtain.
I like the grey lone figure flying outside at the end, and falling in a puddle and then the flying others in the sky.

Holy crap holy crap holy crap!!! I'm sitting in my car, waiting for my kid to get out of school, and Open Arms came on the radio!!! Satellite radio, but still - 1st time I've heard anything from BARB on radio where I am!!! Holy crap!

ChrissieInFL wrote:

Holy crap holy crap holy crap!!! I'm sitting in my car, waiting for my kid to get out of school, and Open Arms came on the radio!!! Satellite radio, but still - 1st time I've heard anything from BARB on radio where I am!!! Holy crap!

Yayyy ! The word's spreading Chrissie -

Cute video, I like it how he drawed the Elboys...

My Bury Vest wrote:

Yayyy ! The word's spreading Chrissie -

It is - as it turns out, the DJ who played it was one of my favorites (Vin Scelsa, who does an amazing show called Idiot's Delight and is on terrestrial radio in New York and satellite radio nationally). After the song ended, he played Lippy Kids too! And he talked about how he'd recently been turned on to BARB and how he thinks Elbow would be great to see live...so hopefully some of the thousands in his listening audience will get a clue after hearing that!

Some more background to the video here:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2011/giving-the-elbow/

I love it too, there's lots of things on there I notice on repeat viewing, like the kid kicking the can (thanks LWD!). I must say one of my favourite bits was the kids pinching the drinks on the stage from behind the curtain.

I think why I like it is that I've been to enough dos at similar halls that it feels so familiar - everyone really is here.

hilaryg wrote:

Some more background to the video here:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2011/giving-the-elbow/

I love it too, there's lots of things on there I notice on repeat viewing, like the kid kicking the can (thanks LWD!). I must say one of my favourite bits was the kids pinching the drinks on the stage from behind the curtain.

I think why I like it is that I've been to enough dos at similar halls that it feels so familiar - everyone really is here.

Thanks hilary, that was a fantastic insight, as I've been in St Bernadette's on a fair few occasions over the years - so can picture the place really well. I love Oliver's work with Elbow.

Single is released today with new b-side buffalo ghosts

I really like it, the lyrics are very good, as you would expect

HattyMarris wrote:

Single is released today with new b-side buffalo ghosts

I really like it, the lyrics are very good, as you would expect

"Buffalo Ghosts" sounds very Peter Gabriel-esque. I'll have to give it more love, but I think I quite like it.

My one disappointment with the single is that it has the album version of "Open Arms," with the fade-out that leads into "The Birds (Reprise)." So it sounds quite jarring when it kicks over to "Buffalo Ghosts." I kinda wish it had been remixed with the video mix's clean fade.

Has anyone else bought the 10" of Open Arms from Universal? It's showing on my order as backordered even though it was released yesterday! Maybe they had a holiday Monday.

*edit* Got an email - It's on It's way

Hey guys - anyone have any idea how I can get my hands on a copy of Buffalo Ghosts in Australia??

I've tried buying the mp3 from a whole bunch of websites but they all bar me for 'geographic reasons'. Can't even find it available for download anywhere else...

ninspinion wrote:

I've tried buying the mp3 from a whole bunch of websites but they all bar me for 'geographic reasons'. Can't even find it available for download anywhere else...

It's doable from Amazon UK. It's not exactly easy, but it's doable.

When I bought the "Neat Little Rows" single, I wrote up some instructions on how I did it from my office in Baltimore.

Read this blog post -- http://www.allyngibson.net/?p=5658 -- and it should walk you through the process.

Careful, though. Allyn's instructions are great, but I haven't found a proxy yet that will last through the entire purchase. Even Dave's proxy (mentioned in the link above) failed right in the middle of my order. So now I've been charged but can't get the song.

HattyMarris wrote:

Found the official video, and what a great video it is:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2011/apr/04/elbow-open-arms

Such a very amazing link! Thanks you for the post.

I have so much love for this song! One of the "warmest" songs I have heard. I love the lyrics and message to the whole thing.
Nice to know that when life goes the wrong way you can always come home and your family and friends will be there for you =) x

Adderz wrote:

I have so much love for this song! One of the "warmest" songs I have heard. I love the lyrics and message to the whole thing.
Nice to know that when life goes the wrong way you can always come home and your family and friends will be there for you =) x

Absolutely spot on. It's so much fun to sing along with as well! Definitely one of my BARB favorites.

ChrissieInFL wrote:

Adderz wrote:

I have so much love for this song! One of the "warmest" songs I have heard. I love the lyrics and message to the whole thing.
Nice to know that when life goes the wrong way you can always come home and your family and friends will be there for you =) x

Absolutely spot on. It's so much fun to sing along with as well! Definitely one of my BARB favorites.

So true! I love to belt this one out! =D I haven't had the pleasure of seeing Elbow live yet but I can imagine it's a great one for the crowd to sing with! =) x