Laura’s Word 26 July 2012

With every form of media – including carrier pigeon – awash with a certain large sporting event taking place in and around London, in this week’s ‘Laura’s Word’ I am determined to get to the end of the column without mentioning the ‘O’ word. Not because of some anti-games stance (anyone who’s had the misfortune to stumble upon my Facebook today will have seen me grinning like a tit clutching torches and medals at McCann’s LOCOG party), but because I’m going to be writing a lot about it in the coming days and weeks and quite frankly I’m starting to bore myself. Which is, like, next to impossible right, because I’m just so goddamn endlessly entertaining. Or something.

 

And that something else comes in the form of Rushes Soho Shorts, which came to an end last week with an awards ceremony showcasing an impressive array of filmmaking talent and a raucous after party at London’s Cafe de Paris, complete with teeny tiny hamburgers. Now in its 14th year, the festival celebrates and supports filmmakers, and the shortlisted films represent only a fraction of the amazing work screened over the past week. It’s a testament to the efforts of the Rushes team who manage to balance the demands of a busy post house with running a not-for-profit event that is doing its bit to convince the general public that small is, indeed, beautiful. 

 

And talking of the general public, in the UK, at least, it’s kind of heartening to see that music videos are starting to re-enter the collective consciousness. For years they’ve existed in a weird limbo, with talented filmmakers creating inventive promos on threadbare budgets, reaching only film geeks, hipsters and adland talent spotters. That’s all started to change with the advent of Bug, a popular show presented by comedian Adam Buxton which has recently made the leap from sell-out live show and festival favourite to bona fide TV hit. Having followed music videos since I did my first Proper Interview (Dougal Wilson on his Jarvis Cocker video ‘Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time’, no less, my two creative heroes) during a work experience stint at Promo magazine with David Knight (the brains behind Bug and Promonews.tv) it’s cool to see mainstream commentators taking them seriously again.

 

Going to Rushes and cackling along to Bug this week has really got me in a new-talent-geekfest sort of a mood so I’ve been hunting around for potential subjects for upcoming newsletters. This week we’ve got William Armstrong, a young chap whose gorgeous Jaguar test ad picked up silver at the Young Director Award in Cannes. And if you know any talented up-and-coming directors, creatives, illustrators, evil geniuses or digital whizzes who you reckon deserve a wee leg up – or hell maybe you are one – get in touch!

 

Olympics.

 

Oops.

 

Laura

laura@LBBOnline.com