OK, so let's say you're Swiss. You're sitting there, just trying to relax after a long day of, uh, fixing clocks. You're watching TV and enjoying a fine snack of, uh, chocolate. But was ist? Your favorite programme is interrupted by adverts!?
Yes. You can thank me. As some of you may know, I recently worked on three adverts for the Swiss real estate company Homegate through my friends at the production house Bully Entertainment right here in Charm City (that's Baltimore to you Swiss...) I wrote the three ads (working off of ideas from the client) drew storyboards, directed the animation, and even built all the environments. The talented artists at Bully built the characters after my original designs, and the talented Stephen Karp animated everything. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. Me likey.
What's that? You want to see the adverts?
OK. But you'll need Quicktime to watch 'em. See below.
The first was about a mouse who's grown too fat... I apologise - we don't have English translations yet, so you'll just have to endure the gorgeous female German voice at the end. Heidi Klum, anyone? Ah, a man can dream. But for those of you who don't sprachen ze Deutsche, the basic thrust of the tagline is "House too small? Maybe it's time to move..."
The second advert was about a cuckoo who has a tough gig. I'm showing you the French version because the timing on the last joke is better. To those of you who don't parle vous Francais, the gorgeous female voice at the end is saying something along the lines of "Tired of your commute? Maybe it's time to move..."
The last one is about a Penguin who's thinking "There goes the neighborhood". The german at the end says something like "Neighbors got you down? Maybe it's time to move..." For all its simplicity, this one is my favorite, particularly the igloo gag at the end.
Yes. You can thank me. As some of you may know, I recently worked on three adverts for the Swiss real estate company Homegate through my friends at the production house Bully Entertainment right here in Charm City (that's Baltimore to you Swiss...) I wrote the three ads (working off of ideas from the client) drew storyboards, directed the animation, and even built all the environments. The talented artists at Bully built the characters after my original designs, and the talented Stephen Karp animated everything. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. Me likey.
What's that? You want to see the adverts?
OK. But you'll need Quicktime to watch 'em. See below.
The first was about a mouse who's grown too fat... I apologise - we don't have English translations yet, so you'll just have to endure the gorgeous female German voice at the end. Heidi Klum, anyone? Ah, a man can dream. But for those of you who don't sprachen ze Deutsche, the basic thrust of the tagline is "House too small? Maybe it's time to move..."
The second advert was about a cuckoo who has a tough gig. I'm showing you the French version because the timing on the last joke is better. To those of you who don't parle vous Francais, the gorgeous female voice at the end is saying something along the lines of "Tired of your commute? Maybe it's time to move..."
The last one is about a Penguin who's thinking "There goes the neighborhood". The german at the end says something like "Neighbors got you down? Maybe it's time to move..." For all its simplicity, this one is my favorite, particularly the igloo gag at the end.
7 comments:
Hahahaha - C'est Magnifique! Pepe Le Pew, Effel Tower, Suffle! Strudle.
Dear Steve,
great and funny spots ;o).
The german words in the penguin spot are best translated with:
"Are you looking for a house in a better location?"
Carsten
PS: Your podcast is really great!!
Excellent as always. :D
I liked the fat mouse... that was just too cute! And the bird and penguin (I love pengies!) were perfect. :D
Keep up the good work, monsieur stephan ;)
~L~
Really nice work in such short notice on thoose ads. I liked the cuckoo and the penguins the most, mostly because of the artdirection, really nice job.
Keep up the good work, and stay creative! :)
I really like the graphical aspect of the cuckoo clock.
Looks great as he races through the rural landscape and into the city.
Same goes for the penguin ad, it looks great.
The mouse ad doesn't look quite as great, but I think it's funnier, and the punchline is funny too (doesn't translate so well into English though).
Schmal, or however it is written, I only understand German, I forgot how to write and speak it, means narrow, but when they talk about the size of a house they use it to express that it is too small (I just realised it actually translates into Japanese really well. In Norwegian we have the same word, but we don't say a house is narrow, unless it is actually narrow and not just small).
So in this context it sounds like the entrance is too narrow for someone that wide to fit.
Well, I laughed when I heard it.
And like cosahl said, the penguin thing translates better to location, although the Lagen would be the same as the hood in neighbourhood, which I guess is the reason for the neighbour-relations in the translation.
Wow, a lot of comments on these. Well, I'm glad you guys like them. I had a great time doing them and anxiously, greedily await a chance to do something like this again.
Carsten - Ah, I'm glad you're digging the podcast. I'll try to keep 'em coming, and try to keep 'em entertaining.
Sardtok - Thanks for the info on the translations. To be honest, I didn't handle those red and white bumpers and never really understood what they actually said. I just knew the general thrust - that the mouse's house was too small, the cuckoo's commute was too far, and the penguin had a bad location. Hopefully those ideas come across in the native German and French. Eventually they'll be translated into English and then I will get to see what they really say, won't I?
Thanks for the kind notes!
Sardtok - Oh, and in fact, the mouse is too fat to fit through the door, literally. So perhaps they went literal on me?
Post a Comment