The Short Films and Commercials of Neill Blomkamp
Posted: August 13th, 2009 | Author: Will | Filed under: Feature | Tags: Alive in Joburg, commercial, District 9, film, Halo, Neill Blomkamp, short film | 16 Comments »People are going to be absolutely blown away when they see District 9; the first feature film South African born, Vancouver, BC based filmmaker Neill Blomkamp. With the release of District 9 tomorrow, Blomkamp will quickly become the hot new director in Hollywood. His cinéma vérité style combined with his seamless integration of computer effects, make his work something entirely new and unique. This filmmaking style serves him well in District 9, making it one of the most original sci-fi films, nay one of the most original films period, that I’ve seen in years — see my full review of District 9 here.
Neill Blomkamp has gone from visual effects artist to feature film director in just a few years, and he’s not even 30 years old yet — Say Will, what are you doing with your life, eh? There is no doubt that the man has a very promising career ahead of him; anyone who has seen District 9 will not debate that point, but I wanted to take a few minutes to look back at some of the extraordinary work Blomkamp has already done. A retrospective if you will, of most of his amazing short films and commercials.
Alive in Joburg
Blomkamp drew on his youth in apartheid South Africa as the basis for Alive in Joburg; the film that would go on to inspire his feature film District 9. The story of Joburg is essentially the same: aliens arrive on Earth and can’t leave, the government segregates them from society due to all the problems they cause and naturally the shit ends up hitting the fan. Joburg is shot documentary style, painting a frighteningly convincing picture of a country actually having to deal with refugee aliens. This ain’t no Alien Nation, this is real. The short film also features Sharlto Copely, who produced it, and who also stars as the lead in Blomkamp’s District 9.
Halo – Combat
Microsoft and Bungie got together with Peter Jackson and Blomkamp to make these three (edited together as one for your viewing convenience) short films set in the Halo universe. The films were as much viral advertising for Halo 3 as they were a test bed and pitch for a full blown Halo feature film, but that doesn’t make them any less impressive. We all know that movie deal fell through, and neither Jackson or Blomkamp are tied to the project any longer. But hey, at least we’ve got these shorts. I’m not a huge Halo fan, but judging from Blomkamp’s work here, it could have been a pretty cool movie.
Adidas – Yellow
Adidas commissioned various commercial directors to create a series of short films based on the colours of their shoes. Blomkamp was given the colour yellow. Although Yellow has very little to do with shoes, it is still very awesome. A dangerous AI escapes into society and must be hunted down. With obvious nods to Ghost in the Shell and Isaac Asimov, Yellow is one of my favourite Blomkamp films.
Tetra Vaal
Think third world Robocop and you get the gist of this short.
Tempbot
The charming story of an office temp… who happens to be a robot… and falls in love with Lynda Carter of Wonder Woman fame. We’ve all been there.
Citroën – Alive with Technology
It’s a dancing, transforming robot! This Citroën ad from 2005 pretty much proved in concept that a live-action Transformers film was possible. We all know how that turned out, though I’d love to see what Blomkamp could do with a Transformers movie. Step aside Bay!
Nike – Evolution
Everyone has seen this amazing Nike commercial, it’s arguably Blomkamp’s best known work to date. Enough said.
Nike – Crab
Robotic crabs armed (legged?) with Nike shoes and a ball. This is going to haunt my nightmares forever, thanks Neill!
If Blomkamp’s CV doesn’t get you excited about District 9, then we can’t be friends any more. You have to see that movie.
[...] This post was Twitted by daj42 [...]
[...] Director Neill Blomkamp has a very bright future ahead of him. Based on Blomkamp’s short film Alive in Joburg, District 9 is quite simply one of the most impressive films I’ve ever seen from a first time [...]
[...] For more examples, go here. [...]
[...] up. Its a powerful method and worth having another look at. For those who are keen to see more, here’s a site that looks at his career in more detail and includes most of his work to [...]
[...] has been really into a budding director named Neil Blomkamp for years now. He has been putting out short films and commercials for a few years now and finally got his break. Not even 30 years old yet, and he directed his first [...]
What’s brilliantly special about Neill Blomkamp is that having had so much firsthand experience with 3D animation and computer-generated effects, he understands how to use them with deft balance and treat them as everything else does in the film (I’m paraphrasing what he’s said in several interviews).
Intriguingly, his staunch supporter Peter Jackson has a parallel with his early days featuring lots of physical and puppet effects — there’s definitely resonant kinship there.
As a result in Blomkamp’s work, we get the “WOW” factor which gets the desired and focused attention, as opposed to the wrong kind of reaction which goes “Oh geez, another CGI monster?” The effects support the story, instead of distracting from it.
Thanks for this compilation!
What hasn’t been commented on is the amazing editing each of these productions entail. I know that Neil was in the editing room for each production — and D9 will probably get an Oscar nod for Editing as well. His style is unique, and innovative. We’ve not seen the last of this guy!!
[...] This post was Twitted by ngocthatbad [...]
[...] ● 1979年在南非出生，還未滿30的電影導演Neill Blomkamp今年在Peter Jackson監製下推出的District 9，無論在票房或者評論上都大獲全勝，他獨特的電影手法及結合電腦特效的風格，在他幾年前的廣告和短片作品中就已經鍛鍊的非常完熟了，下面這個網頁收集了他大部分的作品，非常值得一看，尤其是2005年Citroën那支汽車成為變形金剛大跳街舞的廣告，當時出現時實在非常叫人驚豔啊。 [...]
Wow! Didn’t realise he’d done so many interesting films. Shame we didn’t have our site up to help with them, but seriously impressed. No surprise he’s gone on to do District 9. Agree with Torley about the balance and 3D!
[...] 9’s breakthrough, P. Jackson backed, director Neil Blomkamp. Go check out his earlier short films and commercials. Alive in Jburg was the inspiration for District 9 and still gives me chills. I’ve been a fan [...]
[...] Posted in Design, Eyes, Heart, Motion, Movies, Uncategorized Another growing obession of mine is the work of District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Some people will know his name soon I’m sure. If you havn’t seen D9 yet you should, it’s going to be one of the most influential Sci-fi movies of our generation. Blomkamp has given a voice to the Halo playing Mtv Real World watching generation. Well I’m curious to see what he ends up doing next. Until then here’s some of his work that he did as a visual effects artist. [...]
[...] dorkshelf.com [...]
>>one of the most original sci-fi films, nay one of the most original films period, that I’ve seen in years <<
Huh? Alien(s) stranded on earth, needs technical assistance to leave, befriends Terran while being chased by nasty authority figures … "E.T." anyone?
[...] Neil Blomkamps kort- og reklamefilmer [...]
these short films are very very impressive. neill blomkomp has some future ahead of him so looking forward to seeing if he makes halo the movie he’ll be really the best director to do it, neill if your reading this please make it