Logorama
Logorama is a 17-minute animated film produced by French collective H5. The film depicts events in a stylized Los Angeles, and is told entirely through the use of more than 2,500 corporate logos. The film won the Kodak Prix at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Short Film (Animated) at the 82nd Academy Awards.[1]
Plot
The opening shot is a panorama of Los Angeles, revealing a city where all of the buildings and inhabitants are some form of commercial branding: birds in the form of Bentley logos, Microsoft's butterfly, pedestrians in the shape of the AIM icon, etc. The major characters are revealed in an Altman-esque tableau. The Pringles mascot (David Fincher) pulls into a restaurant's parking lot and propositions an Esso Girl waitress (Aja Evans)who's on a smoking break. Two Michelin Man cops in a parked cruiser are introduced as they debate the morality of keeping animals in zoos. Across town, Bob's Big Boy and Haribo are on a tour at the zoo lead by a flamboyantly gay Mr. Clean.
As the cops order lunch, a call comes in over the radio about a criminal on the loose in a red delivery truck. Both cops spy Ronald McDonald in the truck and give chase. The pursuit quickly veers out of control, as innocent bystanders are imperiled. The kids at the zoo have finished their visit and are back on the school bus. Their bus gets caught up in the chase when Ronald McDonald's truck tips over right in front of the Pizza Hut where Esso Girl is waiting on the Original Pringles mascot and the Pringles Hot & Spicy mascot as they have lunch together.
Several guns and biological weapons spill out of the back of Ronald McDonald's truck, tempting Big Boy and Haribo to steal them for sale on the black market. Ronald McDonald takes Big Boy hostage and executes Haribo before running inside the Pizza Hut. Once inside, Big Boy bites Ronald McDonald and runs for cover behind the counter with Esso Girl. Enraged, Ronald McDonald opens fire, giving the police the excuse to start firing on him. In the ensuing gun battle, Big Boy and Esso Girl escape out the back and hijack a car.
As the gun battle explodes in to the streets, a low rumbling can be heard across the entire city. A giant earthquake splits the streets of the city open. While running from the police, Ronald McDonald falls into one of the crevasses. As he tries to pull himself out, he is run over by Esso Girl & Big Boy's. The duo barely escape the city. As they near the Hollywood sign, it falls apart, sending the giant letters crashing on to the highway in front of them. While evading one of them, they veer off the highway and down a hill. Their car crashes into a tree, and oil erupts in the rifts around town, flooding Los Angeles with crude. The hill Esso Girl and Big Boy are on splits in two, revealing a giant North Face logo. Eventually, the land crumbles around them, swallowed by the sea, leaving them on a tiny island together as the film closes.
Themes
Logorama explores the extent to which logos are embedded in our daily existence. Said members of H5, "Logorama presents us with an over-marketed world built only from logos and real trademarks that are destroyed by a series of natural disasters (beginning with a hurricane, cyclone, tidal wave). Logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us everyday in our lives. This over-organized universe is violently transformed by the cataclysm becoming fantastic and absurd. It shows the victory of the creative against the rational, where nature and human fantasy triumph."[2]
Controversy
The short film used many various corporate logos. Ironically enough, the film was taken off various video sharing sites for copyright infringement. Examples of the companies and corporations that fell victim to this infringement include Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Viacom International, Microsoft Corporation, and Apple Computer inc.
Trivia
- As Ronald McDonald dodges a falling Enron logo, he mutters 'Losers'. As he dodges a falling K-Mart logo, he shouts 'white trash'. Later on, he crashes into a falling Weight Watchers logo, the irony being that Weight watchers promotes weight loss, McDonalds, along with other fast food chains, the opposite.
- The earthquake creates a crater in the form of the X-Box logo at an intersection
- Diners in the Pizza Hut include Chief Wahoo, Mr. Peanut and the Pep Boys.
- Palm trees are in the shape of the Afri-Cola logo.
- The USB logo is used to represent cactuses.
- Telephone poles are in the shape of the T-Mobile logo.
Awards
Logorama has received the following nominations and awards:
- Kodak Discovery Award for Best Short Film (the Kodak Prix)- Critics' Week, Cannes Film Festival 2009
- Audience Award - Festival International de Curtas Metragans 2009
- Audience Award - Lille International Short Film Festival 2009
- Jury's Special Prize, Audience Prize, Fuji Prize for Best Directors - Cinanima International Animated Film Festival 2009
- Best Short Film - Stockholm International Film Festival 2009
- Best Direction, Audience Award - Vendome Film Festival 2009
- Gold Medal for Animation - Zinebi, Bilbao International Film Festival 2009
- Nomination for Best Short Film (Animated) - 82nd Academy Awards (2010)
External Links
References
- ^ Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. "Nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
- ^ Design Boom. "H5: Logorama". Design Boom. Retrieved February 8, 2010.