Heat Electric: Creature Comforts
Everybody's a star in this Aardman Animations Oscar-winner in which animals discuss life at the zoo. Accustomed to open spaces and sunnier climes, they comment on the accommodation, diet and the English weather. “Creature Comforts” tv commercials for Heat Electric. Moreover, throughout the Heat Electric tv spots, the creative
In an age of Andy Warhol ’s “ everybody will be famous for 15 minutes”, conclusive answer to a general question - a sound bite - and the attempts to present a cheery spin by talking heads on a complex issue while the human bury their personal issues and problems with the issue. The series gently mocks the “staged” performance sometimes given by members of the general public when being interviewed for television vox-pops. In an ironic twist these tv commercials are better remembered than the original film that spawned them
Leonard Chershire Disability: Creature Discomforts
A series of four tv spots highlighting disability and featuring the voices of disabled people telling of their experiences premiered on ITV on Christmas Day 2007. In a review of Creature Discomforts, the author opens: "Can I ask you a question?" a young movie usher once asked a close friend of mine, who is permanently in a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy. "Do people like you ever get sexual urges?" "Why?" responded my friend, who has never suffered fools gladly. "Do you lose yours when you sit down?"
That's the kind of idiocy disabled people are forced to put up with on a daily basis, from ignorant questions and attitudes from society at large.
The PSAs challenges people to change the way they see disability and the characters are based on the unscripted voices of disabled people talking about the issues that affect their lives. A noteworthy feature in the first game of the series, ‘Flyzz’ featuring Callum The Chameleon, was that it carried an ‘audio only’ option, making it one of the few flash games that are accessible to the visually challenged. Do visit the Creature Discomforts website to discover more information on the characters, to see the ads in their other formats and for lots of other treats and extras.
That's the kind of idiocy disabled people are forced to put up with on a daily basis, from ignorant questions and attitudes from society at large.
The PSAs challenges people to change the way they see disability and the characters are based on the unscripted voices of disabled people talking about the issues that affect their lives. A noteworthy feature in the first game of the series, ‘Flyzz’ featuring Callum The Chameleon, was that it carried an ‘audio only’ option, making it one of the few flash games that are accessible to the visually challenged. Do visit the Creature Discomforts website to discover more information on the characters, to see the ads in their other formats and for lots of other treats and extras.
The film shows various animals in a zoo being interviewed about their living conditions. These include turtles, a female gorilla, a family of polar bears, and a melancholic Mountain Lion who complains about the "lack of space" and the "grass with pollen that gives me hay fever every day!"
The brilliant dialogue was created by interviewing residents of a housing development, an old people's home and a family that lived in a local shop (the polar bears). Clay animation was then created that attributed the answers to zoo animals. One of the most popular characters was the Mountain Lion. He was in fact a Brazilian student who lived in a hotel and was talking about his own situation.
The characters' dialogue was obtained by taking tape recordings of everyday people talking about the comfort and benefits of the electrical appliances in their homes then using extracts of the soundtracks - complete with pauses, false starts, repetitions, hesitations and unscripted use of language (such as "easily turn-off-and-on-able"). The selected interviewees spoke in a range of down-to-earth regional accents.
Creature Comfort: USA
