Rushes Soho Shorts Re-Create An Iconic Film Moment To Promote Festival

Conceived by Paul White and directed by Trevor De Silva, Rushes have produced their own version of the J. Arthur Rank title sequence to introduce this year's short film festival.
Festival Director Joe Bateman commented: "When the idea was pitched to us the timing was perfect, we'd just started finalising this year's activities and the story board for the title sequence was the perfect introduction. The original Rank gong is resident at The Movieum in County Hall and as they’re enthusiastic supporters of the festival, they were more than happy to let us use this original piece of film history."
He continued: "The gong is huge, it might not be made of metal but it took a number of us to shift it! We received amazing support from On Sight and Arri Lighting which meant we could give DOP Ed Rutherford and Gaffer Shawn White all the equipment they needed to light and shoot the piece. It looked absolutely incredible on set."
"We opted to shoot on RED (provided by Deane Thrussell) as it was more financially viable and meant we could send our chosen rushes directly to Final Cut where they could be carefully selected for post production."
Rushes' Senior Designer and Head of Motion GFX, Matt Lawrence commented: "This take on the J. Arthur Rank brand was a fun job to be involved with. The Rushes crew did a great job of recreating the look at the shoot. I used Cinema 4D to create the custom font that was complimentary to the hand painted artwork from the classic original. Compositing and subtle film grain was added using After Effects to complete the piece."
He added: "I love the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival and I've had the pleasure of attending every one since its birth. It's incredible to see how it's grown into such a huge well respected event in those 11 years!"
Finally, sound was added by Bulb Ideas who were delighted to be involved with designing the soundtrack for the Rushes Soho Shorts promo again this year. James Wilkinson at Bulb said: "We teamed up with Paul Foss and had great fun in the studio creating all sorts of interesting Foley sounds for the little man and gong sequence. The gong swipes, believe it or not, came from tennis racket sounds and the powering down of a jet engine and the grunts from a Danish circus pig... and all bundled up seemed to work like a dream!"
(KMcA/JM)