MACHAS

THE OLYMPIC VERMIN

London 2012 is about to start and everyone is joining the Olympic spirt, even London’s characteristic wildlife!

At least this is what Beakus’ Leo Bridle believes and, in collaboration with Amael Isnard, created this awesomely funny animation where a squirrel, a iPhone user pigeon, a fish and a rat are performing their own Olympic torch relay.

“We wanted to make something that poked fun at the so called ‘inclusivity’ of the Olympics” Leo says. “It’s hard not to be a bit excited about everything going on in the city, but at the same time we felt detached from the image of London being sent out to the world. The idea of dirty urban animals staging their own ‘trash olympics’ seemed like a great way to show the true spirit of London!”

“We wanted to see the city from the animals point of view, so we attached a miniature gopro camera onto the end of a 5 meter window cleaning pole. In Soho Square we poked it up in to some big trees to get a squirrel eye view, while in Old Street we walked down the middle of a busy street holding it up high for the pigeon shot. We were expecting to maybe get stopped by some security guards or something, but no one seemed to mind. Maybe people in London are used to seeing people doing strange things on the street. We also opened up a manhole cover in Hackney Wick in order to get the shot of the rat leaving the tube. Some concerned builders came over to check we weren’t from Al Qaeda (we’re not!). Other shots were filmed by balancing a video camera on a skateboard and pushing it along. With a bit of post production work, these turned out surprisingly smooth!”