PES

I don't think any animation student's blog would be complete without looking at a PES animation, and I thought I would look at his latest creation. Unsurprisingly it is fabulously efficient in communicating it's message but in an utterly flamboyant and unexpected way. PES has created the cliched romantic hotel room with a do not disturb sign, chocolates, champagne, low lighting and the folded towels and then utterly destroys the ambience in order to show that this type of hotel is outdated. PES shows this destruction by animating the towel swans to enact their mating ritual which takes up the majority of the advert. However when they finally meet beak to beak, forming a heart with their necks they are suddenly swallowed by a huge shark. The advert is for a new citizen M hotel in Times Square who pride themselves on 'affordable luxury' and so the advert states that all these romantic frivolities are a waste of time, why float like a swan when you can leap like a shark right into the centre of New York. I think PES could also be trying to make a larger point about modern romance, because swans always mate for life so by choosing these as the animal towels I think he saying that monogamy is also a thing of the past. The blood pools that rise up are interesting as well, because they are literally staining the sheets with satin material, I think this trying to show that over the top luxury is just as much as a nuisance as stained sheets, encouraging people to make life easier for themselves and stay at their hotels.

I think this is one of his most ambitious animations so far in terms of playing with camera angles and focus. The reflection in the painting is just beautiful but really gives the animation a three dimensionality which makes it seem more realistic. The choice of painting further contextualises the swans by placing them almost in their dream world of water. I think PES is really clever because he creates these animated worlds that seem so rounded and full, he does this by thinking a lot about the integration of sound to make the movement make sense, for example he animates the bed with the sound of rippling water, we see a bed but hear a lake, so he places us in this strange dual world that is somewhere between the two. 

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/kesselskramer-pes-swan-song