Green Design short is a gas at Framestore design

Screening during October 2005, animated short film 'Hydrogen' has been created by Framestore CFC for Coast as part of their 'Green Design' series.
Commissioned by Mac Mackenzie, 'Hydrogen' was designed and executed by Designer Adam Parry and produced for Framestore Design by Simon Whalley.
'Hydrogen' is a 50 second animated documentary designed to help explain the purpose of the research being carried out at the University of Oxford into the possible use of micro-organisms to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen naturally, with the long term aim of creating a clean, sustainable abundant alternative energy source from the hydrogen.
'Green Design' is the umbrella title for a series of short films that Coast has been creating over the last two years. The films aim to inform people about the range of ways in which new technology is being used to help us live our lives in closer harmony with our planet.
Editorially independent, the series have been commissioned by BBC World, National Geographic Channel, Sky News and Euro News, and go out in editorial time. In addition to creating the only animated episode of 'Green Design', Framestore CFC has also created titles, effects, TK and conforms for the other films in the series.
Mackenzie has worked with Framestore CFC for more than 15 years. "I think that their designers and operators are the best in London," he says simply, "I've known about the great work (Designers) Adam Parry and Sharon Lock have been doing for a long time, and I'd been looking for the right project to bring them. This piece just seemed the perfect match for their talents."
Parry created the film working entirely in Inferno. "We visited Professor P.P. Edwards, who is heading the research programme, at his laboratory in Oxford," recalls Parry, "Mac (Mackenzie) had written the script, and we recorded the professor reading it on DAT. We also took a large number of digital stills – of the professor himself, of his study and some lab images." Parry did a lot of research to ensure that his illustrations of the science behind the project were accurate.
The first week saw the creation of an animatic for the piece, and the following three weeks of intense activity saw the completion of the project. "The look of the piece was certainly inspired by the Ladybird books that we all read and loved as children," says Parry, "They were a model of clarity, and beautifully designed to boot. I think there's a dash of Hitchhiker's Guide in there too."
(SP)