-- Red Bee Media and BAFTA winning animators make excuses for TV Licensing 18/06/13
Red Bee Media collaborates with BAFTA award-winning animators to create original animated content for TV Licensing
BAFTA award-winning Scottish animation collective, White Robot, have brought their unmistakable sense of humour and animation style to some of the most bizarre and ridiculous excuses given to TV Licensing over the past year, in a content campaign created by Red Bee Media.
Red Bee Media was selected by TV Licensing to create original content to form the centre-piece of TV Licensing's recently created YouTube channel. The aim was to provide audiences with approachable entertainment that is clearly rooted in TV Licensing truths, while highlighting the unjust nature of TV Licence evasion on behalf of the honest 95 per cent of people who pay.
Red Bee Media developed a unique series of short animated films that capitalise on the often absurd real-life excuses that people have used when quizzed about why they haven't paid for their TV Licence. Red Bee Media teamed up with Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson, the Edinburgh-based duo who collaborate as the collective White Robot, to transform some of the more bizarre and ridiculous excuses into bite-sized, shareable and funny short films.
Hot from picking up a BAFTA film award earlier this year for their short animation The Making of Longbird, Anderson and Henderson have transformed three excuses into standalone animations titled Stolen TV, Lost Weight and Lethal Injection. The films will premiere on TV Licensing's YouTube channel on Tuesday 18 June. An additional two excuses, Queen's Corgi and Six Months to Live, will be launched on the channel later in the year.
Head of Communications and Policy for TV Licensing, Sian Healey, said: This is an innovative approach for the TV Licensing brand, but one which we feel works well for YouTube. Will [Anderson] and Ainslie [Henderson] are great creative collaborators - their charming yet cheeky characters really brought to life some of the outlandish excuses we've heard from evaders from all walks of life. We hope the campaign will raise awareness of the need to be licensed and the many ways to spread the cost. The vast majority 95 per cent of people in the UK - pay for their TV Licence and we want to get the message out to those who don't that there are ways to spread the payments for a licence but consequences if you evade.
Andy Bryant, Director, Creative at Red Bee Media added: We felt that if we could make people laugh they might just feel a little warmer about TV Licensing. And what better way than to use the brilliant comedy goldmine of excuses theyre already sitting on hilarious, rude, surreal and bizarre. Will and Ainslie's characters work perfectly to capture the ability of some people to construct absurd excuses when under pressure. We believe that one of the keys to creating effective content for brands is to allow creators the freedom to do what they do best entertain. This is exactly what Will and Ainslie have achieved through these films.
Co-Writer and director of the short films, Will Anderson, said: Our style of animation really lends itself to TV Licensing's excuses. Using bold, vibrant animation we are able to develop the nature of the excuses, and abstract them with our sense of humour. The excuses were naturally funny, so it was all about how we could bring them to life. All of our work is particularly conversational, so it's a good match.
Animator and co-writer, Ainslie Henderson, added: As soon as we saw the list of excuses people had given TV Licensing I could see and hear Malkie and the Crows saying them. They were exactly the sort of thing he would say if he was caught without a TV Licence, so for us, it was a great fit.
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-- Red Bee Media and BAFTA winning animators make excuses for TV Licensing 18/06/13 
