Pandora Oxford Circus Takeover

In November, Oxford Street and Regent Street underwent the yearly task of decorating the lights for the upcoming festivities and the sponsors this year are the high end jewellery makers, Pandora. 

There were three underground stations in the surrounding area that had a complete takeover to promote the sponsorship. These were Oxford Circus, Bond Street and Marble Arch.

A concoction of Digital Escalator Panels, 6 Sheets and turnstile wraps contributed to this lively campaign and we are pleased to have worked on this leasing with Grey London, with them very pleased after a quick turnaround was needed...

Petts Wood Sparrowhawks

In September Act Two were approached by the Manager of Petts Wood Sparrowhawks, the 11-a-side team for whom our Managing Directors son plays for, enquiring into weather we would be interested in sponsoring the team. 

We thought this would be a great opportunity to help give this club a little boost and the sponsorship money will be put toward upgrading the facilities and equipment that the club currently use. 

As you can see from the above images, their Kit now includes our Logo. Good luck to the boys for the upcoming season!

Infinit - Goodwood Festival of Speed

In June in partnership with our moving image arm, Gramercy Park Studios, Act Two underwent an exciting project for the car manufacturer Infiniti. Infiniti are launching a new range of cars ready to be rolled out in December 2015 and as some of the models weren’t in production yet, the brief was to supply visual stimuli holding a story of the aesthetic and luxury heritage of their brand.

The work was then presented at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The festival is an annual hill climb featuring historic motor racing vehicles held in the grounds of Goodwood House in Sussex, England. The festival attracts around 100,000 people on each of the three days it is held. This makes for a fantastic location for exposure of the project. 

Ourselves and Gramercy Park are both very happy with the outcome of the visuals. I’m still holding out for one of their cars as a thank you though.

M&S Food Campaign

Throughout March & April Act Two completed the retouching for the entire M&S Food Campaign covering the events of Valentines Day, Mothers Day & Easter. This campaign subsequently ran in most major press publications providing great exposure for the work we do.

The finish of the campaign was close crops of mouth watering food, accompanied by Meal Deal promotions including flowers & alcohol. The food needed to look the most premium it could and in line with their very successful and aesthetically tantalising TV ads. Although now having dropped the famous 'It's not just food, it's M&S food', the output for this work is still highly regarded and recognised, so the finish needed to be of the highest quality.

You can see the before and afters on our portfolio and they highlight the meticulous detail in the food retouching in particular. Although on first glance only small transformations have been made, the effect is profound. Having to recreate entire segments of chocolate brownie & roasted lamb proved to be rewarding after the clients feedback.

It's not just retouching, it Act Two-Um retouching..

Act Two vs Grey

On Tuesday night Act Two had the pleasure of hosting Grey London for a 7 a side game of football. The stage was set, the floodlights on and in a slightly overcast White City the battle was due to commence.

The first half started well with everyone's fitness put to the test and it was quite evident early on who hadn't done much cardio vascular exercise in a while..

Due to two unforced errors by the away teams goalkeeper, one a penalty and the other being slight confusion regarding the pitch markings, Grey found themselves two nil down, both tucked away by new kid on the block Jack Hodges.

Act Two's momentum dropped towards the end of the first half and a lackadaisical 10 minutes resulted in a goal for Grey and the awarding of another penalty, but this time to the away side. With a chance to level the game just before half time, penalty winner Paul Wentworth was dubiously receded from taking the spot kick. Alternatively, on his head be it, captain Joe Arojojoye commanded that it should go to the first goal scorer Alex Dunningham.

This turned out to be a costly mistake. Jamie Tutton, representative and founder of Act Two's sister company RM2, manoeuvred his body comparable only to that of a startled feline which denied the young man his second. Big Save. Paul was not happy.

The half time whistle blew - much to the delight of the panting collection of fellas. Clichéd footballing lingo, a few sips of water, and an optimistic check on the Arsenal Champions League score later and we were set for the second half.

Act Two, not too dissimilar from the first half, hit the second half running. Jerry the Bear commanding the center of the field, living up to the his title of Woodford's Pirlo. An early penalty awarding (again) and a chance to disrupt Greys half time spoken optimism, young Jack McCarthy was called upon. Confidently smashed down the middle whilst looking like a Steven Gerrard/Harry Styles amalgamation, the game was now 3-1.

Grey's fight couldn't be questioned however and as a team they were unified, knowing that a chance their way and they were back the game. For a period of 10 minutes and a total of 10 shots on target, the disarray as to how they hadn't scored was evident on most of the teams faces. Their frustration and appreciation toward the goalkeeper, blended together perfectly. But they were ultimately made to pay for not securing a way back into the game by pocket rocket Ben Raven and his sheer determination allowed him to nick the ball in front of the goalkeeper. 4-1.

Finally in one last act of brilliance, Carl Taylor, 49, whom had been grafting for the entirety of the game, slipped an exquisite delicately weighted ball through to Jack Hodges who was in for his hat trick. Calling upon previous experience playing for Grey, Jack gave the keeper the eyes and slotted home to seal the win.

75 minutes of game time up and the exhaustion, both mentally and physically, was evident to see. But it was definitely well earned. By everyone.

All round a great night of football and possibly one of new regularity...

Kuala Lumpur Office Opening

In January 2015 Act Two opened its third office, this time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It is a very exciting time for all of us but our dedicated KL team consists of 4 main people whose skills will be able to push us to the next level in the Asian market.

Andy How is responsible for selling Act Two to the KL market having had previous experience in working across Malaysia on a variety of Blue Chip brands. He is also an accomplished retoucher and he has been known to get his hands dirty with the creation of CGI models.

Ben Parry is one of our top London based artists who is spending 3 months in the new office ensuring this workplace reflects both the London and New York offices in its methodology and attention to detail.

Roy Kang is a budding CGI artist and retoucher who has been with Team since the office opening. Roy is quickly becoming an integral part of the workflow in Malaysia working closely alongside Ben.

And Yvette Shum who is based in Singapore, is selling Act Two to the Singapore Market, allowing us to expand our cover from Malaysia in to Singapore also.

With the addition of the brand new Kuala Lumpur office and these central individuals to accompany it, Act Two is now present in Europe, North America and Asia. This enables us to service the needs of our clients on a truly global scale.