Frank Budgen
Playstation
- DirectorFrank Budgen
- AgencyTWBA London
- Production CompanyGorgeous Enterprises
- VFXThe Mill
NICLAS LARSSON I could easily make a playlist of Frank Budgen’s entire reel and call it quits, because Frank’s work is essentially art disguised as advertising, and he is single-handedly responsible for the later efforts by Glazer and Cunningham. Mountain for Playstation 2 - alas, with a bigger budget than some of his other work and more pressure, still manages to find split moments of absolute gold in its cutaways.
A few words from Niclas
I believe there’s a lack of respect, or/and lack of knowledge, or/and lack of appreciation by my generation of picture-makers for the legends who paved the way for our craft. This is one of the reasons I joined the legendary production house MJZ.
Since im curating advertising, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to educate or/and inspire, because the films i´ve chosen are works that I can confidently call art - an art of ad-making that has seemingly completely vanished. Why that’s the case is for another time to discuss.
The Mountain
Directed by Budgen and produced by Gorgeous Enterprises, the 60-second spot was an ambitious feat: filming involved 50 stuntmen, 500 extras per day, and advanced visual effects by The Mill using pioneering crowd-replication software, generating 146,000 digital characters, each with unique behaviors.
Mountain premiered across 30 countries in November 2003. It became a creative milestone - winning the Cannes Lions Grand Prix among numerous other awards. It played a key role in broadening PlayStation’s user base and boosting PS2 sales during the critical holiday period, helping the console achieve an even stronger market share.
