Bruce Alcock

A Director and Creative Director for over three decades, Bruce Alcock’s award-winning films, television series, interactive projects and hundreds of international commercials have earned him accolades world wide. Alcock co-founded three animation studios: Cuppa Coffee (Toronto), Tricky Pictures (Chicago), and Global Mechanic (Vancouver). Working in a mix of all physical and digital techniques, Alcock is above all an experimental artist. He loves to mix commercial and artistic streams of production, combining professional rigour and creative abandon to make truly original work.

Kensington Market

We made this for Historica Canada, the 88th short in the Heritage Minute series, and the first to be animated. Winner of the Ottawa Animation Festival award for Best Commissioned Film.

Community of Clean

This kind of spot doesn’t come along that often, particularly for a cleaning products company! Mexican company Alen wanted to introduce their products to America, in a colourful, arty way that spoke to environmentalism and family.

Help the Helpers

PayPal wanted an ad to promote philanthropy via their services, so we came up with this hand-made cutout photocollage look.

Vive la Rose

Unrequited love, animated on location

Jam Van

A YouTube Originals series produced with Believe! Entertainment, this foodie road trip show for kids won an Emmy! Here’s the show open, featuring the main characters, Lamb, Anne, Jam Van, and Grumpy GPS.

At the Quinte Hotel

sing a celebrated CBC Radio recording of Purdy reading at the League of Canadian Poets in 1968, Bruce Alcock animates At the Quinte Hotel with a variety of handmade and computer-assisted techniques — oil paint on paper, charcoal drawings on paper, linoleum, bottle caps, wire, flowers, a neon sign, even an electric kettle. Winner of the Golden Gate award at the San Francisco Film Festival, and Best Canadian Animation at the Ottawa International Festival of Animation.

More Life

This ad for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s National Newspaper, uses multiple techniques to get at the variety of content in the paper.

Together We’re the Key

One from a campaign of Civic Shorts commissioned by PBS Kids, with music by the incomparable Bill Sherman.

Fetch! Show Open

Nominated for an Emmy, this show open features the acrobatic voice of Jim Conroy. Fetch! ran for five seasons and had a couple of spin-offs. It was our studio’s first series with PBS Kids, and a real favourite.

the Animation of Carbon

A mini-doc about process, and discovering new ways to represent all things great and small.

the Fire: Trailer

A series and installation based on a live performance: cabaret for the end of times!

I Send You This Cadmium Red: Trailer

Projection & set for this theatre piece based on correspondence between John Berger and John Christie.

Long Term

This ad for Western & Southern is one from a campaign - we loved the stylized design, and the thought of this guy growing a beard while flying up into the sky on a growing arrow - wow!

Stand

A PSA based on children’s drawings from Darfur.

Butterflies

One from many, many on-air promotional spots we made for MuchMusic, this one for the francophone wing, called Musique Plus. It’s a study in cycle rates: the camera and hand-held lighting are shot on ones, the butterflies on threes, the type on sevens… lovely when a technical idea produces poetry.