Oren Lavie is a songwriter of curly brown hair, whisperish voice, green eyes and suspiciously cold feet. He was born in 1976, two minutes behind schedule, and has been trying to catch up ever since.

In 2007 Oren’s debut album, THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE SEA, was released in Europe. If you happen to live in that particular continent – buy it around the corner, behind the bakery and next to the flower shop.

In January 2008 Oren has started his own label in the US, named it, then renamed it, changed it again and finally decided to call it A Quarter Past Wonderful. He then released the album on i-tunes US.
Later in the month the album has been featured on the i-tunes Singer/Songwriter Spotlight, after which it auspiciously climbed to No. 30 on the charts.
Shortly after that, the album track ‘Her Morning Elegance’ was chosen to feature on a US Chevrolet TV commercial. The aforementioned author, who has never owned a car in his life, and who has diligently ignored the invention of Television, could not stop giggling for days.
With a song in his heart he continues to take the bus.

A full physical US release of THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE SEA is planned for later, somewhere between a little later and quite-considerably-later, depending on a series of ever changing factors of mysterious nature.

THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE SEA album was written and produced by Oren Lavie, and recorded in his Berlin apartment throughout a period of 3 years.

Everything You Need to Know about Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie

Oren Lavie – Co-director / songwriter
Oren Lavie is a songwriter, director, writer of funny books for sad children. Born in Tel-Aviv, Israel. He has long curly hair, green eyes, cold feet. Known to daydream on many an occasion.
He has written and directed several plays in London’s Off-West End and NY off-Broadway.
His play ‘Lighting The Day’ was named by the London Time Out magazine one of the top 5 plays in London during its run. He won several scholarships and awards as a playwright and director, was a member of Manhattan Classic Company’s playwright coalition.

He likes to create dreamy visuals from realistic elements, he enjoys squeezing big worlds into small spaces.
As a songwriter he produced his debut album ‘The Opposite Side of The Sea’ which he released in 2008 on his own label, being that nobody else was going to release it.
He loves animation but can’t draw a straight line to save his life.
This video is his first venture into the Moving Pictures.
www.orenlavie.com

Yuval and Merav Nathan – Co-directors / animation
Yuval and Merav Nathan are a pair of Israeli directors/creators, husband and wife, with two small kids and one big computer.
They each bring their own special background and skills and together they create a unique style that combines photography, design, 3d animation, stop motion and 2d compositing. They’ve created so far four animated music videos as well as numerous commercials and short movies.
You can watch their work on:
www.onewingfly.com

Shir Shomron- Actress
Is an Israeli actress and model. She has been on the covers of many fashion magazines (European H&M campaign) and acted in numerous theater plays and TV shows in Israel. Born in Israel, her family moved to California during her high school years. At age 18 she returned to Israel to join the army. Later she went to acting school at the University of Tel-Aviv and upon graduating began to work professionally, while dedicating time to study yoga and holistic treatment in art, movement and dance.
She was introduced to Oren by a mutual friend, and the two met for the first time in a Tel-Aviv coffee shop on a plate of cookies (pistachio, we are told).
Oren was originally looking for a petit, black haired actress who would look small inside the bed frame and contrast the white sheets with her dark hair. Shir happened to be a very tall, very red-haired person. She was hired immediately. She was the best thing that ever happened to the production as mid-way through the first day of shooting she began to animate her own movements, bringing new life to the existing sketches.
www.yulimodels.com/

Eyal Landesman – Photgrapher
Eyal is a leading Israeli photographer who is renowned for his work in the worlds of theatre and dance. His passion is in capturing the stage experience on stage and behind the scenes, searching for the human story in the counter balance between staged and documentary photography.
He has documented many of the world’s leading Dance festivals.
The video was shot all stills in Eyal’s studio in Tel-Aviv.
To see his work go to:
www.eyalland.com

Fun Facts:
* The video was shot all stills – roughly 3225 still photos for the entire video, using one camera, hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie.
* It took 4 weeks before shooting to create an animated computer generated storyboard for the video, with 3d dummies for the characters.
* It took only 2 days of shooting for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5 minutes computer sequence, frame by frame.
* Some of the bed sheets used in the video were taken from Oren’s own bedroom and are now considered collectors items, worth at the moment not very much and therefore used as bed sheets.
*Each of the wonderfully talented people above have worked on the video for a fraction of their normal rates (except Oren who worked for his normal rate of zero).

30 Day Trend

Video Data

Viral Sharing of this Video: “Spreading across the interweb like Wildfire!”

The Sydney Morning Herald has revealed the video is a hoax and is indeed a viral campaign produced by the Photon owned agency, Naked Communications. The SMH article does not reveal the brand, however the original story on News.com.au quotes publicist Laura Konrads, who in a Google search is the PR Marketing Manager for Witchery Fashion.

The Daily Telegraph is reporting on a Sydney’s woman’s YouTube plea to find the man of her dreams who apparently left his jacket behind at a cafe after chatting her up. Heidi Clarke, a 24 y.o (Note : her YouTube profile says she’s 25, but models do lie about their age) shop assistant has produced a video and setup a website with the help of her graphic designer friend so she can find her man.

Unsurprisingly no-one is too convinced by the legitimacy of the story, least of all Daily Telegraph who suggest it’s possibly a viral connected to the fashion label Witchery We agree and add the timing is perfect for a valentines day campaign.

Ms Clarke doesn’t appear to have a Facebook profile, which is unusual for someone who’s prepared to pimp themselves out in cyberspace. There is however a Heidi Clark with no friends…

Heidi has a number of photo’s on her webpage that look a little too good to be amateur. The EXIF data has been removed from the JPEGs so nothing telling there. However she is hot and we appreciate her getting her gear off for the sake of publicity.

Heidi’s website looks like art director’s attempt at being amateur. The ‘graphic designer’ friend might have been more convincing if they were a ‘photographer’ friend as they are obviously more handy doing modeling shots than web design.

The YouTube video is very well shot, well beyond the usual YouTube standard and the bedroom looks like it’s been cleaned by the team at CSI:Miami. The video is also curiously available as a download on the website (why not just embed the YouTube clip Heidi?) which is HD and exported from Final Cut with the filename 1 – b – YOUTUBE(2).mov with the resolution of 1024×768. That’s a big web video.

Heidi or H3idi8 also has a rather active YouTube presence. Since she first signed up on December 23, 2008 she’s watched quite a few fashion related videos. She also uploaded a short 8 second mobile video titled on my way to Christmas lunch to Youtube.

We don’t know what type of shop assistant Heidi is in Elizabeth Bay, but she definitely has a keen interest in high end fashion if her video viewing behavior is anything to go by. This adds legitimacy to the Daily Telegraph claims.

Get the feeling this is a clumsy attempt at a viral? You’re not alone

Know more? Is Heidi a model or shop assistant for Witchery? Drop us an email, or comment below.

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