Intercambio from BaseMOTION on Vimeo. [illustrations: Max Gaertner]

Barcelona-based creative team Carlitos y Patricia recently approached BaseMotion with a mysterious mission: Create a 10-second spot and incorporate the spoken phrase (translated from Spanish), “Come to the place where bartering rules. Long live the exchange; long live the exchangers!” Additionally BaseMotion was told that the piece would be one of four ultimately assembled into a single 40-second spot according to the Surrealist game/process of collective creation, cadavre exquis. They were given no other information or guidelines.

Five to ten film and motion graphics companies were contacted to create a proposal for each of the four 10-second segments. These were posted online, where viewers could vote on their favorites. Each week for four consecutive weeks, a new winning entry is being broadcast on Spanish television, grafted onto that of the previous week(s), with a message at the end stating that a subsequent section will be added the following week.

The contest has now been 3/4 decided, with the completing segment and final piece to be unveiled this week. BaseMotion submitted this video for the third sequence, and while they did not win, they should have. But alas, victory was snatched from their clutches in the final moments of the neck-and-neck contest, thanks to a wave of last-minute voting from the friends, family, and shills of the competing agency.

Click here to see the (almost) final piece.