Union Editorial: Jim Haygood Wins 2 AICE Awards for Viral VW Super Bowl Ad
LOS ANGELES, May 23, 2011 — Editor Jim Haygood of Union received two 2011 AICE Awards for his work on “The Force,” a :60 spot for Volkswagen that premiered during the Super Bowl and has since blown up on YouTube to the tune of an astonishing 38+ million views. AICE — the Association of Independent Creative Editors — awarded Haygood with “Best Automotive” and “Best of Los Angeles.”
Created via Deutsch, the endearing spot features a little kid running around his home, desperately trying to use the force while dressed up as a pint-sized Darth Vader. It’s not until his dad returns home, driving the new 2012 Passat, that he harnesses the power of the “The Force” — thanks to a little help from dad and the VW’s remote-starting capabilities.
TIME declared the spot “an absolute winner, tying in not only to a pop-culture mythology that now has a hold on several generations, but to the universal longing of children for superpowers — which is not unrelated to the inner longings that make people choose cars. The Force is strong in this one.”
Read More »Union Editorial: Jim Haygood Harnesses the Force in Viral VW Super Bowl Ad
Jim Haygood of Union brings his expert comedic timing to the new VW spot that has blown up on YouTube to the tune of an astonishing 25+ million views. Created via Deutsch, the endearing spot features a little kid running around his home, desperately trying to use the force while dressed up as a pint-sized Darth Vader. It’s not until his dad returns home, driving the new 2012 Passat, that he harnesses the power of the “The Force” – thanks to a little help from dad and the VW’s remote-starting capabilities. This ad was included on numerous lists charting the best Super Bowl ads of 2011. TIME declared it “an absolute winner, tying in not only to a pop-culture mythology that now has a hold on several generations, but to the universal longing of children for superpowers — which is not unrelated to the inner longings that make people choose cars. The Force is strong in this one.”
Read More »Bandito Brothers: Shaun White Takes Driving Lessons From BF Goodrich
In three new promos for tire manufacturer BF Goodrich, Bandito Brothers teams up with Olympian Shaun White as he steps off the mountain and onto the racetrack. In “Cones,” “Cars,” and “Harness,” White learns he’s much more comfortable strapped into a snowboard than he is in a grayed-out Dodge Viper. Bandito director Scott Waugh helmed long form videos that will soon be rolling out online, while directing duo Gentlemen married Bandito’s trademark high-octane action with some comedic muscle for the promos:
Read More »Pirelli Tires in Motion with Bandito Brothers/Filmmaster Coproduction
If anyone knows about wheels in motion, it’s Bandito Brothers, whose projects for Ford, Toyota, the Navy, even Mt. Dew, have called for high-speed road work. The Banditos got as close to the ground as ever when they collaborated with Filmmaster, Milan, and agency Y&R Milan, to create “Never Tyred” for Pirelli. With footage shot in locations such as Mammoth, Dumont Dunes, and the Miller Raceway in Salt Lake, the short film celebrates Pirelli’s legacy of innovation, green technology, performance, revolution – and evolution.
Read More »Pomplamoose, Innocean Worldwide Americas, Lemonaide Media Team for Hyundai Holiday Campaign
YouTube sensation Pomplamoose brings its singular style to the new holiday campaign for Hyundai Motor America, created via Innocean Worldwide Americas. Lemonaide Media produced the project for director Ed Miller.
Read More »Eight VFX is on Fire – and Ice – for Wrigley’s Solstice 5
Produced by Eight VFX and directed by Jean-Marc Demmer and Fred Hopp, the new, all-CG "Solstice 5" for Wrigley’s conveys the "warm and cool winter" flavor with a playful show of extremes. The collaboration between Eight VFX and BBDO Toronto turns the science of flavor-making into an event that is both is explosive…and chilling.
As the commercial opens, we find ourselves in an enormous – presumably secret – location (the brand’s shadowy ’5′ logo stenciled on the rear wall offers only a hint of context). Camera moves in on a glass sphere in which the Solstice 5 package is housed. The package bursts into a huge fireball; not only does it withstand the heat, it gradually turns cold. The temperature drops rapidly, causing the package to become encased in ice. Finally, the glass shatters, falling away to reveal the striking Solstice 5 box intact.
"Building the Wrigley’s world around the pack was an interesting experience," recalls Hopp. "We started very early with CG, from concepts we developed with the agency. We had a lot of fun figuring out how we would crystallize the flame, and I’m quite satisfied with what we came up with, which works really well with the framing the agency went for. I think it’s a really nice :15, a product shot that fits in very well with the impressive Wrigley’s ad campaign we’ve seen in the past."
DOWNLOAD "Solstice 5" Quicktime
Client: Wrigley’s
Spot Title: "Solstice 5"
Air Date: December 7, 2009
Agency: BBDO Toronto
Writer: Jamie Marcovitch
Art Director: Todd Cornelius
Creative Director: Ian MacKellar
Producer: Adriana Laborde
Production/VFX: Eight VFX
Directors: Jean-Marc Demmer, Fred Hopp
VFX EP: Baptiste Andrieux
VFX Supervisor: Jean-Marc Demmer
CG Supervisor: Fred Hopp
CG Artists: Mathias Jourdes, Shuichi Nakamara, Chein-I Kao
VFX Producer: Marsi Frey
Music House: Ta2 Music
Audio Director: Tommy Zee
2010 GMC Terrain: A Smaller SUV with Bigger Ideas, in an All-CG Package from SWAY Studio
Touch Screen Navigation. Independent DVD Screens. Multi-Flex Seating. Rear-View Camera. All of these specifications and more are beautifully captured and conveyed in a new, all-CG campaign for the GMC Terrain via Leo Burnett Detroit. Set against a drawing-board cityscape, the spot plays like a blueprint come to life and provides yet another great example of SWAY Studio‘s incomparable Drive-A-Tron™ software, also used to create the limo scene in "2012".
Client: GMC
Spots Title(s): "And It Fits," "Standard Features," "Price"
First Air Date: 11/9/09
AGENCY: Leo Burnett
Executive VP / Creative Director: Peter McHugh
Creative Director: Chad Laughlin
Senior Agency Producers: Scott Gould / Jennie Hochthanner
PRODUCTION/VFX COMPANY: SWAY Studio
Director: Mark Glaser
Executive Producer: Meridith Machial
Visual Effects Supervisor: Aaron Powell
Art Director: Serge Machial
Producer: Alex Thiesen
Production Coordinator: Will Lemmon
Previs Artist: Rob Glazer
Digital Artist: Cesar "Chancho" Chavez
Digital Artist: Steven Wang
Digital Artist: Art Sayan
Digital Artist: John Niehuss
Nuke Compositor: Brady Doyle
Nuke Compositor: Joseph Zaki
Flame Artist: Andy Edwards
MOTION GRAPHICS COMPANY: Buck
Creative Director: Ryan Honey
Executive Producer: Maurie Enochson
Associate Creative Director: Jeremy Sahlman
Producer: Eric Badros
Art Director: Jenny Ko
Design: Jon Gorman
Animation 3D/2D: Tim Hayward, Cody Smith, Matt Everton, Zach LaPlante, Jon Gorman
Rigging: Jens Lindgren
Technical Director: Paul Hormis
Production Coordinator: Ashley Hsieh
Original Music ("Standard Features"): Finger Music
Composer: Dave Hodge
Producer: Tania Thiele
Creative Monster Productions Takes a ‘Shot at Love’ with a Hot WET Viral Campaign
LOS ANGELES, CA, September 25, 2009 – Produced by the newly launched Creative Monster Productions, and created via Ayzenberg/CA, the new viral campaign for videogame WET from Bethesda Softworks manages to put a humorous spin on a dark and gritty offering.
With its atmospheric intro, “Shot at Love” – the first of three virals – reflects the mayhem wrought by assassin Rubi, the game’s protagonist. We move through the scene like detectives arriving moments too late. Rubi’s victims lie scattered about the room. However, the mood unexpectedly lightens, as a man with a pipe through his chest breaks out in song. His mortally wounded companions follow suit, all of them belting out a musical declaration of love for the enigmatic girl who took their lives.
“Shot at Love,” directed by Creative Monster’s Jamie Sterba and featuring VFX by partner company Identity Studios, employs a distinct blend of campiness and (implied) violence that conveys the Tarantino-esque atmosphere of the game. The grainy look of the film adds to that mystique, feeling like stock footage from a B movie, long-hidden away in a vault somewhere. Fortunately for fans, that vault has been opened: the unconventional viral has clearly gone over well with gamers, who’ve voiced their appreciation on blogs and forums across the Web.
WET – Shot at Love Viral Trailer
This is How a Video Game Trailer Should Look
The Awesomer Thinks WET is Awesomer
Two additional spots, “Heartbreaker” and “Lovestruck,” feature characters from “Shot at Love” praising Rubi from the grave.
“We had complete support from the agency,” says Sterba of his collaboration with Ayzenberg and CD Blake Firstman. “In spite of the fact that we had a tight turnaround, we were like kids in a candy store when it came to the creative.” The director adds that, while the musical twist is what hooked him in the beginning, “For all of its atmosphere and intensity, this is a subtle comedy piece. The opportunity existed to tap into humor and humanity, and Blake was looking for the same thing.”
Partner company Identity Studios provided 3D tracking, modeling, animation and compositing to simulate a shotgun blast through the torso of the lead actor. The 3D wound was created from scratch; artists tracked both the camera and the actor so that the wound would dynamically match the actor’s breathing and muscle movements and lit the wound to match set lighting and background atmosphere.
As important as the musical payoff, of course, was the eerie set-up, grabbing the audience’s attention by luring them into a dark, dangerous world. “We asked ourselves, ‘How do we engage the audience from the beginning?” Sterba recalls. “You hear this brutal action offscreen, so when you enter the room you’re adjusting to the grisly aftermath and the last thing you expect is a song.”
That song is delivered by a collection of thugs, each one more brutish than the last. “We operated from the notion that the scarier they looked, the better they should sing,” Sterba muses. On a serious note, he says, it was important that the actors’ performances not be too polished. The same applied to their makeup. “In order to strike the perfect balance, there had to be an aspect of camp to the makeup,” Sterba explains. “So we kept the look of their wounds a little bit silly. One fan said one thug who’s suffered an acid burn looks like he has pizza on his face, which is, more or less, the reaction we were going for.”
Sterba preceded and followed the WET virals – shot on the RED camera and released on the Web – with more traditional, broadcast projects for McDonald’s. Was it tough to shift gears? “The creative approach and the audience may differ, but in the end I’m drawn to work with strong visuals, production design, and humor,” he concludes. “And I use these elements to connect the brand with the viewer.”
Client: Bethesda Softworks/WET
Spots Title(s): (WET) Shot At Love, Heartbreaker, Lovestruck
First Air Date: August 2009 (Web)
Agency: Ayzenberg
Creative Director: Blake Firstman
Agency Producer: Annie Hards
Copywriter(s): Clark Crozer, Jack Collier
Production Company: Creative Monster
Director: Jamie Sterba
DP: Kevin Sarnoff
EP(s): Scott Flor
Producer: Theresa Marth
Post/Effects: Identity FX
VFX/Inferno Artist(s): Christian Severin (3D), Leo Vezzali (Compositing)
EP(s): David Van Woert, Leo Vezzali
Editorial: Ayzenberg
Editor: Chris Scheer
Telecine: Co3
Colorist: Santiago of Co3
Composer: Michael A. Cohen (ASCAP)
Shoot Location: Downtown LA
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Shade Steps Into the Spotlight with Time Warner
Where do you turn, when you feel the need for speed? How do you keep up with your cohorts, especially 
on treacherous terrain, taking on futuristic foes in the heat of battle?
As we learn in a spot breaking this week, the answer is Time Warner Cable – and Roadrunner, with its free power boost. "Lag," the first commercial in Time Warner’s new campaign, offers a visually arresting depiction of videogame-style graphics, as a pair of teens strive to keep the heat turned up via their cable connection. The campaign, created via Uniworld, was directed by spot, feature, and new media filmmaker Jim Sonzero, with visual effects by Shade.
Client: Time Warner Cable
Spots Title: "Lag" "Mojo" "Candy Girls"
Air Date: Lag and Mojo August 3, 2009
Agency: Uniworld/NY
ACD/Copywriter: Shameka Barbosa
Art Director: Heather Han
Copywriter: Dan Macena
CD: Vann Graves
EP: Kimberly Edwards
Prod Company: Newhouse
Director: Jim Sonzero
DP: Ekkehart Pollack
EP: Heidi Nolting
Post/Effects: Shade, De Motu, Red Magnet
EP: Shira Boardman
Lead VFX: Bryan Godwin
CG Supervisor: Dan Dixon
Senior Compositor: Andreas Jablonka
Compositor: Kevin Ellis
Compositor: Charles Meredith
FX Technical Director: Andrew Byrne
Technical Director: Ben Fiske
VFX Producer: Sheri Patterson
Post Producer: Jon Jacobson
Designer: De Motu
Editorial: Shade VFX
Editor: Bob Mori
Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Steve Rodriguez
Music: Human
Shoot Location: Vasquez Rocks
Read More »Al’s Brain Promo Takes Us Into the Musical Mind of Peligro’s Greg Kuehn
For decades, kids young and old have been privy to the unusual mind of "Weird Al" Yankovic. "The Adventures of Al’s Brain," a new animated promo for alsbrain.com offers that and more – allowing Greg Kuehn of Peligro Music to unleash his own inner Al.
The alsbrain.com site promotes "Al’s Brain" – a 3-D journey through the human brain with Weird Al – which premiered at the Orange County Super Fair (July 10 – August 9, 2009) and will travel to the Puyallup Fair in September (other dates and locations TBA).
Disclaimers online state that "Al did not write or perform the song in the promo, and the ‘Al’s Brain in 3-D’ movie (which is mostly live action) bears no resemblance at all to this video." In fact, the wild, frenetic, and entertaining promo – created via The Ballpark – was animated by Animalada 3D Animation Studios, and scored by Peligro Music and Sound Design. Peligro’s Greg Kuehn crafted the music and sound design for the promo, and provided the very Al-like vocal and V.O.
"Scoring ‘The Adventures of Al’s Brain’ was a blast," says Kuehn. "The great creative team at The Ballpark was very open to my ideas about the music, and collaborating with them on this crazy journey was a lot of fun. I think we came up with a cool piece that really enhances the intensity of Animalada’s wonderful animation."
Credits
Music and sound design: Greg Kuehn, Peligro Music and Sound Design
Principal Talent/VO : Greg Kuehn
Agency: The Ballpark
Executive Creative Director: Alan Berkes
Art Director: Hosea Gruber
Copywriter: Dan Sorgen
Account Executive: Erik Penn
Agency Producer: Guillermo Lucero Funes
Animation: Animalada 3D Animation Studios
Director: Emiliano Stefanach – Roque Papa
Country: USA
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