Many independent animation houses make their monthly nut doing commercials. So often you hear artists, especially younger ones, professing their hatred for working on commercials. It’s like they’re selling out. However, they’re not looking at the positive side of doing work on spots. Innovation is often present in the medium. The short format, which is highly funded, has opportunities that TV and film project sometimes don’t have in regards to experimentation. Agency creative directors are always looking for new and innovative ideas that will make their client’s product stick out from the rest.

Therefore, we’ve decided that it was time to highlight the eye-catching work that is being done in advertising. We put out a call to various leading animation and visual effects houses to make the difficult decision of picking one spot that represents their work. It’s amazing the range of styles and feel to the commercials we received. Some are silly, some are informative, some are dramatic. All of them capture your attention. This is great for an advertiser, but it’s also skills that are greatly needed in all forms of storytelling.

Curious Pictures’ Target Airstream.

Curious Pictures
Joan Raspo was commissioned by PMH advertising in Minneapolis to direct a third spot for Target’s DVD sales campaign. The audience for the spot is the 25-35 year old market demographic, and it focuses on romantic comedies and dramas. The two previous spots of this campaign, Treehouse and Traffic, were recently honored at the 2003 BDA awards in Los Angeles. PMH art director, Carl Byrd relates “We wanted to work with Joan again and her team at Curious because they really get what we are trying to say. Joan added a lot to this project, from a sweeping, cinematic opening camera move, to little details which give the spot tons of texture and flair.”

Credits for Target Airstream
Airstream was shot in HD in order to capture high-resolution facial features. After AVID editing, the footage was digitally rotoscoped.

Advertising Agency: Peterson Milla Hooks
Agency Creative Director: Dave Peterson
Agency Art Director: Carl Byrd
Agency Account Executive: Ken Barlage
Agency Copywriter: Nate Morley
Agency Producer: Aldo Hertz
Director: Joan Raspo
Producer: Sara Nahas
Production Manager: Dana Discordia
DP: Stuart Dryburgh
HD Technician: Abby Levine
CG Shoot Supervisor: Damon Ciarelli
Editor: Anthony Orkin
Designers: Joan Raspo, Justin Harder, Austin Shaw
Compositor: Mario Stipinovich
3D Artists: Lewis Kofsky, Joseph Cross, Paul Liaw
Rotoscope Artists: Kyle McCulloch, Connie Conrad, Sheldon Drake, Tim Dingersen
Casting: Becky Moore at Donna Deseta Casting
Original Music and Sound Design: Rick Meyer at Modern Music