CHARLEX, a visual effects post-production house, helped the National

Football League thank their fans with a 60-second spot aired during

American football's biggest game, the Super Bowl. Headed by Alex Weil,

Charlex founder and director, the Charlex artists used a mix of film,

digital effects, graphics and editing to create the look of the "Thank You

2000" spot. The commercial begins on a shadowy checkerboard. Suddenly light

floods into the room as a uniformed football player makes his way to an old

RING OF FIRE made the crippled walk in Nuveen & Co.'s Super Bowl spot.

Andrew Douglas of SATELLITE was brought in to direct the futuristic spot

where paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve walks to a podium to receive an

award. The super feet was done for Minneapolis, Minnesota-based ad agency

Fallon McElligott. Ring of Fire's founder, Jerry Spivack, served as

creative director and visual effects supervisor for the commercial. Ring of

Fire isn't new to creating outstanding Super Bowl spots, their 1999

Director Dick Buckley of FLYING TIGER FILM and visual effects director Alex

Seiden of CYCLOTRON@POST PERFECT N.Y. rounded-up the e-Cowboy's for the

Super Bowl debuted LastMinuteTravel.com spot. Produced for New York-based

agency, Burkhardt & Hillman, the 30-second commercial is a modern spin on

the Sergio Leone spaghetti western. Reinforcing LastMinuteTravel.com's

message that great things happen at the last-minute, the e-Cowboys find

themselves quickly departing on a cyber-booked vacation, to escape an

TOPIX/MAD DOG clears the air for the newest Ricola ad. Produced for ad

agency, DKB & Partners, a 30-second spot entitled "Reflections" was created

to promote Ricola's new line of herbal health dietary supplements.

TOPIX/Mad Dog created the reflections of the Ricola Matterhorn on windows,

soap bubbles, sunglasses and cars. The spot was produced at TOPIX/Mad Dog

by Diana D'Amelio and the senior Flame artist was James Cooper.

San Francisco-based ATTIK has brought to the finish line the spot for the

Infogrames video game TEST DRIVE 6. In the 30-second spot entitled "Movie

Trailer," director Simon Dixon placed a live-action driver in the seat of

the high-speed graphic environment. Clips of the real life racer are

intercut with game footage. The senior producer on the project was Lisa

Laubhan and the live-action producer was Doug Lay.

V12's director David Hwang created a "'50s sitcom spoof" commercial for

Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Produced for the Detroit ad agency DP + Company,

the 30-second spot features blue-tinted footage of a classic LEAVE IT TO

BEAVER-like family. As the family reads about the Selectcare program, the

commercial washes over in bright Technicolor hues. The voice-over

concludes, "Sometimes the answer can come right out of the blue." Jennifer

Lucero produced for V12.

CLASS-KEY CHEW-PO, the commercial division of Klasky Csupo, produced two

animated spots for Hasbro's "Together TV" and Tiger Electronics' "Find

Furby" game. Both spots were directed by Steven Dovas and were produced for

New York-based ad agency Posnick & Koklaer. The "Together TV" spot features

live-action heads placed atop animated bodies. The spot highlights parents

spending time with their children. The "Find Furby" spot brings animated

versions of the Furby dolls to life as they bounce around the sky from

Toronto-based RED ROVER's directors Andy and Linzi Knight created the

"subliminal" message for the Molson Export "Subliminal" spot. The 30-second

spot slyly transforms the bubbles in a glass of beer into the image of

three go-go girls dancing to "And the Beat Goes On." The spot was produced

for McClaren McCann of Toronto. Linzi Knight said, "This is the kind of

commercial people look forward to seeing because they're always looking to

see if they notice anything else going. That kind of viewer attention is

London-based collective, CURIOUS PICTURES and TOMATO, created the blend of

type graphics and stock footage for an RCA spot entitled "Static." Graphics

weave together images of static, distortion and color bars, until finally a

crisp picture of the two RCA Dalmatian mascots appear to illustrate the

growth of television from its early days to HDTV. The spot ends with the

tag "RCA. Changing entertainment. Again." Graham Wood directed for Curious

Pictures/Tomato and Quiche Campbell produced.

RENEGADE ANIMATION created their third in a series of 30-second Trix Yogurt

spots for New York-based ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The spot starts out

with a group of sad kids in a black & white colored world until they taste

Trix Yogurt. They use their spoons as magic wands to paint the world in

bright colors. The cel animated spot was directed by Darrell Van Citters

and produced by Jeff Poehlmann of Johnson Burnett Productions.