To promote American Movie Classics (AMC) networks 10-day horror film marathon, "Monsterfest," FlickerLab has designed and created a complete Halloween stunt package, including a series of mini horror films, logos, opens, closes, bumpers and transitions. The broadcast package, guaranteed to give viewers the willies, will begin its national rollout Oct. 1 and continue to air through the Monsterfest 10th Anniversary, Oct. 22-31, 2006.
ELEVATION, a new spot for General Motors out of Deutsch, Los Angeles, serves as an excellent example of how a television commercial can convey a complex brand message using great visuals alone. While the voiceover in elevation conveys basic information regarding GMs new 100,000-mile warranty program, the spot says so much more.
The Killers, the hot band from Las Vegas, has lured Tim Burton to direct his first music video for the new song, Bones, from the forthcoming album SAMS TOWN, IGN Music reports.
The bands L.A. concert in August has been filmed and Burton is working with animators in London. The band confirmed that the video would incorporate many of Burton's trademark styles, including models, mini-sets based on bygone Vegas landmarks and skeletons.
Moving Picture Co. is providing post work for the video.
Animal Logic has created a stylized world for Australian band Telemetry Orchestras latest music video, UNDER THE CHERRY TREE. The video clip is a four-minute allegory that explores the obstacles of love. Two characters travel on two different trains in parallel worlds; the boy from a dirty city, and the girl from a beautiful cherry tree orchard. They end up crossing into each others worlds and desperately try to stop their trains so they can be together, but end where the other began.
A52 visual effects supervisor Andy Hall has directed the HD broadcast spots, and overseen development of print/online elements, for advertising agency RPA's $20 million national cross-media advertising campaign for Pioneer Electronics.
On Sept. 26, 2006, Grammy Award-winning singer/comedian Weird Al Yankovic will release his latest album Straight Outta Lynwood, a DualDisc featuring animation by artists including Bill Plympton, Jim Blashfield and John Kricfalusi.
The Way Moby/Volcano Records release features six brand new animations to accompany Als original tracks such as:
Sophos, a global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, has announced that it has found spammers using animated graphics to display subliminal messages encouraging investors to buy stocks in "pump-and-dump" stock scam. Spammers have moved to using animated GIFs as an attempt to try and avoid detection by anti-spam products.
Debuting Sept. 7, Gap's new KEEP IT SIMPLE TV spots juxtapose classic footage of Audrey Hepburn from the movie FUNNY FACE dancing in skinny black pants to the 1980 AC/DC hit song Back in Black."
Artist-owned-and-operated visual effects studio Brickyard VFX has wrapped two new music videos. The first video was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and promotes the song "Tell Me Baby" for The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The second promotes DeVotchKa's "Till the End of Time" from LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE.
Mighty:Pictures has created an edgy 15-second spot heralding the highly anticipated new DVD release of REN & STIMPY: THE LOST EPISODES, a Spike TV property.
The four-year old company, headed up by partners Charlie Sadoff and Mary Matyas, has long been associated with the show, explains Sadoff. "This is the fourth REN & STIMPY spot weve been called upon to create for the Paramount shows DVD release," says Sadoff. "We've also produced the trailers for each of those DVDs, as well as a number of longer format TV spots.
The Mill London team has produced a new commercial for Infiniti. Directed by French directing team Pleix for Chiat Day/ TBWA through BlinkInk, the spots contain a very clever use of paint for dramatic effect. In the first spot, we see the Infiniti creating and parting huge waves as it drives through a sea of warm colored paint, and in the second spot a stormy sky of deep blues, purples and yellows crash above the cars below.
Independent animation studio DUCK announces the completion of five new 30-second commercials for Roundys Supermarkets Inc. under the Rainbow Foods, Copps Food Center and Pic N Save banners. DUCK produced the commercials for Minneapolis-based advertising agency Kerker. Roger Chouinard was the director and Gwynn Adik was the producer. The commercials air regionally, predominantly in the Midwest.
From the drama of a darkened theater comes a compelling project driven by Devastudios and Engine Room VFX. A rusted set of gears and weathered gates set an eerie tone for the Lionsgate open that will precede the studios' horror genre theatrical and DVD releases.
Cube Prods. Inc. (Cube3) created a promotional package of realtime 3D animated movies and images for the Web3D Consortium at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston. The animated and interactive 3D cartoon features a comical "CyberCar" racing through a stylized cyberspace world that resembles the worldwide Web. Decked out in NASCAR-like markings, the Cybercar wears the logos of the major company members of the Web3D Consortium and offers a fun visual homage to the popular movie, CARS, released earlier this summer by Pixar.
S4 VFX, a division of S4 Studios LLC, has announced new working relationships with Los Angeles-based trailer company Flyer Ent. and SSI Advanced Post, a post-production services facility.
Artist-owned-and-operated effects studio Brickyard VFX has completed a spate of high production value television commercials for the Hispanic market through such agencies as Accent Marketing. The recent work includes two spots for Farmers Insurance Group directed by Martin Weisz and shot by Amir Mokri that feature actor Edward James Olmos (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, MIAMI VICE, BLADE RUNNER), and boast a distinctly cinematic look and feel.
After more than 15 years, director J.J. Sedelmaier of J. J. Sedelmaier Prods. Inc. has returned to producing animation for Johnson & Johnsons Mr. Reach character in a new TV spot from McCann-Erickson in New York.
Autodesk Inc. announced that its technology was used to create high-definition television (HDTV) content for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Autodesk solutions provide digital artists with the creative tools and processing power necessary to quickly and efficiently produce content containing the level of detail required for HDTV programming. Post-production facilities that relied on Autodesk technology include: Deep Blue Sea, Locomotion, METAphrenie, Method Studios and The Mill.
Mississippi-based Maris, West & Baker is launching a new ad to teach children about the harmful effects of tobacco. "Candy Factory" is the latest :30 spot for the award-winning creative agency to begin airing this month throughout the state of Mississippi. "Candy Factory" is the second recent anti-tobacco spot that Maris, West & Baker has produced for its client, The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.
Radium lent its creative editorial, design, visual effects and animation talents to DOT MATRIX, a sleek duo tone package for Lowe Worldwide and its client GMC Yukon Denali. In the evolution of The Behind the grille campaign, Radium helped create a captivating automotive brand film in :30 and :20/10 second versions for broadcast. The spot was directed by The Cronenweths, with production company Untitled.
R!OT literally moved heaven and earth to deliver a new effects-driven spot for Hyundai. The studio assisted in the design, and provided visual effects, color correction and post production services for the visually-rich spot, which presents a topsy-turvy world to underscore the radical thinking behind the automakers new Sonata.
Animal Logic artists collaborated with director Josh Frizzell and Curious Film to animate scores of piggy banks that travel across land and sea for the Bank of New Zealands latest campaign. Nerissa Kavanagh served as vfx producer for Animal Logic.
ka-chew! has completed production with The Ballpark Advertising Agency on Easton Sports new 2006-2007 line of bats. The combination of live-action and CGI ka-chew! uses creates an I, ROBOT style for the spot.
Framestore CFC created the ethereal and lovely vfx for CLOUDS, a new spot for British Airways. Made by Ed Edwards and Dave Masterman at BBH, and directed by Daniel Kleinman for Kleinman Prods., the spot is currently appearing in :30 and :40 versions in markets that include the U.K., the Middle East and Africa.
The new campaign for Tropicana plunges viewers into the brand's intensely juicy and delicious experience courtesy of a unique collaboration between agency Element 79 Partners, Order's Robert Bryant and Zoic Studios. Capturing the feeling of an orange unfolding and exploding with a cascade of dancing juice is at the heart of this visually refreshing spot duo.
