Commercials

TOPIX/Mad Dog makes the Pokemon ball fly in the new Sear's spot. Courtesy of Josell Communications.

Seeing Spots: Ring of Fire provided the FX for the newest Ericsson T-28 mobile phone ad entitled "Aliens." Ring of Fire produced the spot for Stockholm ad agency Hall & Cederquist. The international 30 second spot beams down aliens to a man deserted on an island. The aliens mistake the phone for intelligent life (like most humans do in Los Angeles) and wonder whether or not the device will taste like chicken. Jerry Spivack was Creative Director for Ring of Fire and Kevin Prendiville served as Visual Effects Supervisor. . . .

Popeye gobbles up his Campbell's Soup in a new spot from TOPIX/Mad Dog. Courtesy of Josell Communications.

Popeye the Sailor makes his newest appearance in the Toronto-based TOPIX/Mad Dog, Chuck Gammage Animation and Generator Film produced spot for Campbell's Soup. The 30 second spot for new Chunky Prime Rib features integrated 3D animation, live-action and cel animation. Our hero Popeye opts for a can of Chunky soup over his standard spinach to save the lovely Olive Oyl. The spot was produced for Toronto-based ad agency Young & Rubicam. TOPIX/Mad Dog producer Anne Deslauriers oversaw the 3D animation and cel work done at Chuck Gammage. Nadine Grey produced the live-action footage at Generator Films. The commercial currently airs in Canada. . . .Kellogg's Froot Loops spokesman Toucan Sam comes to life with help from Santa Monica-based SimEx Studios for a new spot entitled "Time Flies." The spot highlights the new 2000 Marshmallow Blasted Froot Loops by blasting Toucan Sam through the air with an explosion of marshmallow "2s". SimEx produced the spot for ad agency Leo Burnett of Chicago. The SimEx team on the commercial was animation producer Christina Cox, animation director Jean Perramon, live-action producer Bob McGinness and live-action director Nick Bates. . . .To make sure Pokemon appears in every section of the Flash, Toronto-based TOPIX/Mad Dog provided the CG images for "Flying Ball" for Sears' new Poke-Mart. The 30 and 20 spots were produced for Young & Rubicam. Pokemon hero, Ash, throws the famous Poke-ball which leads children like lemmings to Sears' Poke-Mart section to catch all the new Pokemon products. Diana D'Amelio produced and Patrick Coffey animated the tags for TOPIX/Mad Dog. . . .

Spontaneous Combustion "owns the mug" in the new Millstone coffee spot. Courtesy of Josell Communications.

New York-based Spontaneous Combustion produced the 3D animation and visual FXs for the newest Proctor & Gamble's Millstone Coffee spots. The 30 second and two 15 second commercials entitled "Own the Mug" features a ceramic coffee cup morphing into a boat. The spots were produced for New York ad agency D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles. Tony Robins directed and Simone Pillinger produced the commercials for Spontaneous Combustion. The spots will continue to air through April 2000. . . .New York-based iXL Digital Video Group, a subsidiary of the Internet and video solutions company iXL, Inc., produced four distinct openings for the new 20/20 weekly line-up. Each version of the news show is on four separate nights and features different hosts. The openings mirror the style of each version of the show and feature different takes on the 20/20 and ABC News logos. iXL's veteran Designer and Animator Ron Wissing worked closely with ABC'S Art Director Kelly Clauson on the concept for the openings. Discreet's Flame and plug-in Spark's effects were used to create the ripple effects featured in the productions. . . .New York-based Eyeball created 10 second ID tags for USA Network shows including: Baywatch, La Femme Nikita, Xena: Warrior Princess and Law And Order: Special Victims Unit. A circular frame opens around footage from the USA program as the tag line "You Are Here" appears amidst flag stripes and flashes. Brighter colors were used for the more light-hearted shows, while a grittier mood was created for the more serious dramas. Daniel Fries was the Creative Director at Eyeball. . . .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. . . .yU + CO, in collaboration with Digital Domain, provided the motion graphics design for seven new American Express "Blue" commercials. The titles appear at the close of the spots as a grouping of light and dark squares, as in a highly pixilated image, before coming into focus as letters. The titles where designed to comment on the physical flexibility and the holographic blue box center of the new card. Garson Yu was designer and director for yU + Co and Carol Wong produced. Working on the project for Digital Domain was visual effects supervisor Eric Barba, visual effects producer Holly Port and computer graphics supervisor Brian Whitaker. . . .Digital Domain helped Plum Productions create a virtual jungle/city for the new Fiat Punto spots. Plum Productions' director Eric Saarinen worked with Digital Domain's visual effects supervisor Paul Kirsch to create a city full of people riding around on lion, tigers, and bears. The Punto drives in showing how different it is compared to the other animals on the street. Digital Domain had the complex job of combining five-days of greenscreen shooting on the Paramount backlot into a coherent flow. "We made the backlot look bigger than it was, " explained Kirsch. "We added buildings and built side streets so as you look down the road it appears to go on for miles.". . .Radium's Inferno artist Alaina Goetz created effects for two Mervyn's California commercials. In "Yo-yo," Goetz takes live-action footage of a dancer and puts them into a yo-yo that spins and jerks off the screen. In "Kung-fu," Goetz creates the transitions between scenes by creating rice-paper doors that slide in front of the camera. Radium's Andrea Mansour produced the project for Minneapolis ad agency Martin/Williams. . . .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. . . .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. Linizi 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 rare in advertising." The spot currently airs in Canada only. . . .

Curious Pictures and Tomato take the "static" out of the new RCA commercial. Courtesy of Josell Communications.

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 cloud to cloud. Nathalie Renard produced both commercials for Class-Key Chew-Po. . . .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.