Animation House Takes On New Duck Image
Roger Chouinard, owner and co-founder of Duck Soup Studios in Los Angeles, has renamed his studio DUCK to go with a new image and logo, as well as new developments in the creative and technical direction of the studio.
Established 30 years ago as Duck Soup Productions by Chouinard and the late Duane Crowthert, the company was responsible for many memorable commercials including the 7-Up SPOT series and Levis' ROUNDUP, both CLIO award-winners. The studio was also a springboard for the primetime live-action sitcom, THE DUCK FACTORY, starring veteran voice actor Don Messick as its multifaceted voiceman and Jim Carrey in his first TV starring role as an animator.
The studio set up an in-house CGI division headed by Lane Nakamura. The CGI division has produced animated characters and spots for clients including Pillsbury, Wal-Mart, Verizon, Nestlé and Nissan, and was recently chosen amid intense competition to animate several spots for BBDO New York's prestigious, long-running M&Ms campaign. The first two spots, VENDING MACHINE and MOVIE THEATER, began airing earlier this year, while two more spots are in production. CGI makes up the bulk of DUCK's work now with some cel animation.
Chouinard has added a broadcast design division and is making a broad venture into development and production of original content. The studio's first original release was the CGI animated short, THE SNOWMAN, directed by Nakamura. DUCK is nurturing numerous in-house projects with a variety of directors. Nakamura's projects include KOZO, a CGI short about a sumo-wrestling hippopotamus, due for completion later this year. NIGHTOWL, a cel animation superhero spoof featuring an animated Adam West, is being developed by the directing team Evil Cat Land.
New directors to its roster include Brooke Keesling, a recent Cal Arts graduate whose film BOOBIE GIRL won a 2001 Student Academy Award; Jeong-A Seong whose most recent film GREEN TEA was selected for the upcoming Annecy International Film Festival; and multi-award-winning British commercials and short film director, Paul Vester, who is producing a new CGI short. DUCKs roster also includes Graham Morris, Peter Ko and Nicolas Kang.
For more information check out www.duckstudios.com, contact Mark Medernach at DUCK directly (310) 478-0771, or representatives Arthur Portnoy (212) 627-9292 or Andrew Halpern (310) 899-9633.
THE SNOWMAN is reviewed by Jon Hofferman in his " Fresh from the Festivals: March 2002's Film Reviews" in Animation World Magazine.