Search form

Dancing Diablo/NY Launches Live-Action Production Division

Dancing Diablo, the animation, production, and visual FX boutique, marked its eighth anniversary with the launch of a full-service live-action production division - and the expansion of its infrastructure, to create a seamless environment that guides each project from conceptual development through production, animation, and postproduction.

Press Release from Dancing Diablo/NY

New York: Dancing Diablo, the animation, production, and visual FX boutique, marked its eighth anniversary with the launch of a full-service live-action production division - and the expansion of its infrastructure, to create a seamless environment that guides each project from conceptual development through production, animation, and postproduction.

Launched by award-winning artist/director Beatriz Helena Ramos, the DUMBO-based studio has evolved from its roots as a boutique known for its edgy, out-of-the-box animation, into a mature one-stop creative resource skilled at a wide range of styles -- from traditional and classic to cutting-edge and experimental.

The full-scale production capabilities maximize both creativity and cost-effectiveness of projects that integrate live-action with animation, visual effects, analog and digital design, illustration, handmade props and fabricated elements.

“Dancing Diablo has come of age,” says Ramos. “In recent years agencies began calling upon us to produce larger-scale live-action and mixed media spots with increasing frequency.  This year we decided to commit to this market in a big way – and took our company to the next level with a full-service approach to production.”

The expansion to a loft-like animation studio has doubled the company’s space that houses a stop motion stage, a green screen, CGI services, design resources, a prop fabrication shop, client lounge and state-of-the-art production equipment, including the Canon 5D and 7D cameras.

Ramos attributes her company’s ability to provide U.S. agencies with a level of creativity that sets their spots apart from the crowd to Dancing Diablo/NY’s unique collaborative relationship with its sister company in Caracas.

The Latin American division’s bi-lingual staff of 30 world-class artists, directors, DPs, animators, modelers, CGI talent, editors and producers – and international pool of freelance talent - work as a team, freely exchanging ideas with its New York counterpart. Focused on the US market, 95% of the work it attracts is for general market.

Dancing Diablo/Caracas recently completed its own major expansion with a move to more spacious quarters that allow it to expanded its capabilities and add new production talent, including directors, producers, assistant directors and cinematographers to its roster.

“While growing organically has always kept Dancing Diablo busy, this recent expansion into the live-action arena is a benchmark for the company, and presents an opportunity for us to bring the industry up to speed with the versatility of our work,” adds Ramos. “Live-action and animation are two worlds that complement each other, but are very different,” adds Ramos.  “Our understanding of the technical requirements is invaluable to spots that combine both elements.”

Art direction is one of Dancing Diablo’s strengths, and a great asset when working in the live-action area. Its team bring the same attention to detail to production- building handmade props, designing and creating wardrobe, and polish and refining each production element - that they do for their stop-motion animation work.

Experienced working with 35mm film, on Red cameras and the Canon 5D, Dancing Diablo has produced a wide range of live-action projects – from a big live-action/animation production for Coca Cola with multiple cameras and seventy extras, to a location shoot for PNC Bank that incorporated numerous hand-made fabricated props and custom-designed costumes, to directing dozens of dancers and choreographers and working with an assortment of trained animals – from donkeys to pythons.

“Although we’ve enjoyed a reputation as an innovative animation boutique almost since our inception, the majority of the industry is not aware that Dancing Diablo brings that same level of skill to live-action production,” adds Ramos.  “We've evolved from a specialty boutique into a full service production company driven by a director who brings the aesthetic of an artist to the production process – guiding that artistic vision through every phase of their project.”

Dancing Diablo’s roster of advertising clients includes Deutsch New York (The Bronx Zoo, PNC Bank), JWT (Jet Blue, Schick, Wendy’s), Arnold (Tums), BBDO (Alka Seltzer), Ogilvy (Coca Cola), DDB (Toyota), Leo Burnett (Always / Whirlpool), FCB (Chip’s Ahoy!), Green Team Advertising (Smithsonian Institution, World Wildlife Fund), Steve Madden, and Saatchi & Saatchi (Crest, General Mills). Other clients include Sesame Street, Disney, Oxygen, Nickelodeon, MTV, PBS, Fuse, Noggin, and Razor and Tie Productions, among others.

For additional information, Dancing Diablo’s New York studio can be reached at 718.243.0103, or at http://www.dancingdiablo.com. Beatriz Ramos can be contacted at bramos@dancingdiablo.com. East Coast & Mid West Rep Laura Zinn (212 741.0909, lzinn@aol.com.) West Coast & Texas Rep, Kelley Class kelclass@earthlink.net / 310 823 9808.

Rick DeMott's picture

Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks