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Phoenix Completes HD Sonic the Hedgehog, Red Steele Spots

Phoenix Editorial and Designs has just completed two new spots for ad agency Duncan/Channon. BOOM, directed by John Perez of production company Notorious 24:7, promotes the new SONIC THE HEDGEHOG title from Sega for PS3 and the Xbox 360. Director Jordan Brady from prodco Uber Content helmed the ad SENSEI, which introduces the Ubisoft title RED STEELE for the new Nintendo console Wii. Both spots broke nationally this month.

In addition to editing from Bob Frisk, Phoenix contributed substantial visual effects work on both spots. BOOM, which was posted in 1080i HD, had effects director Matt Silverman compositing cloud tank footage with practical foregrounds to create a menacing force of nature rolling across a sleepy farm town. In SENSEI, online editor John Crossley performed extensive rig and wire removal, as well as transitional effects on the Sensei character.

BOOM features beautiful cinematography of a placid countryside just as a foreboding force of nature blows in. The shots are edited to build up anticipation for this extraordinary event. A weathervane twirls atop a barn, a dog perks up his ears, laundry sways on the line and a farmer looks up from tending the field to see a white blast careening across the sky, just as a male v/o says, "They don't call it a Sonic Boom for nothing." The closing shots show game footage, and, finally, a field with a crop circle of the recognizable SONIC THE HEDGEHOG logo, being carved out by Sonic himself.

In SENSEI, a young man engaging in the swordplay adventure game RED STEELE calls upon his master for guidance. Suddenly, a white-haired, bearded man in a long, flowing robe materializes. Shot in a retro chop-suey style, with lots of dramatic zoom-ins, the master floats toward the young man. He instructs his young protege on how to wield the wand-like Wii controller, which operates the swords and guns in this first-person shooter game.

Both spots were offline edited on an Avid Media Composer. Visual effects were produced in Autodesk Smoke and Adobe AfterEffects, and finished in Smoke. Phoenix Editorial & Designs also recently completed editorial on a TV commercial for the EA Games title NEED FOR SPEED: CARBON via ad agency Heat.

Phoenix (www.phoenixedit.com) has been a mainstay in the San Francisco creative post-production community since 1991. With a roster of award winning editors, graphic designers and effects artists, Phoenix works with creative-driven advertising agencies, including Venables, Bell & Partners, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Publicis & Hal Riney, Heat (formerly Black Rocket), Duncan/Channon and McCann. The company produces spots and HD motion graphics packages for Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Intel, Yahoo, PG&E, Disney, McDonald's, Palm, Toyota, Hewlett Packard, Comcast and the Got Milk campaign. In August 2005, the company moved into a new state-of-the-art HD facility located on the lush grounds of Sydney Walton Park in downtown San Francisco.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.

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