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October 2007

CUT + RUN'S TIM HARDY HELPS GUINNESS COME ALIVE

Red Bee's acclaimed director Steve Cope has crafted an exuberant spot for Guinness that is guaranteed to excite audiences in the US, Europe and Japan. The film unites stunt men, an expressive drum and horn soundtrack, striking visual effects and hand animation in an uber-modern expression of a Busby Berkeley extravaganza in a glass.

Tim Hardy, who collaborated with Steve Cope on the multi-award winning Elvis BBC promo and on the recent Bob Monkhouse PSA, edited the commercial, which fittingly ends with the tagline "It's Alive Inside. "The spot's production included a multi-camera, four-day shoot with stuntmen and air rams that propelled the stuntmen into real eight-foot drums constructed for the project. It also involved complex visual effects, exacting music production and editorial in a process as choreographed as the work itself.

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SPY POST CONTRIBUTES TO COLORFUL SPOT FOR SPRINT

Postproduction company Spy Post completed work on a clever spot for Sprint via ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. "Shoes" boldly tells the audience to stop waiting and take back lost time. Case in point: we spend two weeks of our lives tying our shoes and over four years waiting to make 9 p.m. calls! A colorful montage of feet -- from all walks (and styles) of life - demonstrates just how often people pause to tie and retie their shoes. Sprint proves that you don't have to wait for everything - especially with their unlimited evening calls starting at 7 p.m. daily. The cheery spot concludes by directing viewers to waitless.org for more ways to wait less in your life.

The challenge for Spy Post was finding an efficient way to work between the high-definition and standard-definition versions requested by the client. Colorist Chris Martin transferred the spot twice - once in HD 16:9 and once in HD 4:3 frame. FX Supervisor Jon Wank then took the list and conformed the spot both in HD and SD using the same list in different partitions. "We had to figure out the efficiencies between the two versions and do it quickly," explains Wank. "Goodby has been working with much of their material in high definition in anticipation of their client's future needs. We have been working with them more and more to create a seamless 'Universal Master' - a high definition version that can be used to create any size HD master, as well as NTSC or PAL standard definition masters. The efficiencies created save a lot of time and money in the long run, and also cover any possible client needs."

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POP SOUND'S PETER RINCON CONJURES UP DOMESTIC BLISS FOR NETFLIX

POP Sound Mixer Peter Rincon was recently called on to provide the final mix for a humorous, new commercial campaign for Netflix. Featuring the domestic tranquility that Netflix movie watching can provide. The campaign features a modern-day June Cleaver, the mother and housewife in charge of the Wrightnow family, absolutely enamored with all of the convenient benefits of Netflix. In "Hector," Mrs. Wrightnow bakes fresh banana bread for her grumpy uncle, who counters the kids' pleas to watch an "action flick," a "musical," with as mom suggests, "a freak'in awesome comedy." Uncle Hector and his cat, want to watch a "scary movie," so mom introduces him to Netflix, which provides him with the ability to watch any movie on his PC - in another room!

In "Intro," Mrs. Wrightnow enthusiastically greets her husband who has just completed work on the family tree house. While dad likes to take in a Western, mom prefers a Romance, which she can watch instantly on her PC. "Joyce" shows the neighbor lady coming to call looking for her family, who are all watching a movie with the Wrightnow boy, Bobby. And in "Peanut Brittle," when a young boy and his dad knock on the front door, selling the tasty treat in order to raise money, they are lured inside to take in a movie - all thanks to Netflix!

VENICE ARTS RETURNS TO AFRICA, FOR PROJECT IN MOZAMBIQUE WITH AIDS ORPHANS

The House is Small but the Welcome is Big, is a two-year photo documentary project telling a story of HIV/AIDS and its impact on African women and children. Launched last year in Cape Town, South Africa with 15 women—moms and moms-to-be—living with HIV/AIDS, the project continued this August when a team of photographers and filmmakers from the Los Angeles-based Venice Arts traveled to Maputo, Mozambique to teach 15 children orphaned by AIDS, and now raising their younger siblings on their own, how to tell the story of their lives through the lens of a camera. Their images, will be used to raise awareness, educate others, and help erode the stigma of HIV/AIDS.

Once the youths' exhibit is compiled, the photographs will travel throughout the provinces of Mozambique showcased by a youth advocacy organization partnering on the project; it will also be exhibited throughout the U.S. and internationally by Venice Arts. This phase of the project was developed in response to an appeal made by Mozambican President Guebuza and First Lady Maria da Luz Guebuza to bring about sustainable solutions to deal with the overwhelming number of children orphaned by AIDS in Mozambique; now numbered at over half a million. It is being conducted in collaboration with, and through the support of the African Millennium Foundation and UNICEF, along with several Mozambican nonprofit organizations.

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