What's New

February 2009

SÜPERFAD FINDS NEW DUREX VIRAL PROJECT STIMULATING

Perhaps it would be best to call this an anti-viral, if only for the disease stopping potential. The new film for Durex, synonymous with the word condom in the UK, takes a decidedly comedic twist (um…position?) on encouraging the use of its products in the US. To create the animated frolic, agency, Fitzgerald+CO turned to the talent of Süperfad New York who eagerly embraced the opportunity.

"When you get the chance to create 'kama-balloon-animal-sutra', everyone involved gets really stoked about pushing the boundaries as much as possible," says Süperfad Creative Director Robert Rugan. "Not only did the agency give us the opportunity to do that; they encouraged it. Oh, and the conference calls were some of the funniest I've ever been on."

"We quickly figured out that timing was everything," explains Süperfad Art Director Andrew Stubbs Johnston. "Giving each little joke time to breathe (and squeak) was essential to the humor in the piece. We played with this early on with a rough 2D animatic. From there the 3d department, compositor, and the sound designers from Gramercy Post, took the production quality to a whole new level, as well as added in their own little jokes within the piece along the way."

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GASKET BASKS IN THE AFTERGLOW OF FALLOUT^® 3 VIRAL LAUNCH FOR AKQA

To launch Bethesda Softworks' Fallout® 3 innovative agency AKQA turned to animation and design company Gasket to help produce a series of original promotional commercials seeded as virals and presented on the rollout website.

The site is a carefully rendered retro-futuristic 1950's world as delivered through the screen of a television, complete with spots that represent key content in the game which takes place in the "Capitol Wasteland" in and around Washington DC.

Gasket was responsible for various levels of creative, applying animation and visual effects to both vignettes and complete pieces. For each, the Gasket team had to constantly reverse engineer its approach, working in an often counter-intuitive way to get the desired result, complete with halting transitions, jump cuts the animation style popular in the day.

Website: www.prepareforthefuture.com

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IMAGINARY FORCES CAPTURES WEDDING DREAMS IN MAIN TITLES FOR "BRIDE WARS"

Entertainment and design company Imaginary Forces (IF) completed charming main titles for the romantic comedy "Bride Wars," directed by Gary Winick and starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. Spearheaded by Karin Fong, Imaginary Forces handled the live-action shoot, design and production, and created many of the handmade arts-and-crafts elements in the sequence.

The title sequence captures the heart of the film's premise in whimsical fashion, flashing back to the childhood of best friends Liv and Emma and their sacred keepsake box of "wedding things." The box is a symbol of both their friendship and unwavering dream of a wedding at The Plaza Hotel.

"We bounced around a bunch of ideas as the topic of wedding planning is so visually rich. Cakes! Dresses! Rings! But as the film ultimately centers around a friendship, this idea became the natural one to open the film," concludes Fong.

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SEX SELLS, DEATH INCLUDED

The new Anti-Smoking PSA "Grim Reaper - Sponsored By" was developed by agency Ground Zero, directed by Mark Molloy and edited by Cut + Run's Steve Gandolfi.

As the title suggests, the Grim Reaper is the central narrative figure, going about its' day, heading to work against the musical strains of a classic bedtime lullaby made chilling with the juxtaposition of the specter of death. Destination achieved, death makes a transformation that turns the repellent figure into one of incredible appeal. Free cigarette samples are not the only bait in an insidious ploy to lure the masses to the potential of an untimely end.

Certainly, this PSA is an effective reminder that the habit is more than bad, it's deadly.

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