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Hayfever sufferers be afraid. A new commercial for Benadryl shows how nature can truly wage warfare on the senses. In a scene reminiscent to the opening shots of Apocalypse Now, we see dragonfly choppers deploying pollen bombs, whilst spores and seed pods explode in unison to mark the dangerous onset of the summer season.

The million unseen enemies of the allergy sufferer are at the heart of the new spot for Benadryl titled “War.” With the intensity of gaming footage and the beauty of a naturalists diary, this Steve Cope directed spot for JWT London reaches well beyond the expected commercial for the summer sniffles category as seemingly innocent pollen, flowers and bees are transformed into agents of attack.

Tim Hardy, who has worked with Cope on numerous and award-winning projects (including BBC2 “Elvis” and Guinness “Alive Inside”), was tapped to edit this effects-intensive, microscopic look into what lurks at every turn on those gorgeous & balmy days ahead.

About Cut+Run
Cut+Run is a boutique editorial company with locations in Los Angeles, New York, and London. The award-winning shop features a diverse roster of talented editors who contribute their vision and skill to commercials, film and music videos. With an emphasis on client service, Cut+Run operates under a “borderless” philosophy making its editors available to work anywhere. Editors can also cut on set wherever projects are shot.

About Rattling Stick
Rattling Stick is a small group of commercial directors who share thoughts and inspirations for each other’s work. Rattling Stick won the BTAA Production company of the year award in 2008.

Credits:
Client: Johnson + Johnson
Product: Benadryl
Title: War
Length of Ad: 1 x 40″

Agency: JWT London
Executive Creative Director / Creative Director: Russell Ramsey
Creatives: Andy Smith (AD) / Ryan Lawson (CW) Agency Producer: Anna Church

Production Company: Rattling Stick
Producer: Kate Martin
Director: Steve Cope

Editing House: Cut+Run
Editor: Tim Hardy

Sound: Munzi Thind @ Grand Central
Post Production: Aidan Gibbons (3D Op) @ The Mill / Gary Driver (Flame Op) @ The Mill

RELATED LINKS
www.rattlingstick.com
www.cutandrun.tv

Popularity: 11% [?]

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Superfad is excited to have contributed design graphics and titles for a new film by kontentreal for the Clinton Foundation. With the world’s population on the rise and more people moving to cities, President Clinton describes a bold new project that will set the global standard for communities striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below zero in “Climate Positive.”

The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), a project of the William J. Clinton Foundation, recently announced a global program developed in collaboration with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), called the Climate Positive Development Program. The program will support the development of large-scale urban projects that demonstrate cities can grow in ways that are “climate positive.” Climate Positive real estate developments will strive to reduce the amount of on-site CO2 emissions to below zero.

“Climate Positive” highlights the impetus for the project, its inspiration and goals. It was directed and produced by kontentreal, the documentary film and strategic entertainment company that previously collaborated with Superfad on the PBS series “e2″ which was narrated by Brad Pitt.

“We were thrilled to work with Superfad on this short because they do incredible creative work,” explains kontentreal co-founder/EP Karena Albers. “Based on our previous experience and the short turn-around on this project, we knew they would deliver in a spectacular manner.”

“The CCI film provided the opportunity to reconnect with kontentreal,” says Superfad EP Geraint Owen. “Their work is always of the highest caliber and addresses the most compelling and timely issues of the day. It was an honor to have contributed, in our small way, to the Clinton Foundation and its initiative.”

Superfad is a brand-driven design and live action production company; and a collective of designers, directors, animators, and artists. Superfad’s mission is to see brands in unexpected ways and to express a brand’s voice in an undeniably original fashion.

Superfad’s work runs counter to the trend of design studios who present a singular house style. With offices in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and London, their work is informed by a wide array of cultural and intellectual influences. Fine art, science, math, and literature are fused with illustration, photography, and technology to produce stunningly original imagery.

Superfad was founded in 2001 and has produced award-winning work for many of the most respected brands worldwide. Honda, Sony, Target, Adidas, and AT&T are just a few of the companies who have turned to Superfad for inspired branding.

Credits:
Production Company: kontentreal
Executive Producer/Director: Karena Albers
Producer: Jeff Polley
Editor: Elaine Strutz

Infographics, Titles & Design: Superfad
CD: Michael Wiehart
AD: Tesia Alexandra Jurkiewicz
Designer/Animator: Austin Shaw
Designer/Animator: Jim Forrester
Designer/Animator: Mark Bellncula
Producer: Christina Roldan
EP: Geraint Owen

www.superfad.com

Popularity: 19% [?]

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Award-winning New Deal Studios (NDS) wields creative ideas to produce amazing visual effects for two highly anticipated summer blockbusters, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Terminator Salvation.

“We live in a democratized visual effects world. How do you differentiate yourself in today’s age of globalization, commoditization, ubiquity of effects tools and ‘free on the internet’ mentality?” asks Shannon Blake Gans, managing partner at New Deal. “We are combating all these downward pressures by getting back to the basics and telling a compelling story fueled by passion for our art.”

20th Century Fox tapped New Deal VFX Supervisor Ian Hunter’s sense of cinematic storytelling, comedic timing and ability to maximize the visual effects tools available to develop the vision of the film’s exciting escape flight. The sequence puts the audience in the plane with actors Ben Stiller and Amy Adams (Amelia Earhart) as they maneuver through the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum. Through previsualization (previz), Hunter worked with Director, Shawn Levy, and Visual Effect Supervisor, Dan Deleeuw, to compose and choreograph the scene by combining live action with miniature and digital effects elements.

Once it was confirmed to be more cost effective and realistic to build and photograph a miniature, rather than create a completely computer generated environment, New Deal moved to the next steps of miniature fabrication, photography and digital effects. A crew of more than 50 artists worked tirelessly over six weeks to recreate a miniature of the Air & Space Museum based on the real blueprints. The 80ft. x 10ft. x 10ft. miniature filled the entire New Deal stage and included over 50 miniature airplanes and spaceships from various eras, along with the smallest museum details like hanging banners, lit display signs and mini model cases. Final digital work was completed by Rhythm & Hues.

The challenge was to blend the already photographed, first-unit, live action opening and closing sequences with the museum miniature. To accomplish this, the NDS Digital Art Department designed, engineered and constructed a 3D model of the miniature while the Digital Effects Division began the flight choreography of the Wright Flyer in the software program Maya. Hunter directed each department to move in tandem to work out construction and photography issues in a digital arena before applying solutions to a real world application.

Hunter explains, “Much of the groundwork for the photography of the ten-day shoot was accomplished with our digital previz team. They designed the flight path of the Wright Flyer to maneuver through the maze of hanging airplanes and spacecraft so that when it came to programming the computer-driven cameras for the photography, we were able to match the previz perfectly in timing and movement.”

New Deal Digital Supervisor Robert Chapin led the previz team in creating the scene’s flight path by gliding a virtual lens through the 3D model. The previz was vital in determining the plane’s altitude changes throughout the flight so that during shoot pre-production, Hunter could establish which parts of the miniature would require removable ceilings and walls to allow the camera to pass through. Chapin also exported camera movement and key set data to aid the photography crew in lining up the live action with the miniature shots as accurately as possible. Four New Deal departments collaborated seamlessly to bring this incredible flight through history to the big screen.

TERMINATOR
Next up for Hunter came Terminator Salvation. With just a few months until the film’s release, VFX Supervisor, Charlie Gibson, asked New Deal to help dynamically enhance many of the visual effects shots for John Connor’s fight against the army of Terminators with practical effects elements.

Hunter and special effects supervisors, Richard Helmer and Scott Beverly, designed a variety of explosive effects elements such as Terminator grenade hits, car explosions and a dramatic underwater submarine explosion that would be used to blend with the first-unit plates and digital effects.

To bring realism to the Terminator destruction, a prosthetic T-800 torso was rigged on a cable ratchet for mobility. The special effects team created everything from bullet hits to flying flesh debris to a fully engulfed flaming torso. Moving from fire to water, a specially constructed 30ft. x 32ft. water tank made room for the next set of explosions — only this time, under water. Shooting through portal windows to capture both the surface missile impact and the underwater submarine explosion, Hunter hired Photosonic’s high-speed camera crew to capture the brilliant explosions in two takes.

New Deal is one of the a few studios in the world with access to all the visual effects tools in one company where all departments work in concert toward achieving a stunning final image on the screen. They used these tools on Terminator Salvation and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian by mixing great cinematic design and the latest technology matched with solid production management. This is why New Deal is able to grow in an ever contracting visual effects market.

About New Deal Studios:
New Deal Studios was founded in 1995 by Matthew Gratzner, Ian Hunter and Shannon Blake Gans. This artist owned and operated, independent company is housed in two buildings in Marina del Rey, California. NDS has developed over the years into a full-service production and visual effects studio unlike any in the world. NDS contributes to each project by using a diverse palette of artistic tools that range from the art department, workshop, production, to the digital department and DI suite. Creativity and solid management practices are the foundation upon which NDS has grown over the years and why all major studios continue to entrust NDS with high-profile projects such as Batman: The Dark Knight and upcoming films Whiteout, 2012, Alice in Wonderland, and Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island.

www.newdealstudios.com

Popularity: 16% [?]

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In a video created specifically for interactivity and released solely for the Web, Tool’s Sam Jones gives fans endless remix control over the Cold War Kids video for I’ve Seen Enough, including the power to switch up individual performers mid-song and never miss a beat.

The original footage for the video, shot in a recording studio, was designed specifically to be presented in parallel parts online and then remixed by fans, even mid-play. The band laid down four distinctly different versions of the song. Each of the four band members was filmed on a darkly lit stage, playing their parts on vibraphone, guitar, bass, keyboard, standup bass, and more. These versions were recorded so the parts can be mixed together or played on their own.

The footage itself, from director Sam Jones (who made his name with the Wilco film, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart), feels like a documentary – if a band member isn’t playing, he’s relaxing against his instrument or just standing loosely, awaiting his cue while “listening” to the track unfold the way the fan designed it to.

“The idea was that fans would be able to create an interesting new variation of the track every time, a new listening experience,” says director Sam Jones, of Tool. “Plus, it’s just fun to play with – there are so many ways to mix the instruments and vocals, and so many chances to get creative.”

The interactive video demanded a high level of technical creativity, but the idea is simple: “At its core, it’s all about the music,” said Dustin Callif, Head of Digital Content at Tool. “As a music fan, I’ve visited websites that allow fans to control the camera angles or change the background, but I’ve always felt there was a missed opportunity to focus on the music.”

Tool reached out to its vast resources in the digital space and put together the best team to deliver on this vision. Together, they developed an innovative technical solution: the site streams four different videos at the same time, and advanced compression and streaming techniques allow for on-demand interactivity.

As a result, the experience is seamless. Every change the fan makes happens in real time, including every stop, start, or mid-stream instrument change. Without skipping a beat, a fan can silence everything but the vocals and bring in the drums, or start with the full band, pull the keyboard and add the xylophone, or sweep away the standup bass at the last minute and cue the bass guitar for the song’s closing notes. The remix possibilities are endless.

“As web creators, sometimes we get carried away with our tools, and we complicate things with Flash animation and long page loads,” Callif said. “For this experience, our singular goal was to allow people to change the music in real-time and feel as if they were in the recording studio with the band. We’re thrilled to be able to work with the band and Sam to put the music first, and to allow fans to experience the band dynamic firsthand.”

Sam Jones was able to dream up something unique and the Tool team was able to deliver on his vision. Tool took on responsibilities from pre-production through the delivery of the final site. “We knew we wanted to break new ground with this site, giving fans not just the ability to easily mix sound and video in real time, but to create something entirely new, and to do it in a way that makes them feel even more connected with the band,” Callif said. “It’s so important to us to put together just the right team for every project, and this is a great example of why that is – we were able to blend a high level of creativity, endless ambition, and a deep understanding of what’s important to the fans. That’s how it worked.”

About Tool:
Bicoastal Tool of North America represents top-tier artists to the advertising industry. Tool’s collective of talent includes: directors, photographers, cinematographers, technologists, mobile content creators, and video game creatives. This diverse talent pool affords Tool the ability to serve as a resource for agencies across commercial and digital productions, packaging the best creative teams available to develop compelling advertising with our agency partners.

View the video here: www.mtvmusic.com/artist/coldwarkids.jhtml

The Credits:
Client: Cold War Kids
Song Title: I’ve Seen Enough
Air Date: Web only

Live-Action/Interactive Production Company: Tool of North America
Director/Concept: Sam Jones
DP: Mark Williams
EP(s): Dustin Callif, Brian Latt, Jennifer Siegel
Flash Developer: Jason Nickel
Line Producer: Angela Jones Solomon

Editorial: Cosmo Street
Editor/Online Artist: Asako Ushio
Producer(s): Jerry Sukys, Justin Smollan

Songs Produced by Kevin Augunas and Greg Koller
Recording Engineer: Greg Koller
Interface Designer: Marcus Edvalson

Shoot Location: Ocean Way Recording Studios

Management: Monotone, Inc
Manager: Brett Williams

Popularity: 15% [?]

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Under the direction of EVP and senior creative director Sig Gross and his colleagues from ArnoldNYC, bicoastal U.S. creative production company Stardust Studios recently produced a colorful spot for Hershey Canada’s Ice Breakers Mints. Stardust West creative director Brad Tucker directed, and Jonathan Wu served as Stardust’s art director, for the :15 spot entitled “A State of Mouth,” which debuted exclusively in Canada in April, where it will continue to run for the foreseeable future.

Arnold’s project team also included creative director Betsy Guerro, and producer Marianne Toniolo. “The brief for this project was to create a spot that appealed to the 18-24 year old market,” Tucker explained.

“They wanted a confident hero to take the viewer on a journey unlike anything they had seen before,” Wu added, “and they wanted to utilize an illustration style that talked to this audience, utilizing cel animation yet not appearing too cartoony.”

The spot begins with live-action footage of actor Gavin Beasley reaching into a package of Ice Breakers and grabbing a mint. When he puts the mint in his mouth, the visuals quickly transform him and his background with a unique animation approach, featuring hand-drawn illustrations and cel animation.

For their production approach, Tucker and director of photography captured live-action footage during a one-day shoot, using the RED ONE digital cinema camera and shooting Beasley and the Ice Breakers packaging on a green-screen stage.

“All of the animation was created entirely by hand, so finding cel animators willing to take-on the challenge was a difficult task,” said Wu. “Then, compositing the cel animation to keep the spot seamless was another challenge. Instead of cel animating the entire spot, we broke it into elements that could then be composited together to achieve the final look.”

“We’ve been experimenting more and more with cel animation and are really finding it to be a fun and exciting technique,” added Tucker. “We hope to do more of it in the future.”

About Stardust Studios
Stardust is an award-winning, full-service creative production company, specializing in motion design, animation, visual effects and live-action production. Led by founder and creative director Jake Banks, Stardust’s Santa Monica and New York offices continually redefine creativity for commercial, on-air, music video and in-store presentations. Their recent work – including projects for the world’s top ad agencies, brands and recording artists – has earned numerous awards and worldwide editorial exposure. For more information, please visit www.stardust.tv.

CREDITS:
Project Name: Ice Breakers “A State Of Mouth”
Running Time: :15
Debut Date: 4/20/09 — Aired In Canada Only
Film Stage/Location: Ben Kitay Studios, Los Angeles, CA

Ad Agency: ArnoldNYC
City/State: New York, NY
EVP, Senior Creative Director: Sig Gross
Creative Director: Betsy Guerro
Producer: Marianne Toniolo
Business Affairs: Cindy Hoffman

Production Company: Stardust Studios
City/State: Bicoastal, USA
Director: Brad Tucker
Executive Producer: Paul Abatemarco
Line Producer: Winston Smith
Director of Photography: Ketil Dietrichson
Creative Director: Brad Tucker
Art Director: Jonathan Wu
Post Producer: Alyssa Evans
Designers: Chris Saunders, Jonathan Wu
2d Animator: Ash Wagers
Cel Animators: Dylan Spears, Robin Steele, Song Kim, Dave Creek, Jahmad Rollins, Regis Camargo
Compositor: Thomas Horne, Ryan Choi
Animation Assistant: Wayne Chang

Music: “Blue Day” by Darker My Love

Final Mix: Sound Lounge
City/State: New York, NY
Mixer: Tom Jucarone

Actor: Gavin Beasley

RELATED LINKS:
www.stardust.tv

Popularity: 16% [?]

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“Pigeon: Impossible” is the tale of Walter, a rookie secret agent faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.

Production on the film spanned for nearly 5 years and is the first attempt at animation by writer/director Lucas Martell: “When the project started, it was really just an excuse to learn 3D animation, but by the end of the project I had spent so much time reworking and polishing the story that I just wanted people to laugh.”

The end result is a hilarious 6-minute romp through the streets of Washington D.C. as our hero fights to save himself, and the world from the chaos reigned down by a hungry pigeon. Breathtaking visuals and a sweeping soundtrack showcase the work of nearly one-hundred talented artists and musicians, and the film stands as a testament to what can be accomplished by a team of dedicated volunteers working for the love of their craft.

Although the project started out as a simple test animation, it quickly ballooned into a no-holds-barred attempt at studio-level CGI filmmaking. The repeated emphasis on solid storytelling meant that technical considerations often came second to what the story required.

This resulted in a level of technical hurdles far beyond what most independent shorts attempt, especially one that was made for less than $10,000 and created entirely in people’s spare time.
Countless weeks were spent optimizing assets in order to render the expansive environment, a passbased look was developed to allow for the use of more expensive ray-tracing techniques, and hundreds of custom tools were written to accommodate the massive amount of data that had to flow through the pipeline.

Lucas Martell (Writer/Director/Animator)
Lucas is a freelance animator and VFX artist. After graduating from Millikin University with a bachelor’s degree in Commercial Music, he moved to Austin, Texas and began production on “Pigeon: Impossible” in the summer of 2004. The film is his first animation, and took nearly 5 years to complete. Since then, he has also become widely known for his weekly podcast that chronicles the techniques and obstacles he’s faced throughout production of the film.

Austen Menges (Editor/Additional Story)
Austen began his editing career in 2003 with the short film “Toward the Near,” which screened at the Director’s Guild of America Theatre and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Most recently, Menges co-wrote and edited the short film/web series “Script Cops,” a film industry favorite about cops who arrest people for bad screenwriting.

Christopher Reyman (Composer)
Christopher is a Ph.D. candidate in music composition at the University of Illinois. In addition to performing regularly with various jazz and chamber orchestras, Chris has written over 200 pieces and spent nearly a year composing the score for “Pigeon: Impossible” which was performed by two orchestras and required 74 musicians.

Running time: 6m12s
Format: 35mm & HDCam
Color / Stereo
Release Date: May 7th, 2009

Credits:
Additional Story :Scott Rice & Gopal Bidari
Animators: Jason Lindsay, Adrian Zambrano, Rodney Brunet & Adnan Chatriwala
Models/Textures: Tad Catalano, Jason Nichols, Don DeGrasse, Ousama Itani & Eric Burke
Hair/Cloth: Tad Catalano
Environment Coordinator: Ousama Itani
Lighting/Rigging: Lucas Martell
Art Director: Belal Hibri
Additional Character Design: Amalia Litsa, Lindsey Villareal & Magnus Skold
Sound Design and Mix: David Bewley, Corey Roberts & 501 Audio
Post Services: 501 Post
Executive Producer: George O’Dwyer
eQ Artist: Jim Reed
Associate Producer: Gopal Bidari

The Millikin University Jazz Orchestra
Director: Randy Reyman
Engineers: John Scott & Steve Andreas
Mastering: Caleb Willitz

The Austin Wind Symphony
Conductor: Patrick Phillips
Vice President: Shelly Eager
Engineers: Chris Keyland & Luke Lovett
Videographer: Graham Davidson
Video Playback: Gary Huff

Additional Support Provided by: The Austin Film Society

RELATED LINKS:
www.pigeonimpossible.com
www.pigeonimpossible.com/podcast
www.lucasmartell.com

Popularity: 23% [?]

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Ron Howard has completed Angels and Demons, the second outing of the Dan Brown franchise featuring Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks). MPC is reunited with VFX Supervisor Angus Bickerton to help create some of the integral visual effects for this action thriller set in Rome.

MPC completed 170 shots for the film ranging from full CG environments and effects sequences to complicated composites. The work involved a wide range of VFX techniques including the creation of a CG ring, set extensions for key Roman sites and the design and conception of the Antimatter and its journey through CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The team also produced the title sequence and handled the 2K dailies for the production.

Liaising closely with Angus, MPC VFX supervisor Richard Stammers oversaw the London team with the help of Kevin Hahn as CG supervisor and Richard Baker as 2D supervisor. Richard Stammers later joined by Kevin Hahn and James Kelly attending the shoot in Rome, with Richard, Kevin and Jigesh Gajjar travelling to the Los Angeles shoot between May and September 2008.

Chronologically, MPC started at the very beginning of the movie creating the opening titles for the feature in eight different languages. Lens flares and hints light effects mirroring the design of the Antimatter were added to the Columbia Logo and a series of transitions through the titles into the opening shot of the film were all timed to Hans Zimmer’s dramatic score. The titles fade back to the opening shot of a fully CG Papal Ring built by MPC’s asset department composited with a macro style depth of field into a CG background created from tiled live action plates.

One of MPC’s larger focuses was the ‘Birth of Antimatter’ sequence set in the CERN facility in Switzerland. The 40 second shot describes the creation and storage of antimatter by travelling through the inner workings of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and Atlas Detector. The true nature of CERN’s particle collisions was adapted to suit the story and provide a visually thrilling moment for audiences.

An extensive pre-vis was created as a guide for the onset crew who filmed the first part of the shot in a green-screen backed Control Room set and the last part of the shot in the antimatter collection lab. The middle section of the sequence was entirely a CG creation. The interior of the facility including the outer parts of the Atlas, were built based on photographs taken by Stammers, using image modelling and camera projection techniques.

To re-create the X-Ray look of the interior of the Atlas detector, MPC was provided with a complex CAD model from CERN, and Kevin Hahn adapted this so he could develop the look in Renderman. Sections of internal pipes for which MPC had no access to they used reference photos sourced from the internet to construct CG sections to join the multiple environments. Particle collisions and antimatter FX were provided fx animators Matthieu Chardonnet and Xavier Lestourneaud and all layers were composited by Scott Taylor.

The majority of the rest of MPC’s work revolved around large scale CG environments and set extensions to locations in Rome and The Vatican City that were impractical or forbidden to shoot in. These included The Sistine Chapel, the Passetto, Castel Sant’Angelo and Piazza Navona.

The Piazza Navona and Passetto sequence both required digital set extension to partially built environments. An 80 foot long reproduction of half of the Piazza Navona was built on a parking lot in LA, the opposite half was a green screen set which was later replicated using camera projections taken from the real piazza.

For Langdon and Grey’s last chase at the Passetto – an ancient 40 foot high walkway linking the battlements of the Vatican to Castel Sant’Angelo – MPC again extended a green screen stage using real environment projections and day for night reference photography.

CREDITS:
Directer : Ron Howard
Producer : Brian Grazer & John Calley
Screenplay written by : David Koepp & Akiva Goldsman
Novel written by: Dan Brown
Music by: Hans Zimmer
Cinematography: Salvatore Totino
Editing by: Daniel P. Hanley & Mike Hill

CAST:
Tom Hanks – Professor Robert Langdon
Ayelet Zurer – Vittoria Vetra
Ewan McGregor – Camerlengo Patrick McKenna
Stellan Skarsgard – Commander Richter
Pierfrancesco Favino – Inspector Ernesto Olivetti
Nikolaj Lie Kaas – Mr. Gray
Armin Mueller-Stahl – Cardinal Strauss
Thure Lindhardt – Lieutenant Chartrand

RELATED LINKS:
www.moving-picture.com

Popularity: 20% [?]

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Absolute’s lead Flame artist Dave Smith and his team of VFX artists have crafted a dazzling array of special effects for home improvement giant Lowe’s new Spring 2009 campaign, via HSI director Gerard de Thame and BBDO New York.

Starts at Lowe’s/Outdoor emphasizes the amazingly affordable outdoor products, machines and materials Lowe’s carries in its stores everyday. With the arrival of spring, barbecues, plants, lawn mowers and tractors come streaming out of a Lowe’s store and into the parking lot, much to the surprise of loyal Lowe’s patrons. The message is clear: spring has arrived and Lowe’s has everything you need to start living outdoors.

We were tasked with creating the army of marching furniture and garden equipment for Starts at Lowe’s/Outdoor. Dave Smith worked closely with Gerard de Thame to develop two complementary approaches to the FX. For some scenes, rigs were built so that both plants and objects could be puppeteered on green screen.

For other scenes our CG team began the lengthy process of modeling flowers, tractors, tables, chairs and umbrellas that were then animated and composited into the live action footage. Utilizing the talents of our fully integrated teams in London and New York, client changes were handled in a timely manner. Our post production expertise was complemented on this project by sister company Blind Pig, who worked closely with the client to create the motion graphics elements.

About Absolute:
Founded in 2004 by David Smith, one of world’s leading Flame artists, Absolute is a high-end VFX studio working within the commercial, emerging media, music video, and film communities. With offices in New York and London, Absolute over the years has collected numerous industry accolades including two BTAA awards, a D&AD pencil, a Cannes Lion, an APA Collection Diamond, three Andy wins and an MTV video statue. The New York office opened in 2007, helmed by CD Dirk Greene, to further facilitate Absolute’s international client roster with a growing Flame and CG service. www.absolutepost.com

The Creds:
Client: Lowe’s
Spots Title: Starts at Lowe’s/Outdoor (featured), Starts at Lowe’s/Nursery
Air Date: March 2009

Agency: BBDO New York
Art Director: Ken Matsubara
Copywriter: Colin Isley
CD: Wil Boudreau
Producer: Diane McCann
AP: Stephanie Gottlieb

Prod Company: H.S.I.
Director: Gerard De Thame
Producer(s): Fabyan Daw, Maddi Carlton

Editorial: The Cutting Room
Editor: Chuck Willis

Post/Effects: Absolute
Lead Flame: Dave Smith
Flame Artist(s): Nathan Kane, Dirk Greene
3D Artist(s): Vania Alban-Zapata, Maru Ocantos, Minh Nguyen-Ba, Jamie White, Matt Burn, Toby Walton, Liz Scully, Pete Hamilton, Keith Kamholz
Motion Graphic Designer: Ric Comline (at Blind Pig)
Combustion: Dan Leatherdale, Mark Epstein, James Cornwell, Michel Smith
EP: Andy Barmer
Producer(s): Sally Heath, Nirad `Bugs’ Russell

Related Links:
www.absolutepost.com

Popularity: 10% [?]

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“Terminator Salvation” is set in post-apocalyptic 2018, where John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future that Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row.

Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

The highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, “Terminator Salvation” is directed by McG (“Charlie’s Angels,” “We Are Marshall”). The screenplay is by Michael Ferris & John Brancato. Moritz Borman, Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek and Jeffrey Silver are the producers, with Jeanne Allgood, Dan Lin, Mario F. Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna and Joel B. Michaels serving as executive producers.

Wishing to avoid comparisons with the Transformers franchise, McG has stated “Transformers is an excellent movie, but our film is not about big robots. I wanted it to have lots of hardware and velocity, but I didn’t want to hang the whole movie on it.”

Visual Effects for the movie were undertaken by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), with Asylum fx and Rising Sun Pictures bringing their skills to various sequences.

And in addition to the brilliant CG work generated for ‘Terminator Salvation’, McG contracted Stan Winston studios to create real life models of some of the terminator characters that the human cast could interact with.

Stan Winston, the special effects pioneer who designed the original Terminator endoskeleton, worked on Terminator Salvation prior to his death in June this year. McG intends to dedicate the moive to Winston’s memory.

The film stars Christian Bale as John Connor (“The Dark Knight”), Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright (“The Great Raid”), Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese (“Star Trek”), Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor (“Spider-Man 3″), Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams (“What Just Happened?”), Common as Barnes, (“Wanted”), Jane Alexander as Virginia (“The Unborn”), Jadagrace as Star and Helena Bonham Carter as Serena Kogen (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”)

“Terminator Salvation” will be released in the U.S. on May 21, 2009 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Sony Pictures Releasing International is distributing the film in most international territories between May 2009 and June 2009.

CREDITS:
Director: McG
Screenplay:Michael Ferris & John Brancato
Producers: Moritz Borman, Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek and Jeffrey Silver
Executive producers: Jeanne Allgood, Dan Lin, Mario F. Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna and Joel B. Michaels
Cinematographer: Shane Hurlbut
Production designer: Martin Laing
Editor: Conrad Buff
Costume designer: Michael Wilkinson
Visual effects supervisor: Charlie Gibson
Animatronics supervisor: John Rosengrant
Music:Danny Elfman

SOURCES & RELATED LINKS:
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For the recent Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film, five teams each consisting of two members, developed an animated film within 48 hours. Top honors were given to Dixie Trixi, a short film directed by DUCK’s Kompost.

Each team used the same character, Trixi, the festival’s mascot to tell a short story between :30 seconds and 2 minutes. Animation students from international film schools, as well as independent animators and producers, 30 years or younger qualified for participation.

The Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (5-10 May 2009) was founded in 1982 and is one of the biggest and most important festivals of animation film worldwide. An amount of 52,500 euros prize money in total is awarded in seven competition categories. The Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film works in close relation with fmx/09, Europe’s biggest conference on animation, effects, games and digital media.

Directed by: Kompost (Oliver Conrad and Gian Klainguit) of DUCK

About DUCK:
Los Angeles-based DUCK, formerly Duck Soup Studios, is a continually evolving creative studio producing commercials, music videos, short films and web content. DUCK offers a wide range of services, including live action and integration, character design, film title design, 2D and 3D animation, digital compositing, digital/traditional ink & paint. In recent years, the studio has expanded, adding an original content division that works with writers and animators on unique ideas for film and TV.

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