SHORT CUTS
San Francisco-headquartered Wild Brain refreshed the promotional package for PBS Kids. The campaign—which consists of 44 original elements—was directed by Wild Brain’s Phil Robinson, who led the company’s team of artists to design and animate a package that appeals to a child’s imagination. Using simple storytelling and graphic animation, the work chronicles the adventures of Dot and Dash, the iconic characters associated with PBS Kids. The work includes animated logos, IDs and bumpers, with some elements themed for such occasions as the four seasons, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Wild Brain utilized Illustrator, Flash and After Effects, as well as hand-drawn animation to complete the package. In addition to Robinson, Wild Brain credits include co-director Nina Rappaport; art director/animator Nick Hewitt; executive producer Andrea Mansour; producer Amy Capen; animators Jeff Vacanti, Jeff Paul, Dave Vandevoort, Sam Hood and Chris Hammond; Mac artists/compositors Bill Hunt, Danya O’Brien, Bryan Dawson, Erika Myers, Gooby Hermes and Craig Foster; and editor Mike Toumey.
Eden FX, Hollywood, is contributing ongoing CG effects to four fall 2004 television programs. Eden FX continues its role, for the fourth consecutive year, as the primary provider of effects for the syndicated show, Enterprise, which airs on UPN. Eden FX will be providing full CG characters, digital matte paintings, and all exterior scenes of ships to the Paramount Television series. For CBS’ NCIS, which recently returned for its sophomore season, and JAG, Eden FX will create such CG effects as digital matte paintings, photo-real vehicles, planes and ships, and other visual effects. And for the new NBC series LAX, Eden FX will provide photo-real airplanes, set extensions and digital matte paintings. Eden FX’s co-president John Gross will serve as visual effects supervisor for LAX.
MUSIC NOTES
David Della Santa of New York-based tonefarmer composed the music for Olympus’ "Doorways." Created by The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va., the :30 conveys Olympus’ commitment to making "your vision our future." Nick Brandt of bicoastal/international Believe Media directed the ad. Rob Sayers of Sound Lounge, New York, mixed the audio. Tiffany Warin was executive producer for tonefarmer.
Glenn Navia and Andrew Knox of hsr/ny worked on "Doris," for Palmolive Oxy Plus via Young & Rubicam, New York. The :30 features actress Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) offering dishwashing detergent advice to a friend. Mixer Navia completed the audio post utilizing a Fairlight QDC editor, Soundtracs DS-3 digital mixing console, Steinberg Wavelab 5.0 running on a 3.2 Gig Athlon PC for spot mastering, Sony (Sonic Foundry) Vegas Video 4.0 running on a 3.2 Gig Athlon PC for video playback, and Lexicon PCM 60 digital reverb. The original musical underscore and sound design was created by hsr/ny music producer Knox, and David Horowitz Music Associates (DHMA) composers David Horowitz and Jonathan Fields. The spot was directed by Chuck Bennett of Big Lawn Films, Santa Monica.
Johannes Hammers of RavensWork, Venice, Calif., created the music and sound design for a series of spots promoting the Lincoln Aviator. Conceived by Young & Rubicam Brands, Irvine, Calif., the five :30s (all titled "Crossed the Line") show how Lincoln engineers "crossed the line" to create and SUV with features unlike any other. Driving footage of the vehicle is presented in letterbox format with graphics and CG simulations appearing above and below. Additional RavensWork credits go to executive producer Katherine Morgan and mixer Eric Ryan.
IN GEAR
Atlanta-based Crawford Post Production, a service area of Crawford Communications, recently completed multiple new equipment purchases, as well as upgrades of several film, editing and compositing systems. There have been hardware/software upgrades to Crawford’s Spirit suite with the addition of the da Vinci 2K Plus, the Discreet Logic Fire/Inferno suite to V. 6 software, and the Flame suite with the addition of HD/SD Smoke and Flame on the SGI Tezro platform. Crawford has also increased its number of Avid Adrenaline suites and is now operating with an Avid Unity shared storage system. Crawford now has five hi-def edit systems and six Adrenalines. The company also has three Avid DS systems, two of which are DS HDs, and three other Avid offline edit systems.
Framestore CFC, London, has added a Spirit 4K film scanner to its arsenal. The Spirit 4K suite is operated via a new Pandora Evolution control panel, a pen and tablet color correction interface that replaces the previous button-driven panel. Both the Spirit 4K suite and the pre-existing Spirit suite are being equipped with the new Evolution.
CLIPLAND
Director Morocco Vaughn of Eightball Films, Chicago, lensed "Higher," a music video for Chicago rappers Do or Die. "Higher," which premiered on BET in September, also features rap superstar Kanye West. Shot over two days around the Chicago area, "Higher" proved challenging to both director and crew. Logistics were difficult because the video featured a full slate of local hip-hop celebrities, including Crucial Conflict, Bump J, producer The Legendary Traxster, and Chicago DJ Vaughn Woods. The Highland Park and Lawndale locations saw more than 150 fans, colleagues and crew come out to lend their support to the video. More music video work is on the way for Vaughn, with projects for DOD, The Legion Records’ rapper Ric Jilla and Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Troy Hudson (a.k.a. "T-Hud") on tap. Ted Lega, a partner in Eightball Films, produced the music video.
