SHORT CUTS
Nico Sheers of The Blue Rock Editing Company, New York, cut "The Right Moment" for Cialis, via Grey Worldwide, New York. The :60, which was directed by Jonathan Darby of Original Film, Santa Monica, broke on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1. "The Right Moment" focuses on the effects that make Cialis different from other erectile dysfunction drugs, and features vignettes of playful couples who perhaps could be deciding if it’s the "right moment." Jonathan Kelly was the assistant editor for Blue Rock, with Ethel Rubinstein executive producing. The sound was mixed by Joe O’Connell for sister shop Blast Digital, New York.
Hollywood-based yU + co created main title sequence for the John Woo thriller Paycheck. The design studio’s mercurial graphics, where words and names form out of random characters on a computer screen before being quickly erased, serve as a subtle metaphor for the conflict that besets the film’s protagonist, who is engaged in a desperate struggle to reconstruct his past. Additionally, yU + co assisted Woo in the design and execution of the film’s tense opening sequence. The four-minute sequence, which plays under the main title graphics, introduces Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck), an engineer who makes his living by stealing other engineers’ designs. In the live-action sequence that plays under the main title graphics, the audience sees Jennings engage in an act of industrial espionage. After obtaining a new holographic computer at a trade show, he takes it into a laboratory and reproduces an improved version of the device using reverse engineering. yU + co worked directly with Woo in designing the sequence and also created the visual effects and computer animation employed in it. Those effects include the hologram of a woman whose 3-dimensional face emerges from a computer monitor and who later appears as a standalone 3-D character. The effect was accomplished by shooting a woman against green screen and applying 2-D lighting effects to give her the ephemeral quality of a hologram. For the laboratory sequence, yU + co artists created a number of intricate computer animations to illustrate the process Jennings uses in his work. As Jennings deconstructs the device, its various internal parts become visible as 3-D projections, allowing him to divine the secrets of the underlying technology. The live-action portion of the scene with Jennings in the laboratory was filmed before the animation was produced. As a result, yU + co’s team not only had to create animations that made logical sense, but also fit Affleck’s physical actions as he moved around the laboratory. Also, yU + co created the main title sequence for Peter Pan, as well as the soon-to-be-released features Wicker Park and The Last Shot. Paycheck credits for yU + co go to Garson Yu, creative director/designer; Jennifer Fong, executive producer; Conny Fauser, visual effects supervisor/Inferno artist; Yolanda Santosa, lead designer; Martin Surya, designer; Emmy Leung and Zachary Scheuren, editors; Benjamin Lopez, Etsuko Uji and David Yan, 2-D animators; and Nate Homan and Chris Vincola, 3-D animators.
Union Editorial, San Francisco, edited four spots for Outback Steakhouse and Los Angeles agency davidandgoliath. The :30s "Smelling Salts," "Working Late," "Lawnmower" and "Dog Walking" were cut by Union’s Ira Klein, and directed by Peter Darley Miller (live action) and Mathew Brady (tabletop) of bicoastal/international @radical.media. "Smelling Salts" shows an injured gridiron player who only comes around after a medic rushes toward him with a takeout order of Outback’s popcorn shrimp, while the other ads show customers coming up with ingenious reasons to dine at Outback. Additional Union Editorial credits go to assistant editor Zara Clear, producer Megan Dahlman, online editor Todd Iorio and mixer Josh Eichenbaum.
IN GEAR
Discreet announced that postproduction facility Shooters Post & Transfer has purchased a number of additional Discreet systems to be used for commercials and high-definition (HD) television programming. The Philadelphia-headquartered company has added two of Discreet’s Fire 6 nonlinear editing and finishing systems on SGI Onyx 350 to its three existing Fire systems. The facility also chose Discreet’s Backdraft background media management software, and obtained an upgrade to the Flame 8 visual effects and compositing system. Shooters Post & Transfer works on numerous HD projects using the Fire and Flame systems, including: a Comcast SportsNet’s graphics package for the Philadelphia and Chicago markets; editing of TLC’s Trading Spaces; Banyan Productions’ HD conforms; the main titles for the CBS drama Hack; HD conforms of commercials and promos airing on Voom, a new HD satellite channel from Cablevision; and the editing of several independent features. Discreet, a division of Autodesk Inc., is based in Montreal.
CLIPLAND
R!OT Santa Monica provided visual effects, computer animation and finishing services for "Stand Up," a music clip by Ludacris. Teaming with director Dave Meyers of bicoastal/international @radical.media, R!OT artists cast the rap superstar in a number of bizarre guises, including a rapping, dancing baby boy. "Stand Up" follows Ludacris into a crowded dance club where things are much larger than life—LPs, beer bottles, pieces of chicken and body parts of certain female guests. Ludacris himself appears in strange forms, including one with a huge, five-foot tall Afro that appears in the video’s final scene. R!OT’s artists, led by visual effects supervisor/lead artist Les Umberger and visual effects supervisor/producer Ryan Thompson, contributed to virtually every scene in the video, crafting a diverse range of unique visuals. R!OT also created a lengthy animated sequences that appears halfway through the video in which stylized images of Ludacris and other talent appear over a series of pop art backgrounds. The backgrounds for the sequence were created in their entirety as digital paintings. Artists also produced original 2-D animated elements, such as the stylized spray from a bottle of cologne and a winking moon that looks uncannily like Ludacris. The various elements were composited in 3-D space, giving the animation depth of field. The frame rate of the sequence was also altered to enhance the animated look. The infant Ludacris was a compositing trick pulled off by Umberger and Inferno artist Sean Wilson. Ludacris and a baby were shot separately against green screen, with a stagehand dressed in green holding the baby by his hands to make him "dance." Ludacris’ head had to be shrunk to fit the baby’s body and his neck had to be "warped" to give it the stocky look of an infant’s neck. A line of drool was also comped in so that it appeared to be coming from the rapper’s mouth. R!OT also made the baby urinate during a diaper change. The yellow stream was created as a 3-D element by Inferno artist Claus Hansen. Lead CG artist Hans Payer created the giant Afro that Ludacris sports at the end of the video as a 3-D element composed of some 20,000 strands of hair. With the exception of Ludacris and a woman who lies at his feet, the entire Afro sequence is artificial. Additional credits for R!OT go to Kiki Chansamone, lead Flame artist; Sean Wilson, lead Inferno artist; Robin Scher, Mike Amron, Shuichi Suzuki and Kaori Miyazawa, Maya 3-D; Ashlee Wismach, Inferno intern; and Ellen Gaion, Combustion intern.
