While cold weather settles in New York and Chicago, it’s 80 degrees and sunny in Florida—so Jim Johnson’s laugh is no mystery. "Nobody wants to leave," he says. Johnson is the executive producer/general manager of animation and visual effects shop Deep Blue Sea (DBS), Coconut Grove, Fla. A division of Broadcast Video Inc. (BVI), Miami, which has additional Florida offices in Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, and Boca Raton, DBS has grown in four years from a staff of three to 13. How did an effects and animation house survive in Florida, thousands of miles from the major markets of Los Angeles, New York and Chicago? "Miami has no real industry, besides tourism," Johnson says. "But that’s changing." A number of U.S. networks have recently set up shop in Miami, including MTV and Nickelodeon, specifically to launch Latin American channels.
Johnson estimates that as much as 60 percent of DBS work is done for the Latin American market. "Essentially, we do national spots for international markets," Johnson says, although the company does do some work for the U.S. market. "Miami is the gateway to Latin America. … I don’t want to say that Latin America is the backbone of the market here, but to a great degree, the commercial and effects work [done here] is done for Venezuela, Mexico, Columbia, and places like that."
The company has worked on commercials for Latin American clients such as Amstel Light, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Kellogg’s, Pepsi and Sony. Recently, Carmen Cothern, director of cel animation at DBS, directed the cel-animated "Tu Pones El Amor" for Knorr Products via MASS, a Miami-based agency. The ad, which aired on several U.S. Hispanic stations, features an animated hen teaching a cooking class to fellow chickens. The Knorr hen’s demonstration is supplemented by images of live-action dishes. The tagline: "Tu Pones El Amor, Knorr Pone El Sabor" (You add the love, Knorr adds the flavor). DBS also completed visual effects supervision and compositing for Nacional de Chocalates, directed by George Pelaez of Ilumina Films, Miami, via Young & Rubicam, Bogota, Colombia.
DBS recently earned a Silver Award in the best on-air, out-of-house category for a network I.D., created for Nickelodeon en Telemundo at the Broadcast Designers Association Latin America awards show. Earlier this year, "Boom Box," a Bud Light spot DBS worked on via Lopito, Iliana & Howie, San Juan, P. R., won the alcoholic beverage category at the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies’ (AHAA) first-ever Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards.
"Boom Box" was part of a three spot package—which also included "Breaker Box" and "Jumper Cable"—that was directed by Angel Traverso of X-Films, San Juan, P.R. "Boom Box" features Bud Light cans that have the ability to power a stereo sitting in a stainless steel room. As the stereo vibrates and throbs to the beat of techno music, the camera angle shifts, moving to the side, the screen warping in sync with the music. At the end of the ad, the camera focuses on the stereo’s battery compartment, which reveals that instead of being powered by batteries, it is operated by a six-pack of Bud Light.
In order to create the throbbing effects of the stereo, BVI editor Lee Konen digitized all the film at off-line resolution, and cut and performed effects on BVI’s Avid/Softimage DS System. He then recaptured selects at full resolution for output on the Flame. Robert Kirkpatrick, a creative director who has since left DBS, supervised the visual effects on the shoot in Puerto Rico. Back in Miami, he used the Flame to combine the live lighting and used morphs to enhance the look of the pulsating stereo.
Growth Potential
"Miami is a vibrant, vital market," says Johnson, who moved down to Florida from Chicago two years ago. Having worked as an independent producer/director before becoming the technical producer/manager of computer graphics at Optimus, Chicago, Johnson says that one of the reasons he’s in Miami is to be part of that dynamic market: "It’s a hidden jewel, a growing market that changes by the day. New companies are arriving all the time."
Johnson adds that the uncharted territory of Miami stands in lush contrast to the old, historic agency culture of Chicago advertising. "[Chicago] is definitely driven by the major agencies, the major accounts," he says. "It’s marked-out territory. The players keep growing and changing and moving, but they’re really attacking the same kind of agency culture there. Miami is more dynamic."
DBS is equipped with two Flames, four After Effects workstations, three Softimage 3-D workstations and two CTP workstations. "Our work runs the gamut," Johnson says, who tips his hat to creative director David Woodward. "We have the tools and the ability to work in almost any media and create any kind of look. Each of our five designers has a strong point…Their job is to perform magic on a variety of levels…Other people don’t have our depth and capability."
With awards stockpiling on their shelves, expansion appears to be the next logical step for Deep Blue Sea. Can an office in, say, South America be far off? "We’ve certainly talked about that a lot," Johnson says. "Someday we probably will, with the Internet and broadband technology getting more practical." For now, DBS has set up a high-speed network among its BVI facilities, and has hired two new designers.
The future of the Florida commercial production market looks promising, as do the prospects for Deep Blue Sea. "People come down here to shoot," Johnson says, "and they don’t want to leave. They end up posting here. … You only need to come here in November to understand why I’m here."
