DALLAS-MTV Animation, New York, which began marketing itself for commercials in Nov. ’98 under the MTV Commercials banner, has wrapped its first official outside assignment for a U.S. client: a 7-Eleven spot for Dallas-based The Richards Group.
"Video Vixen," which broke May 27, also features live-action directed by Kevin Smith of Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif., and Chicago. Nick Litwinko, executive producer of MTV Commercials, directed the animation and served as executive producer.
According to The Richards Group head of production Diana Schroeder, who also served as the job’s agency producer, she had heard that MTV was starting a commercial division and called in a reel. It consisted of clips from such MTV animated shows as Beavis & Butt-head, Celebrity Deathmatch and Cyber Cindy, a show featuring a 3-D real-time motion capture character who served as an MTV VJ.
During a conference call, the agency and MTV brainstormed about the action sequence of the video game portion of the spot. "We were trying to create an original game and create an original character that would interact with our 7-Eleven angel," said Schroeder. She added that the creative team-art director/creative director Jim Baldwin and copywriter Lauren Bohner-had Video Vixen in mind, and worked with MTV to develop the character.
"We talked with some other companies," said Schroeder, "but the creative team responded more to MTV’s ideas. I said, "If you like their ideas, then that’s who we need to work with.’ It was a little bit of a risk in that they didn’t have an enormous amount of commercial work. But it wasn’t at all a stretch to work with them."
Featuring animation modeled in Softimage, the spot opens in cyberworld in the midst of a frenetic video game in which the CG characters are riding/flying through a snowy landscape on futuristic-looking scooters. They are firing missile blasts at each other and one large blast sends the Video Vixen character tumbling into an underground cave area. Spotting the 7-Eleven angel who is garbed in a white form-fitting get-up, Video Vixen says, "An angel-bonus points!" The angel, holding up an icy beverage, answers, "Saving the world is thirsty work. How ’bout a Fruit Cooler, Video Vixen?"
After Video Vixen asks the angel to identify the origin of the Fruit Cooler, they are both magically transported into a live-action 7-Eleven store. The CG Video Vixen asks, "What is this high-res land?" The angel, who is now in live-action form (played by Kari Wuhrer, a former MTV personality) tells her this is 7-Eleven, the only place you’ll find the Fruit Cooler. The spot ends as Video Vixen tells the angel she’s off. "To save Antarctica from nuclear annihilation?," asks the angel. "No, I’ve got a pedicure appointment," answers Video Vixen. "Groovy," says the smiling angel.
Technically, "Video Vixen" is not the first spot produced by MTV’s animation department for an outside client, said Abby Terkuhle, MTV president of animation and creative director of MTV Commercials. The studio has produced a Japanese spot for Mintia breath mints via Asatsu/ BBDO, Tokyo, and an Australian spot for Uniball; both ads featured the Beavis & Butt-head characters.
Terkuhle related that the original impetus for launching a commercials unit was to hold on to the freelance directors and animators during the downtimes when series production was on hiatus. "At any given time," said Terkuhle, "we have up to 200 artists working on a variety of series; I think we’re the largest East Coast-based series animation studio. Right now, we have four series in production."
"[The idea] really came from the artists and the directors who were working on these series," continued Terkuhle. "They said, "Why don’t we do commercials in-between the seasons during our downtime?’ So, first and foremost, it was about keeping talent and keeping them challenged on a variety of projects. I think what we have to offer is a very eclectic variety of styles and approaches, and we hope to utilize that in commercials."
Nick Design
Also available as a resource to MTV Commercials, said Terkuhle, is 3-D/CGI studio Nick Design which is a division of Nickelodeon (a sister company to MTV); MTV tapped into Nick Design-vis a vis Flame artist Brad Scott-on "Video Vixen."
"I’d been after Abby for awhile to get the commercial division going," said Litwinko, who joined MTV as an intern in ’92 and started in the promos department before moving into animation in fall of that year. "For awhile [a spot division] wasn’t in the best interest of the company because the studio was full. At the time, we didn’t want to be distracted with anything because we were at capacity with Beavis & Butt-head and the movie [Beavis & Butt-head Do America]."
Also, offering spot opportunities "gives a little diversity to the directors and animators, and exposes them to different styles and techniques that really aren’t applicable to series work," added Litwinko. "Experimental animation that you can get away with in commercials sometimes isn’t really appropriate for series work."
Indeed, Litwinko observed, they welcomed the 7-Eleven assignment with its high-end stylized animation for the chance to demonstrate a bit of the studio’s diverse range of styles. "I think it’ll be good to show that not everything we do is sketched and crude," he said, "because, to a lot of people, Beavis & Butt-head set a precedent for our style of animation."
MTV Commercials is considering expanding its animation lineup as well as potentially adding a couple of live-action directors, related Terkule. "As we grow, we hope to be taking on talent from both within [MTV] and from outside the studio as well." MTV Commercials is currently repped nationally by New York-based sales rep Henry Hagerty; Litwinko said the company is also seeking a Midwest rep.
The MTV crew for "Video Vixen" includes Louis Mitchell, character and background designer; Joel Krasnove, director of the CGI department; Kimmy Ng, production coordinator; Eben Myers, manager/Flame artist (for compositing); Jun Miyata, Marko Vukovic and Josh Cordes, digital artists/3-D and facial animation; Kent Seki, digital artist/ lighting pre-visualization; Raffaele Scaduto-Mendola, digital artist/rigging; and Pakorn Bupphavesa, digital artist/particles.
Additional "Video Vixen" credits go to music composer/ sound designer Alex Lasarenko of bicoastal Elias Associates; offline editor Jack Waldrip and Flame artist/online editor Dave Laird of charlieuniformtango, Dallas; and Nick Design’s Flame artist Scott.
