A family of circus performers carries over their amazing contortionist act to everyday life in this Spanish language commercial, “Amazing Contortionist,” in the California Milk Processor Board’s “got milk?” campaign.
Mom ties her daughter’s shoes by literally bending over backyards 180 degrees. Dad reads the newspaper by holding it with his feet, while his little girl is perched upside down on a library desk workstation, typing on the computer keyboard with one foot and one hand. The son makes a soccer goal with an incredible exhibition of leg flexibility. And the daughter turns herself in a human hula hoop, revolving around the waist of another girl.
The family’s incredible anatomical flexibility is also exhibited in a crowded elevator, and at the dining room table. At the latter, each family member is seated in what seem like physically impossible positions. And in the elevator, all matter of appendages are visible at eye level.
The parents and kids attribute their talents to milk, which enhances muscle flexibility and coordination. The other two spots in the campaign also showcase extraordinary physical feats. In “Amazon Hair Goddess,” we see a village of woman who use their long hair to amazing ends, including lassoing a wild horse. And in “Teeth,” milk has strengthened people’s choppers to the point where they can chomp down on and carry heavy objects all over the city.
The spots were directed by Andy Fogwill via Landia, Buenos Aires, and Colibri Films, Hermosa, Beach, Calif., for agency Grupo Gallegos, Long Beach, Calif. John Ehrenfeld executive produced for Colibri. Juan Carlos Ferro was the DP.
Grupo Gallegos’ contingent consisted of creative directors Favio Ucedo and Juan Oubina, copywriter Francisco Puppio, art directors Andrews Munera and Guillermo Lucero, and producer Carlos Barciela.
Editor was Jaime Valdueza of Module Zero Media, Venice, Calif. Colorist was Siggy Ferstl of Riot, Santa Monica. Audio post mixers were Jorge Morales and Sebastian Consigli of Swing Musica, Buenos Aires.
Visual effects house was Kroma, with contributors there including creative director/compositor Bert Yukich, on-set visaual effects supervisor Bob Yukich, and executive producer Amy Yukich.
While the actors cast in “Amazing Contortionist” had contortionist skills, their abilities did not extend to the over-the-top exploits shown in the commercial. This is where Kroma’s prowess came into play.
“For the shot of the girl using a computer with her hands and feet, we first shot her seated in a chair with her legs covered in blue and then shot her again with her legs draped over the chair back with her body in a blue suit,” explained Bob Yukich. “In postproduction, we married the two halves of the girl together.”
Turning the girl into a human hula hoop entailed going to even greater lengths of trickery. “That was also created from two elements: a girl mimicking the action of hula hoping, and a second girl holding her own angles to form a ring,” related Bert Yukich. “In order to make the girl look more like a hoop, we morphed her body, and then animated her to make her spin around the other girl.”
Lensing and Designing Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”
Cinematographer Lol Crawley, BSC and production designer Judy Becker collaborated for the first time on The Brutalist (A24) and emerged as Oscar nominees in their respectiveย disciplines. Their work on the film has also earned major recognition elsewhere on the industry awards circuit. Just this week, Crawley won the British Society of Cinematographersโ Feature Film Award. He also is currently a nominee for both an ASC Award and a BAFTA Film Award. And Becker received nominations for a BAFTA Film Award and an Art Directors Guild (ADG) Excellence in Production Design Award. Crawley and Becker, though, traversed distinctly different paths to The Brutalist, being on opposite ends of the collaborative continuum with director and co-writer Brady Corbet going into the film. Crawley had already shot two features for Corbet prior to The Brutalist--The Childhood of a Leader (2015) and Vox Lux (2018). In sharp contrast, The Brutalist marked Beckerโs first time working with Corbet. Becker recalled seeing The Childhood of a Leader and immediately wanting to design for Corbet. Describing herself as โstunnedโ by the film, she related that it reflected Corbetโs talent as a filmmaker, his ability to work within a budget on a period movie and still deliver an end product that looked fantastic while brilliantly telling a story. Becker noted that a big budget period film replete with tons of set dressing, over-dressed locations and the like misses the mark for her. She asked, โWhy waste that money?โ But when Becker sees a period movie with a pared down budget that looks so good, โIโm really blown away.โ Based on The Childhood of a Leader, Becker told her agent that sheโd love to... Read More