Talking horses in a stable express their decided preference for Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Bars over the same old mundane bag of oats. Besides verbalizing, the horses can also stand upright like humans but revert to normal equine behavior whenever a person enters the barn.
The “normal behavior” includes the horses pretending that they love the oats in their feed bags. But as soon as man leaves the stable, we see a horse spit out the oats and ask for a sparkling water to wash the bad taste from his mouth.
Filip Engstrom directed “Horse’s Mouth” in a coproduction between bicoastal Smuggler and London’s Stink for Leo Burnett, London. RIOT Santa Monica’s animation team handled visual effects and CG, with U.K.’s Creature Effects building and operating animatronic horses, which were used on the set to create the animals’ positioning and general movement. The movement of the horses’ lips, eyes an dears were produced via CG.
RIOT scanned the animatronic horses and used the data to model and texture 3D versions whose features could be more subtly and precisely controlled. CG artists also created the lower half of a horse for a scene in which the animal is standing on its hind legs while calling a warning to his mates.
“The animatronic horse was built from the chest up and placed over the head of a human operator,” explained RIOT visual effects producer Robert Owen. “The operator had to stand on a platform to create the proper space between the horse’s chest and the ground. In post, we removed the platform and the operator’s legs and composited in a CG element.”
The Leo Burnett, London, team included creative director Billy Mawhinney, art director Monty Verdi, and producer Graeme Light.
The DP was Crille Forsberg. Editor was Nick Lofting of Union Editorial, Santa Monica.
Michelle Satter To Be Honored At Sundance Film Festival Gala
The nonprofit Sundance Institute today announced details for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s gala fundraiser, Celebrating Sundance Institute, which will take place on Friday, January 24, 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Utah. The event will be an evening in celebration of Michelle Satter, founding sr. director of artist programs at Sundance Institute, for her longstanding commitment to nurturing artists and cultivating independent film through the Sundance Labs, where visionary artists convene to develop groundbreaking projects through an in-depth creative process, for the past four decades. The annual Vanguard Awards will be presented during the evening to Sean Wang, writer and director of Dìdi, and Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, co-directors of Sugarcane, who premiered their films at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The annual gala enables the nonprofit to raise funds to support independent artists year-round through labs, grants, and public programming that nurture artists from all over the world. The 2025 event is made possible with the generous support of Google TV. The Festival will take place from January 23–February 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online from January 30–February 2, 2025 for audiences across the country to discover bold independent storytelling.
“For over four decades Michelle has been devoted to truly championing independent storytellers,” said Amanda Kelso, acting CEO of Sundance Institute. “She has encouraged artists to own their voice, learn their craft, become fierce leaders, and develop their resilience in our changing ecosystem. Her life-long commitment to supporting artists, especially in underrepresented... Read More