About a year and a half ago, director Klaus Obermeyer of Aero Film, Santa Monica, and underwater DP Pete Zuccarini collaborated on a spot for Oceana, the global public service advocacy organization dedicated to reducing pollution and preventing the collapse of fish populations, marine mammals and other sea life. Titled “Oceana,” the PSA earned inclusion in SHOOT‘s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery (SHOOTonline 11/14/08). “Oceana” started out as a spec piece with Obermeyer showing the completed spot to the organization, which embraced the work, resulting in it becoming a real world cinema, TV and viral PSA.
Fast forward to today and Obermeyer and Zuccarini’s efforts have yielded another PSA yet this time with some different stripes. For one, this new PSA, named “Fast,” didn’t start out as a spec piece. Instead it evolved into a real-world piece from the outset, with funding from apparel company Nautica and Aero Film, and the involvement of on-camera spokesperson Adrian Grenier, one of the stars from the hit HBO series Entourage. Another key difference this time around is that Obermeyer and Zuccarini served as director and co-director/underwater DP, respectively.
Helping to shape the concept was the in-house creative team from the publication Gentlemen’s Quarterly (GQ), which has taken up the cause and covered it. Decked out in scuba gear, Grenier in the spot relates that bluefin tuna are up to 15 feet long, 2,000 pounds and accelerate faster than a race car. Yet even that isn’t fast enough to escape man’s appetite as we are literally eating bluefins out of existence.
Grenier takes us underwater to see these remarkable creatures. He urges viewers to log onto Oceana’s website to find out what can be done to help preserve and protect bluefin tuna.
Editor was Austin Smithard at Aero Post. Music and sound design for the PSA came from Nylon Studios, Sydney.
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More