New York Festivals® International Advertising Awards will honor director Bob Giraldi of bicoastal Giraldi with one of the first ever NYF Living Legend Awards. The filmmaker, whose work spans commercials, music videos, shorts, and features, is scheduled to receive the honor on Thursday, May 5, at the 2011 International Advertising Awards “The New York Show.” Earlier that day he will present a keynote speech, “MY LIFE IN TWENTY–A Lifetime Making TV Commercials & Teaching Others How to Do it Better.”
The NYF Living Legend Award recognizes prominent industry luminaries whose personal excellence and extraordinary contributions have advanced the field of advertising, made a lasting impression on the creative community, and who continue to influence the profession in a significant way.
Giraldi made his first industry mark on the agency side of the business. One of the original Mad Men, he served as a creative director at Young & Rubicam, New York. During his tenure he won numerous awards, and in the middle of the early advertising creative revolution he earned the distinction of being named as one of “101 Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising.” He made a smooth transition to the director’s chair and has directed more than 4,000 commercials thus far in his career. Giraldi’s advertising campaigns include the Pepsi-Cola campaign with Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, as well as commercials for the Miller Brewing company featuring celebrities such as Dick Butkus, Bob Uecker, John Madden, and Rodney Dangerfield.
Giraldi’s unique visual and musical storytelling abilities set the tone in the early days of MTV music videos. His video for Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” won numerous awards including that year’s coveted American Music Award, the Billboard Music Award and the People’s Choice Award. Giraldi has worked with such music legends as Pat Benatar, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ricky Martin, Hall & Oates and Will Smith.
Giraldi’s feature film, Dinner Rush, with Danny Aiello, John Corbett and Sandra Bernhard, appeared on a number of 2001’s Top 10 lists such as Newsweek and was selected for the prestigious New Directors/New Films Series at MoMa. Among all the awards it was also listed by Roger Ebert as “One of the Best 100 Films in the Last 10 Years.” Giraldi also is the director of Jon Cryer’s Hiding Out.
On the short film front, Giraldi’s The Routine, premiered at Sundance and won Best Drama at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. His My Hometown is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s permanent collection, and two short films; Dream Begins, and A Peculiar City, both integral parts of New York’s national Olympic bid, are now in MoMA’s permanent collection. The director’s latest short, The Grey Coat, is a N.Y. story of a hardworking immigrant Korean family being extorted by two dirty cops and the emergence of an unlikely hero.
Of being selected to receive Living Legend Award, Giraldi related, “I’m humbled, I’m honored, and I’m happy to be recognized — It gets better all the time, just like a 1991 Brunello di Montalcino.”
Looking To Make Video Games More Immersive, Some Studios Turn To AI For Increased Interaction
For decades, video games have relied on scripted, stilted interactions with non-player characters (NPCs) to help shepherd gamers in their journeys. But as artificial intelligence technology improves, game studios are experimenting with generative AI to help build environments, assist game writers in crafting NPC dialogue and lend video games the improvisational spontaneity once reserved for table-top role-playing games.
In the multiplayer game "Retail Mage," players help run a magical furniture store and assist customers in hopes of earning a five-star review. As a salesperson — and wizard — they can pick up and examine items or tell the system what they'd like to do with a product, such as deconstruct chairs for parts or tear a page from a book to write a note to a shopper.
A player's interactions with the shop and NPCs around them — from gameplay mechanics to content and dialogue creation — are fueled by AI rather than a predetermined script to create more options for chatting and using objects in the shop.
"We believe generative AI can unlock a new kind of gameplay where the world is more responsive and more able to meet players at their creativity and the things that they come up with and the stories they want to tell inside a fantasy setting that we create for them," said Michael Yichao, cofounder of Jam & Tea Studios, which created "Retail Mage."
The typical NPC experience often leaves something to be desired. Pre-scripted interactions with someone meant to pass along a quest typically come with a handful of chatting options that lead to the same conclusion: players get the information they need and continue on. Game developers and AI companies say that by using generative AI tech, they aim to create a richer... Read More