Our Top Spot this week is a tongue-in-cheek viral piece of nearly four minutes, which introduces us to Kiril Vasakinov, billed as formerly being Russia’s most successful TV series creator/producer.
He invites us inside his home–a modest abode considering he was once so successful–and explains (in Russian, accompanied by English subtitles) that the TBS sitcom My Boys is a total rip-off of a comedy series he created in 1994 entitled A Woman And Her Wolves.
As exhibit A, he screens a scene from My Boys in which the star gal has her three male buddies draw pretzels, the one with the shortest pretzel having to accompany her on a boring evening event.
Next we see a clip from A Woman And Her Wolves which is pretty much the same, except with Russian actors.
Vasakinov observes, “As bad as Stalin was, he never stole anyone’s idea for a TV show.”
The angry producer then invites us to go outside and walk the former Soviet Union’s streets. He relates that this isn’t the first time that American TV has stolen from him. We then see a scene from his series Solovyova, in which a Kramer-like character stumbles around a front door, clearly the inspiration for what became Seinfeld in the U.S.
Later we see a clip from Vasakinov’s Everybody Loves Radzimierz, which was copied by American television, translating into Everybody Loves Raymond.
For the Russian producer, My Boys is the last straw, representing a pillaging of the last creative property he had to call his own.
A website address–kirilsoutrage.ru–appears at the end of this viral, serving to further promote TBS’ My Boys.
Jim Jenkins of bicoastal/international O Positive directed the viral piece for Saatchi & Saatchi, New York.
The Saatchi team included creative director Gerry Graf, associate creative director/copywriter Chris Beresford-Hill, associate creative director/art director Nick Spahr, copywriter Michael Illick, art director Dan Lucey, and senior producer Peter Ostella.
Editor/sound designer was Chris Franklin of Big Sky Edit, New York.
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