Teams On :30 With Effects Supervisor Murphy And DDB Needham Chicago.
CLIENT
Tenneco Packaging/Hefty OneZip Food Bags.
PRODUCTION CO./VISUAL EFFECTS
Industrial Light+Magic Commercial Productions, San Rafael and Los Angeles. Robert Caruso, director; Adam Beckman, DP; Marcie Malooly, executive producer; Brian Sullivan, live-action producer; Andrea Smith, production supervisor; Chris Farmer, production designer; Michael Goldman, art director; Wendy Morton and Eric Jensen, puppeteers; John RA Benson, head of CG commercials; George Murphy, visual effects supervisor; Wade Howie, CG supervisor; Kevin Sprout, lead technical director; Branko Grujcic and Andy Wang, technical directors; Drew DiGenova, technical director/animator; Tripp Brown, assistant technical director; Izzy Acar, lead animator/model; Mark Casey, Flame artist; John Wank, Flint artist; Shari Hanson, post producer; Mo Husseini and Diane Caliva, postproduction supervisors; Jamy Wheless, character development/ animation; Drew Klausner, animator; Kay Rough, computer graphics commercial project manager; Eric Schroeder, computer graphics commercial coordinator; Erika Engstrom, computer graphics commercial production assistant; Guy Hudson, lead matchmover; Ingrid Overgard, matchmover; Marcus Stokes, enveloping; Richard Moore, paint/digital matte; Zack Sherman and Josh LeBeau, roto; Mike Peters, CG resource assistant; Jim Milton, video technical assistant. Shot on location.
AGENCY
DDB Needham Chicago; Don Pogany, creative director; Craig Feigen, creative director/copywriter; Adam Glickman, creative director/art director; Greg Popp, executive producer.
EDITORIAL/POST
Western Images, San Francisco. Alan Chimenti, creative editor; Gary Coates, colorist; Lisa McNamara, producer.
AUDIO POST
Chicago Recording Studios. Dave Gerbosi, engineer.
MUSIC
Elias Associates, bicoastal. Jonathan Elias, composer.
SOUND DESIGN
Chicago Recording Studios. Dave Gerbosi, sound designer.
BY REGINALD OBERLAG
The snappy new “Gingerbread Man” spot from DDB Needham Chicago, directed by Robert Caruso of Industrial Light+Magic Commercial Productions (ILM-CP) in San Rafael and Los Angeles, shows how a tricky mix of computer graphics, puppetry and live action can really perk up the rather empty, transparent subject of plastic baggies.
The :30, now airing, also had the benefit of Forrest Gump’s Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor George Murphy, an ILM artisan who managed to seamlessly blend live-action actors, a gingerbread-man puppet, a real Hefty OneZip baggie and a CG-generated cookie and plastic bag.
Imagine the Pillsbury Doughboy on steroids and you arrive at the premise of this spot, which opens with two very homey-looking bakers closing up their quaint little bakery for the day. One baker zips the gingerbread-man cookie into a baggie and sets it on the display case. The little fellow then jumps to his feet and starts trying to punch his way out of the baggie. With lots of grunts and groans, he then begins hopping across the counter to the amusement of the two bakers. When he hops onto the cash register, the drawer pops open, sending the gingerbread-man on a wild airborn trajectory around the shop. As he’s sent zooming, we can see the surprise on his face.
During his flight, the gingerbread man knocks the head off a wedding-cake groom, gets caught in a mixing wisk, flies across the room, blasts through a big bag of baker’s flour and finally smacks flat up against a glass dome covering a cake. As the beaten gingerbread man, still in the baggie, peels off the glass, one baker says to the other: “That’s one tough bag.” The spot closes with a product shot and the baker looking off-screen as the sounds of the little guy’s struggle continue.
Commenting on his mini-action movie, Caruso said “the fun thing about it was bringing this cookie to life and taking him on a journey around the bakery by creating an exciting trajectory and giving him a bit of personality.” Caruso took the agency’s already well-developed storyboard visuals and embellished them. “I wanted the cookie to have more personality, like a precocious teenager hell-bent on getting out of the bag, and do it in a succinct way,” said Caruso. “My task was to crank up the intensity with things like spinning him more quickly on the baker’s wisk and giving the spot an exclamation point with the impact at the end of the travel. … It was my idea to knock the head off the wedding cake groom to give the spot a little more energy, rather than just knocking the whole figurine off the cake,” said Caruso. He said working with the actor/bakers allowed him to get good comic relief with their dry, deadpan delivery.
DDB Needham executive producer Greg Popp praised Caruso for carefully shepherding the project through the intensive CG postproduction. Popp said that because of the short timeframe for completing the spot, it became necessary to use a `practical’ puppet for some shots and a CG gingerbread man for others.
Agency creative director/art director Adam Glickman said one of their chief concerns was that “we didn’t want to see the difference between the live-action puppet film and the CG character footage.” Luckily, the person in charge of the special effects was George Murphy, a veteran of major special effects films, including Jurassic Park and Star Trek: First Contact. Glickman praised Murphy, saying he brought "personality to the Gingerbread guy, and the whole ILM team went above and beyond and really made it believable.”
Murphy said that besides rendering a gingerbread man in Softimage to match the puppet, they used some proprietary software to solve the really difficult problem of creating a realistic plastic baggie. He explained that there is one moment where the `practical’ cookie in the baggie had to match the CG-created one “in the same scene [where] the eye doesn’t really have a cutaway.” Murphy said he enjoyed the change of pace from long-term features as compared to working on a commercial. He was particularly satisfied that the spot “ultimately is a product demonstration of strength and … supports the message rather than overriding it.”
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Pinnacle Strikes Gold
With Arizona Lottery
CLIENT
State of Arizona/Arizona State Lottery.
PRODUCTION CO.
Steven Hood Productions, Phoenix. Steven Hood, director/DP/executive producer. Animation by Tennesen Aniworks, Seattle. Terry Tennesen, animator. Shot at Steven Hood Productions.
AGENCY
E.B. Lane & Associates, Phoenix. Bruce Nilsson, creative director; Jeff Miraglia, associate creative director/art director; Mark Fulcher, copywriter; Pam Parsons, producer.
EDITORIAL
Pinnacle Studios, Seattle. Brad Buckwalter, offline editor.
POST/VISUAL EFFECTS
Pinnacle Studios. Brad Buckwalter, online editor; Tim Maffia, colorist; Dale Fay, supervisor of visual effects; Trent Siegel, motion-control director; Ramon Ramos and Sharon Eagan, digital ink and paint; Tina Eastlake, Henry artist; Mark Malcolm, producer.
AUDIO POST
PHX Sound Labs, Phoenix. Emil Miller, engineer.
MUSIC
Cliff Sarde/C.E. Productions, Phoenix. Cliff Sarde, composer.
SOUND DESIGN
PHX Sound Labs. Emil Miller, sound designer.
THE SPOT
In the :30 “Pick 3,” Arizona Lottery animated mascot Gold Miner Willie leaps from a Pick 3 lottery card onto a desk calendar. He lands in a mining cart filled with money atop the calendar that flips it’s pages through the week, as Willie demonstrates how one can win and pay for various gifts (fishing gear, concert tickets, a shopping spree, golf equipment) by participating in the Pick 3.
Spot broke in May.
***
Sight Effects Flies Into A Glad Bag
CLIENT
First Brands Corp./Glad.
PRODUCTION CO.
Dark Light Pictures, West Hollywood. Mark Figliulo, director; Stuart Dryburg, DP; Vincent Arcaro, executive producer; Beth Anthony, producer. Shot at Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, Calif., and Raleigh Studios, Hollywood.
AGENCY
Leo Burnett Co., Chicago. Nancy Hannon, creative director/art director; Paul Meyer, creative director/copywriter; Denis Giroux, producer.
EDITORIAL
The Lookinglass Company, Chicago. Marcelle Feldt, editor.
POST
The Lookinglass Company. Greg Dildine, colorist. Sight Effects, Venice, Calif. Doug Spilatro, online editor.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Sight Effects. Alan Barnett, visual effects supervisor; Jeff Blodgett, visual effects producer; Doug Spilatro, visual effects artist. In-Sight Pix, Venice. Paolo Moscatelli, animator; Nicole Tidwell, producer; Andrea Morland, coordinator.
AUDIO POST
Asche & Spencer/Minneapolis. Chris Beaty, mixer.
MUSIC
Asche & Spencer/Minneapolis. Thad Spencer and Tom Scott, composers; Joel Smith, music producer.
THE SPOT
The :30 “Checklist” opens in a kitchen where a mom is going over a picnic checklist as a toy airplane zips around the room. The plane flies past mom’s head, pushing her hair aside, clips a vase filled with flowers, and zooms past a cat who takes a swipe at it. Finally, mom snags the glider in a Glad bag.
Spot broke May 18.
***
Crash Turns Inventor For Nescafe Coffees
CLIENT
Nestle USA/Nescafe Blended Iced Coffees.
PRODUCTION CO.
Crash Films, Santa Monica. Billy Kent, director; Ramsey Nickell, DP; Bill Fortney and Gary Ward, executive producers; Hoon Park, producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
McCann-Erickson, Seattle. Jim Walker, executive VP/managing creative director; Michelle Berman and Darryl Hagans, producers; John Schofield, VP/associate creative director/copywriter; Kurt Reifschneider, VP/associate creative director/art director.
EDITORIAL
Graying & Balding, Santa Monica. Lance Pereira, editor; Fernando Flores and Jason Djang, assistant editors; Unjoo DeCourcey, producer.
POST/VISUAL EFFECTS
Post Logic Studios, Hollywood. Michael Eaves, colorist. The Finish Line, Santa Monica. Nancy Hyland, Flame artist.
AUDIO/SOUND DESIGN
Clatter & Din, Seattle. Vince Werner, mixer/engineer/sound designer.
MUSIC
Asche & Spencer/Venice, Venice, Calif. Thad Spencer, composer; Hugh Barton, producer.
THE SPOT
In the :30 “Warren,” a shipping clerk drinks a bottle of Nescafe Blended Iced Coffee during his lunch break that stimulates him, resulting in his invention of a clean-burning replacement for fossil fuels. After he makes the front cover of a newpaper, millionaire Warren is shown relaxing with a bevy of beautiful women on a boat named U-Wish.
Spot broke in May.
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First Edition Hails Music For McDonald’s
CLIENT
McDonald’s Corp.
PRODUCTION CO.
Matson/Johnson, New York. Jeff Weiser, director/DP; Ray Johnson, executive producer; Noreen Shelvin, producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
Caroline Jones Inc., New York. Caroline Jones, creative director; Russ Tillman, producer; Tim Shortt, copywriter; Dick Hanley, art director.
STOCK FOOTAGE
Hot Shots Cool Cuts, New York. Andrew Conti, contact.
EDITORIAL
First Edition Editorial, New York. Pat Troyan, editor; Laura Richards, assistant editor.
POST
Splash Design, New York. Conner Meeth, Editbox editor. Manhattan Transfer, New York. Dino Regas, colorist.
AUDIO POST
The Mix Place, New York. Kenny Fredrickson, mixer/engineer.
MUSIC
Billy Davis Music, New York. Billy Davis, composer; George Bergold, arranger.
THE SPOT
McDonald’s celebrates Black Music in the :30 “Places in the Heart/Music Month.”
Spot broke in June.
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A+R Group Donates With Post Cereal
CLIENT
Kraft Foods/Post Cereals.
PRODUCTION CO.
The A+R Group, bicoastal. Michael Cuesta, director/DP; Roberto Cecchini, executive producer; Mike Downey, producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
Ogilvy & Mather, New York. Kevin Kelly, creative director/copywriter; Patti McConnell, producer; Garett Jowett, art director; Brendan O’Malley, executive producer.
EDITORIAL
Chinagraph, New York. Eric Carlson, editor; Garret Savage, assistant editor; Anne Gordon, producer.
POST
Nice Shoes, New York. Scott Burch, colorist; Russ Bigsby, online editor.
AUDIO POST
Photomag, New York. Rex Recker, mixer.
MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN
Snyder Music, New York. Craig Snyder, composer/sound designer.
THE SPOT
The :30 “Project Oliver” features employees at a Post cereal plant who relate the altruistic virtues of Post and express the satisfaction they get from their work.
Spot broke June 1
