Bicoastal Headquarters topped the field of production houses with five honors at the ninth annual Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Also during the AICP gala, held at MoMA on June 7, Venice, Calif.-based visual effects house Sight Effects scored impressively, having contributed to spots that collectively earned six honors. The dominant ad agency was Fallon, Minneapolis (formerly Fallon McElligott), which had a hand in 10 honorees. (Fallon, New York, scored an additional honor, bringing the overall Fallon tally to 11.)
Figuring prominently in the mix of Headquarters and Sight Effects tallies was Sega of America’s "Apocalypse," a :90 out of FCB, San Francisco. Directed by Headquarters’ John Moore-with visual effects supervised by Sight Effects’ Alan Barnett and Adrian Hurley-"Apocalypse" scored in the production, visual effects and production design categories. The production designer was Derek Wallace.
Honored in the cinematography category was Visa’s "Synchronized Commercialism, " a :60 directed and shot by David Cornell of Headquarters for BBDO New York. And the Headquarters-produced "Just a Few Days," a :30 for Amazon.com directed by Adam Cameron and Simon Cole-a.k.a. Joe Public-for FCB, San Francisco, was an original music honoree. Music was done by the Wojahn Brothers of Wojahn Brothers Music, Santa Monica.
Sight Effects received two of the three honors in the visual effects category, for Sega’s "Apocalypse" and Motorola’s "Blackbird." The latter was directed by Peter Smillie of Smillie Films, Venice, via McCann-Erickson, New York. Sight Effects’ Barnett supervised visual effects.
Additionally, Sight Effects worked on Chevrolet’s "Bathtub," a tabletop honoree directed by Eric Saarinen of Plum Productions, Santa Monica, for Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich. Sight Effects also produced the visual effects for Electronic Data Systems’ :60 entitled "Cat Herders" out of Fallon, Minneapolis. Directed by John O’Hagan of bicoastal/international hungry man, the EDS spot was honored in the copywriting category, the writer being Fallon’s Greg Hahn.
The copywriting category attested to Fallon’s dominance. Fallon, Minneapolis, earned two of the three copywriting honors; the other going to Fallon’s New York office. Bobby Pearce from Fallon, Minneapolis, gained recognition as the writer on FX Network’s "Reporter," a :30 directed by Frank Todaro of bicoastal/international @radical.media. And copywriter Linus Karlsson was honored in the category for MTV’s "Launch" directed by Traktor of bicoastal/ international Partizan for Fallon, New York.
Collectively, sister bicoastal/ international shops Propaganda Films and Satellite also had five honorees; Satellite with three, Propaganda copping two. Nike’s "Morning After" directed by Satellite’s Spike Jonze for W+K, Portland, was recognized in the production and advertising excellence/single commercial categories; and the Andrew Douglas-helmed "Hand" for Jeep out of Bozell Worldwide, Detroit, was honored in the visual style category. (Douglas has since left Satellite and joined bicoastal Anonymous.) Propaganda was honored in the advertising excellence/campaign category for the Dante Ariola-directed "Aromatherapy," "Climb" and "Propulsion" via Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York. "Propulsion" was also a best humor honoree.
Production houses scoring four honorees each were: Partizan; Bruce Dowad Associates, Los Angeles; and bicoastal Bob Industries. Additionally, two bicoastal Crossroads satellites, X-Ray Productions and X-1 Films, combined for a total of four honorees, as did bicoastal HSI Productions and a pair of its affiliated companies.
Besides MTV’s "Launch," Partizan also produced Nike’s "Asteroid" for Wieden + Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore., which was honored in the art direction and production design categories; and The Gap’s "Mountains," which too was an art direction honoree. Tim Hanrahan of W+K, Portland, was art director on "Asteroid," with production design by Dominic Watkins. The spot was helmed by Traktor. Art director for The Gap’s in-house San Francisco agency was Carl Byrd. Partizan’s Michel Gondry directed "Mountains."
HSI and London-based Gerard de Thame Films teamed on a best production honoree, Lincoln Mercury’s "Surprising Journey," a :60 directed by Gerard de Thame for Young & Rubicam, San Francisco. The spot also was honored in the visual effects category, with effects done by The Mill, London. HSI’s Paul Giraud directed and shot Royal Caribbean International’s "World Can’t Come To You" for Arnold Communications, Boston; the commercial was honored in the best cinematography category. And rounding out the HSI slate of AICP Show honorees was Nike XT’s "Snow Ball, Ping Pong," a :60 directed by Johan Renck of HSI Productions/PAR, from W+K, Portland. The commercial earned recognition in the sound design category. Composers/sound designers were Erik Thorsel and Martin Dahl of Mekaniken, Stockholm.
Bob Industries scored on the strength of Volkswagen’s "Milky Way," a :60 directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris for Arnold Communications, Boston. "Milky Way" was an honoree in the art direction and advertising excellence/ single spot categories. Alan Pafenbach of Arnold served as chief creative officer/ creative director/art director. "Milky Way" was also one of three spots to collectively be honored for advertising excellence in a campaign. The other two VW entries in that campaign were: "The Great Escape" directed by Nick Lewin of X-1 Films; and "Chase" helmed by Kinka Usher of House of Usher Films, Santa Monica.
Rounding out the Bob-produced AICP Show honorees was Outpost.com’s "Death Ray," helmed by Dayton and Faris, for Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York. The spot earned distinction in the production design category; the production designer was KK Barrett.
Bruce Dowad Associates’ four honorees were: Audi’s "Wake-up" for McKinney & Silver, Richmond, Va., in the visual style and cinematography categories, with Tobias Schliessler as the spot’s DP; Audi’s "Lives," also out of McKinney & Silver, for best original music, with Alex Lasarenko and Jimmy Haun of bicoastal Elias Associates serving as creative director and composer, respectively; and Mercedes-Benz’s "They Invented" for Merkley Newman Harty, New York, in the visual style category. Bruce Dowad directed "They Invented," while Robert Logevall helmed "Wake-up" and "Lives."
Two Fallon, Minneapolis, spots for Holiday Inn, "Mark’s Breakfast" and "Mark’s Business" directed by Jesse Peretz of X-Ray, were each honored in the dialogue or monologue category. The X-1 produced VW spot "Turbonium" directed by Nick Lewin for Arnold Communications, Boston, was honored in the graphics category; Bill Denahy of Manhattan Transfer, New York, served as graphics artist. As previously mentioned, the other X-1 honoree was the Lewin-helmed "The Great Escape," also for VW.
A host of production companies scored two AICP Show honorees apiece, including: House of Usher Films; hungry man; bicoastal/international @radical.media; bicoastal Bedford Falls; Hollywood-based JGF; RSA Films, London; Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart Commercials; bicoastal Coppos Films; bicoastal Epoch Films; and Hollywood-based Imaginary Forces. @radical. media was honored in the advertising excellence/campaign category for FX Network’s "Anthem," "Lawyer" and "Reporter" directed by Todaro for Fallon, Minneapolis.
In terms of the directorial tally, Dayton and Faris of Bob Industries led the pack with four honorees, followed by Robert Logevall of Bruce Dowad Associates, Traktor from Partizan and Moore of Headquarters, with three apiece. Scoring two honors each were: Propaganda’s Ariola; Kevin Donovan of Bedford Falls; Jeff Gorman of JGF; Satellite’s Jonze; Dewey Nicks of Epoch; Todaro of @radical. media; de Thame of HSI and Gerard de Thame Films; Laurence Dunmore of RSA Films, London; Wayne Isham of A Band Apart; Lewin of X-1; Peretz of X-Ray; and Usher from House of Usher.
Honored in the editorial category were the aforementioned "Chase" for Volkswagen cut by Andre Betz of Bug Editorial, New York; BMW’s "Spring Skiing" edited by Dave Henegar of Uppercut Editorial, Min-neapolis, and directed by RSA’s Dunmore for Fallon, Minneapolis; and Budweiser’s "Neighbors" cut by Michael Corrigan of Red Car, bicoastal, Chicago and Dallas, and directed by A Band Apart’s Isham for DDB Chicago.
"Neighbors" also scored in the original music category. The composer was Chris McHale of McHale Barone, New York. And "Spring Skiing" gained recognition in the sound design category. Carl White of Echo Boys, Minneapolis, served as the sound designer.
Animation studio honorees were three London houses: Bolexbrothers Ltd., Loose Moose and Aardman Animations.
The agency tally was headed by Fallon, Minneapolis’ 10 honorees, followed by: Arnold Communications, Boston, with six; FCB, San Francisco, and W+K, Portland, with five apiece; and Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, McKinney & Silver, Richmond, Va, and DDB Chicago, each with three honorees. Among DDB Chicago’s honored work was the already much heralded "Whassup/True" directed by Charles Stone III of C&C Films/Storm Films, New York.
A list of all the honored spots and credits follows:
