Back in June, as part of SHOOT‘s coverage of the 2009 Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase, Richard Myers, creative director, global culture, for Saatchi, and Tom Eslinger, the agency’s worldwide creative director of interactive, noted that the online dynamic had taken on a more prominent role in uncovering Showcase talent.
“We’ve been trolling worthwhile video sites for a couple of years but it’s worth saying that our embracing of online has grown this year,” related Myers.
Eslinger said that Saatchi sought out relevant social networking places and quality video sites–including, for example, the Aniboom site for animation–to tap into work and directors for Showcase consideration. “We still go through production companies and other conventional channels but the online component is also proving of value,” related Eslinger.
Now Aniboom (www.aniboom.com), a virtual animation studio with a network of nearly 8,000 animators from 72 countries, has progressed further, graduating beyond serving as a conduit of directorial discovery for Saatchi’s Showcase to being a clearinghouse that could help to line up talent for specific ad industry projects.
Spurring on that maturation is this week’s announcement that Interpublic digital agency MRM Worldwide has entered into a strategic partnership with Aniboom. Per the deal, MRM clients can access the Aniboom platform for talent and resources that can be applied to branding initiatives. Among the animation solutions that MRM can tap into via Aniboom are:
o Crowdsourcing creative concepts: Aniboom can execute advertisers’ concepts and creative ideas using a proprietary technology that organizes their animators into production teams. This process makes animation faster, cheaper and of comparable quality to traditional studios.
o Creative competitions to source new ideas and executions: MRM’s clients can launch a content creation competition in the Aniboom community for advertising solutions and have the community at large or a panel of judges select the top finalists and ultimate winner of the assignment. Or the competition could be private, with only the final results exhibited to the public.
o And updating current materials: Marketers and advertisers could take their existing iconic symbols, logos or mascots and have Aniboom bring them to life through exciting new executions.
Aniboom’s alliance with MRM Worldwide comes on the heels of several partnerships Aniboom is executing on behalf of entertainment brands. Fox Broadcasting Company and 20th Century Fox Television recently turned to Aniboom to help develop concepts for their next animated holiday special. Also, the Aniboom/HISTORY competition is underway, where Aniboom’s animators are developing short form animations for The People Speak film airing on HISTORY later this year.
Aniboom is also launching a partnership with Marvel Entertainment, through which animators registered with the Aniboom community will have the opportunity to create unique motion comics based on Marvel’s super heroes. Previously, Aniboom had a successful partnership with Radiohead who looked to the virtual animation studio to create music videos for their recent album, “In Rainbows.”
Uri Shinar, founder/CEO of Aniboom, which is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices in New York and San Francisco, expressed confidence that Aniboom’s worldwide community of artists “will supply creative answers to MRM’s clients in this digital era.
MRM’s agency network has 62 offices in 40 countries and counts Microsoft, Intel, MasterCard, Verizon, and General Motors among its clients.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More