Animal Logic, the Sydney-based visual effects/animation house, has expanded its commercials and short form studio in Southern California, staffing up and relocating to larger quarters in Santa Monica.
Recent additions to the Santa Monica shop are art directors Ben Walsh and Fletcher Moules, and associate creative director Kevin Fitzgerald. Walsh moved over from Animal Logic’s Sydney studio in June and has directed Toyota Prius’ “Ripple,” an ecologically themed global spot for Dentsu New York in which a digital water droplet hugs the contours of the car before ending up in a stylized CG lake below.
Art director Moules rejoins Animal Logic after two years with Nexus Productions, London. And Fitzgerald came aboard the Santa Monica studio following a five-year tenure as associate creative director at Cartoon Network. Walsh, Moules and Fitzgerald join a core Animal Logic stateside team of VFX supervisors and producers headed by exec producer Maury Strong.
This team of artisans in the Santa Monica boutique-style operation can via a company pipeline tap into the talent and resources of Animal Logic’s headquarters in Sydney, which has some 450-plus artists
Besides the Toyota Prius assignment, Animal Logic’s Santa Monica studio has also recently turned out visual effects for a pair of high profile projects, both directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles: Kaiser Permanente’s “”Emerald Cities” and “Connected” TV spots for Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich.; and HBO’s “Imagine,” a multi-faceted marketing campaign–online, outdoor, TV and digital–out of BBDO New York.
The latter included an outdoor video installation located in New York’s Meatpacking District. A couple of two-minute short films, Open Doors and Heist, are projected onto a large scale video cube. As the scenes unfold, each side of the cube reveals a different camera angle providing the viewer with four unique vantage points.
Animal Logic VFX supervisor Nick Ponzoni, said, “For Heist, the key challenge was to match the action and timing for each of the four panels since each side of the cube was shot separately. To finesse the final images, some of the characters and actions were digitally removed, replaced and re-timed to create the final seamless effect. In Open Doors, the action was shot for each side of the cube simultaneously so set extensions were placed into the scene to hide cameras and act as a point of reference for the viewer to track the unfolding storyline.”
The Animal Logic team also provided post and visual effects for three TV :30s in HBO’s “Imagine” campaign: “Trapped,” “The Big One” and “Happy Kid.” BBDO New York launched the HBO campaign on Sept. 17.
Animal Logic’s commercial/short form division is now being repped on the East Coast and in the Midwest by Andy Arkin and his indie firm BLAH! blah? (Blah…). Exec producer Strong handles the West Coast and Texas.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles.
Nakamura Whitehouse, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years.
Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation.
EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.”
Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.”
34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More