The first film campaign for fashion brand Louis Vuitton punctuates what’s been a coming out party of sorts over the past six months for music house Apollo US which opened earlier this year under the aegis of executive producer/partner Koo Abuali. Based in Marina del Rey, the shop extends the geographic reach of the long-standing Canadian music and sound company Apollo Studios, which maintains offices in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, and has turned out work for assorted clients over the years, including McDonald’s Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola and Perrier.
Now adding to that mix of branded fare is Apollo US which teamed with talent from its sister offices in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, B.C., on the Louis Vuitton initiative which pays tribute to Muhammad Ali with Yasiin Bey, a.k.a. Mos Def, reciting two poetic speeches made famous by the iconic athlete. Bey’s performance, Ali’s words, and calligraphy by Niels Shoe Meulman that bring an extra dimension to those words highlight two recently debuted films and a teaser (with two more films slated to roll out in the fall) directed by Stuart McIntyre of Steam Films for Ogilvy Paris. Apollo handled music and sound with Abuali sharing music supervisor and executive producer credit with Apollo colleagues Benedicte Luneau in Vancouver and company co-founder Philippe-Aubert Messier in Montreal. Yan DalSanto of Apollo’s Toronto office was the sound designer as well as an exec producer. Composers were Mathieu Brault, Mike Wise and Daenen Bramberger from Apollo Studios, Montreal.
This broad-based Apollo collaboration had for instance Luneau and Abuali working for months to secure Bey for the project–Luneau on the French-speaking side as the direct liaison to Ogilvy and Abuali in the U.S. with Bey’s management. Messier also liaisoned with Ogilvy and brainstormed with Luneau and Abuali about possible artists to contact, with Bey being the ultimate choice.
Another key component of the Louis Vuitton campaign is a website with photos of Ali and recordings of his most notable speeches/soliloquies. This ambitious Ali homage comes on the heels of other notable work from Apollo US, including a three-spot web campaign for Verizon out of Moxie Interactive, Atlanta, and “AXE Anarchy: The Graphic Novel” for Razorfish, N.Y., which won a One Show Entertainment Gold Pencil for Innovation In Branded Content.
For the latter, Abuali brought in a couple of independent U.S.-based composers, Randy Emata and Troy MacCubbin, with whom she has a working relationship. For the Verizon assignment, Apollo US collaborated with composers Sule Heitner, Etienne Gaudreau and Mathieu Dubus of Apollo Studios in Montreal.
Feature experience
Abuali also brings a feature film pedigree to Apollo US. A 15-year music and film industry vet, she was music supervisor on Fireflies in the Garden, starring Ryan Reynolds and Julia Roberts, music supervisor on Jesus Henry Christ starring Toni Collette and produced by Roberts, and music consultant on the Tarsem Singh-directed Mirror, Mirror, released this year and also starring Roberts. (Tarsem directs commercials and branded fare via @radical.media.)
It was during Mirror, Mirror, which had her up in Montreal, that Abuali was brought together via a mutual agency producer friend with Paul Maco, co-founder of Apollo Music. They developed a rapport, she got to know the company over a stretch of time and developed an affinity for the people and their high caliber work, thus laying the foundation for her decision to eventually come aboard to spearhead the U.S. effort.
Maco and Messier founded Apollo in 1995 and are Abuali’s partners in Apollo US.
Here are the two recently released Louis Vuitton films:
Directing Duo Mindcastle Joins Farm League For Commercials and Branded Content
Film company and certified B Corporation Farm League has added directing duo Mindcastle--consisting of Casey Warren and Danielle Krieger--to its roster for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Mindcastle has spent a decade building a body of work that takes viewers from energetic anthemic sports campaigns to emotional narrative stories to big worlds layered with CGI and VFX. The common link through each genre is their crafted, highly cinematic visual language and grounded performances from believable heroes.
After developing their cinematic eye through photography, they first began directing when ESPN approached them to create a piece from the NFL draft. This snowballed into travel across the globe for numerous films, commercials and TV shows, and collaborations with talent including Derek Jeter, Floyd Mayweather, and Guillermo del Toro. Mindcastle’s work for Adidas, Questrade and Patron shows the spectrum of their worlds and themes.
In a joint statement, Mindcastle shared, “Farm League’s work has an energy and dynamism to it where it’s not only defined by a strong visual style, but it also captivates your heart. We love the passion and mindset that the Farm League team brings to each project, including their drive to infuse a creative-first ethos into each project. We are incredibly excited to dig in together to continue expanding our roots of memorable and dynamic narratives.”
Tim Lynch (TL), Farm League Founder and EP, commented, “Mindcastle’s passion for telling big, crafted stories struck me immediately. They create worlds that are visually intriguing and grounded in humanistic performances, exactly the balance we seek at Farm League. We can’t wait to see where their vision can go... Read More