By Sarah Woodward
Large numbers of people—say, a group of 1,200, for instance—can be difficult to visualize. Would such a group fill a football field? An Olympic-sized pool? The length of sidewalk on a city block? The answer can be found in a new PSA for the American Legacy Foundation (ALF), which gathers 1,200 people in front of a tobacco company. The point is to personify the statistics—specifically, the fact that 1,200 tobacco-related deaths occur each day. The spot "1200" (a.k.a. "DD Day" or "Drop Dead Day") was created by Arnold Worldwide, Boston, and Crispin Porter+Bogusky (CP+B), Miami, and directed by Baker Smith of Santa Monica-based harvest.
SHOOT Online subscribers may read this week’s Top Spot of the Week in full by accessing the Current Issue in the Members Area.
The SAG/AFTRA Commercials Contract Standing Committee has granted a waiver to allow commercials to be available for viewing on SHOOTonline.com. The spots cannot be copied, downloaded or e-mailed.
CLIENT
The American Legacy Foundation.
PRODUCTION CO.
harvest, Santa Monica.
Baker Smith, director; Adam Kimmel, DP; Bonnie Goldfarb, executive producer; Debbie Tietjen, producer. Shot on location in Louisville, Ky.
AGENCY
Arnold Worldwide, Boston.
Ron Lawner, chief creative officer; Pete Favat, group creative director; Roger Baldacci, creative director; Robert Hamilton, art director; Annie Finnegan, copywriter; Amy Favat, producer.
Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami.
Alex Bogusky, group creative director; Tom Adams, creative director.
EDITORIAL
Mad River Post, New York.
Tom Scherma, editor; Lawrence Young, assistant editor; Amy Lazarus, producer.
POST/VISUAL EFFECTS
Company 3, New York.
Tim Masick, colorist; Luana Ayres, producer.
Brickyard VFX, Boston.
Dave Waller and Geoff McAuliffe, Flame artists; Robin Hobart, rotoscope artist; Brian Drewes, general manager/producer.
AUDIO POST
Soundtrack, Boston.
Mike Secher, engineer.
MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN
Human, New York.
Andy Bloch, Lindsay Jehan, Krishna Venkatesh, Morgan Visconti, Gareth Williams and Rich Aronson, composers/sound designers; Marc Altshuler, executive producer; Pia Alexander, head of production.
Steve McQueen Shows Wartime London Through A Child’s Eyes In “Blitz”
It was a single photograph that started Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen on the journey to make "Blitz." As a Londoner, the German bombing raids on the city during World War II are never all that far from his mind. Reminders of it are everywhere. But the spark of inspiration came from an image of a small boy on a train platform with a large suitcase. Stories inspired by the evacuation are not rare, but this child was Black. Who was he, McQueen wondered, and what was his story? The film, in theaters Friday and streaming on Apple TV+ on Nov. 22, tells the tale of George, a 9-year-old biracial child in East London whose life with his mother, Rita ( Saoirse Ronan ), and grandfather is upended by the war. Like many children at the time, he's put on a train to the countryside for his safety. But he hops off and starts a long, dangerous journey back to his mom, encountering all sorts of people and situations that paint a revelatory and emotional picture of that moment. SEARCHING FOR GEORGE AND FINDING A STAR When McQueen finished the screenplay, he thought to himself: "Not bad." Then he started to worry: Does George exist? Is there a person out there who can play this role? Through an open casting call they found Elliott Heffernan, a 9-year-old living just outside of London whose only experience was a school play. He was the genie in "Aladdin." "There was a stillness about him, a real silent movie star quality," McQueen said. "You wanted to know what he was thinking, and you leant in. That's a movie star quality: A presence in his absence." Elliott is now 11. When he was cast, he'd not yet heard about the evacuation and imagined that a film set would be made up of "about 100 people." But he soon found his footing, cycling in and out of... Read More