We open on the exterior of a sports arena which is hosting championship arm wrestling–except once the camera takes us inside, we’re thrown into a whacked out stop motion animation world in which a giant forearm with a clenched fist is seen parading around a wrestling ring as if unbeatable.
Then two much smaller forearms–each wearing a mask like a professional wrestler–enter the ring and proceed to beat the living daylights out of the gargantuan forearm, including hitting it over the fist with small metal chairs. As the two little forearms thrust the championship belt over their fists in triumph, the large forearm in the foreground utters, “Must drink more milk,” the BC Dairy Foundation slogan.
The :30 recently debuted in Canadian theaters and was slated at press time to air on TV in British Columbia.
“Arm Wrestling” was directed by Abe Spear of Curious Pictures, New York, for DDB Canada, Vancouver.
The agency team consisted of chief creative officer Alan Russell, creative directors Dean Lee and Cosmo Campbell, copywriter Kevin Rathgeber, art director Dan Strasser and producer Sue Bell.
Mary Knox exec produced for Curious with John Cline serving as head of production and Viet Luu as line producer. Curious’ Sam Goetz edited the spot.
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