Director Bram Van Riet of Caviar (Venice, Calif., Brussels, Amsterdam) shows us the schoolyard isn’t the only place bullying goes down in a new :60 PSA, “Safer Internet,” for the European Union and Schoolnet out of LDV United, Antwerp, Belgium. The PSA demonstrates how seemingly harmless cyber jabs can be anything but.
The spot opens on a young girl surfing the net in her bedroom. She types “Hello Everybody” on a social networking site, clicks “Post,” and the games begin. An electronic beat ushers in rapid-growing pimples, the apparent physical manifestation of another user’s mean-spirited posting. The girl’s computer chimes and we see that another user has presumably called her a pig, because her nose morphs into an oinking snout.
We cut to another bedroom where a young man posts on his computer, “You fat cow!” Back in her bedroom, the girl’s belly and cheeks balloon, splintering the backside of her chair, then her face distorts as if rubberized; the result of three other girls’ insensitive use of photo-finishing software. Finally, with her face stretching like Play-Doh and the room quaking, the girl stops the madness by clicking “Report Abuse” on her computer. Over the teary-eyed and thoroughly frightened girl, a super appears, “Block bullying online.” The PSA closes on a black screen over which the tag, “Keep it fun, keep control,” and the site www.keepcontrol.eu appears.
The LDV United team included creative director Kristoff Snels, copywriter Melanie Daems, art director Kris Lenaers and producer Petra De Roos.
Kato Maes exec produced for Caviar, Brussels, with Tatiana Pierre serving as producer. The DP was Nicolas Karakatsanis.
Editor was Simone Rau of Caviar, Brussels.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More