This spec spot takes us into the Foley room where the sound effects are being created for a kung fu movie. As we see the martial arts combatants square off, an ingenious Foley artist is spicing up their battle with appropriate, well-timed audio effects. He bangs together two bowling pins to score a rapid-fire succession of blows in a kung fu sequence. Subsequent hits are accentuated by the popping of balloons.
Wooden boards are the next audio source. The Foley artist cracks one board over his knee, then puts his fist through another, all timed perfectly to the fight action visuals.
Then he needs a big furious impact to accompany a hellacious flying drop kick being delivered by one combatant to the other–possibly the decisive blow of the battle. First the Foley artist tries banging a huge gong. Looking for even greater impact, he puts a sledgehammer to a watermelon.
Finally, he comes up with the perfect effect, popping open a can of Mountain Dew. Yet while that proves to be apt audio accompaniment for the kung fu duel to the death unfolding on film, everything is aurally downhill from there. As the combatants continue their battle, we now hear a swallowing sound as the Foley artist is guzzling the Mountain Dew. Then we see one of the martial artists ready to attack only to hear a loud belch emanate from him–indeed the Foley artist may have chugalugged his Dew a bit too fast.
An end tag carries the Mountain Dew logo.
This comedic commercial, titled “Foley,” was directed by the team of Zack Resnicoff and J.C. Khoury–a.k.a. Zack & J.C.–via the Group 101Spots initiative, a nearly three-and-a-half-year-old program whereby aspiring directors turn out spec spots to gain experience, exposure and professional industry feedback. Since its inception on the West Coast, Group101 has helped a variety of up-and-coming directors get discovered by the commercialmaking community at large. Last September, Group101 went bicoastal and formally launched in New York. Zack & J.C. are among the first crop of directors to come out of the Big Apple leg of the Group101 program.
Zack & J.C. also wrote, produced, edited and handled sound design for “Foley.” The DP was Martin Ahlgren.
Colorist was Alex Berman at Post Logic, New York. Visual effects were done at R!OT Manhattan, with Randie Swanberg serving as visual effects artist. Audio post mixer was Mike Levesque via earth2mars, New York. Principal actor was Rob Huebe.
Based largely on “Foley” and another spec piece they directed via Group101, Zack & J.C. landed a real-world job, helming a client-direct Hispanic market spot for vitamin company GenSpec. To facilitate this and other planned work for GenSpec, Zack & J.C. just launched their own New York-based production house, Shoot First Entertainment. While they look to build that venture, the directorial team is also entertaining overtures from established commercial production companies for representation.
Zack & J.C.–who met and began working together in the graduate film program at NYU–have also made their mark in the Web space as their short, Eat Less Bacon, recently debuted as part of the Aquafina series of shorts out of Tribal DDB Dallas, appearing on ResolutionsOnFilm.com.
Mindy Kaling and Kate Hudson Take On Pro Basketball In Netflix Series “Running Point”
In Mindy Kaling's new Netflix series, "Running Point, " Kate Hudson stars as Isla Gordon, the new president of the Los Angeles Waves, a pro basketball team that's been run by her family for years. Hudson's character has to prove herself as a woman in a man's world not only to her passed-over brothers, but also to players whose egos need checking and other executives who don't take her seriously.
If Isla's story rings a bell, take a look at the list of executive producers on the 10-episode season dropping Thursday: Among them is Jeanie Buss, the president of the Los Angeles Lakers, who was embroiled in similar turmoil over control of the storied NBA franchise after the death of her father, Jerry Buss.
Buss not only has given the show her blessing, it was her idea said Kaling. Buss was a big fan of "The Office" and approached Kaling with the premise about five years ago. Kaling ended up as the co-creator, writer and executive producer alongside Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen.
"She's in a very serious, stressful job but she loves comedy. She does not take herself seriously," Kaling says of Buss. "That's really rare when someone has that much power and that much to lose."
Jeanie Buss' blessing
In fact, Kaling said, Buss wanted the show to be funny and had "no ego" about using her real life as inspiration.
"She's had some extremely interesting things happen to her as the president of the Lakers. Some of it is she literally dated the coach for many years and she's like, 'Do whatever you want,'" Kaling says, referring to Buss' former relationship with Phil Jackson. "To get that kind of carte blanche, I'd never heard that from someone who is so famous and, you know, pretty private."
Shortly after the news... Read More