A woman stands on an escalator as a nearby elevator opens with its “up” arrow lit. Presumably she pushed the elevator button, decided not to wait and potentially caused an elevator full of people to have to stop on that floor.
Next we are inside a high-rise office building, looking out a window to see a lady’s feet dangling on the other side of the glass. This is followed by the sight of a body being dragged across the ground.
In later scenes, it’s revealed to us that a young school boy is pulling the dead weight of a live adult whose body is the one we saw initially. And it turns out that the woman outside the window is inexplicably on the back of a window washer.
Subsequent vignettes show another woman dragging a man along a city sidewalk. He’s horizontally laid out, reading a newspaper. We also catch a glimpse of a man who has a bicyclist–along with a bicycle–on his back in an elevator. Juxtaposed with this are people waiting to board a train.
A sign at the train station reads, “Every time we delay the train, the train ends up delaying us.”
We then witness a person trying to put a train token in a coin slot–while having to carry a fellow passenger.
A parting sign reads, “Don’t hold others back. Help our trains stay on time.”
This message urging passengers to be considerate of others was sponsored by Connex, operators of the rail transportation system in Australia. Mark Molloy directed the spot, which was produced by Aussie producton house Exit Films, Melbourne, for agency Cummins & Partners in Melbourne suburb St. Kilda. (Molloy is repped stateside by Santa Monica-based Furlined.)
Wilf Sweetland produced for Exit. The DP was Greig Fraser. Patrick Reardon was the production designer.
The agency ensemble included executive creative director Sean Cummins, creatives John Skaro and Roger Nance, copywriter Jonathon McMahon, art director Lisa Fedyszyn and head of broadcast production Mark Bradley.
Editor was freelancer Rohan Zerna. Jon Holmes of visual effects house Tide, Sydney, served as Flame artist and online editor.
Music was composed by Karl Richter of Level Two Music, Melbourne.
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