Talking horses in a stable express their decided preference for Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Bars over the same old mundane bag of oats. Besides verbalizing, the horses can also stand upright like humans but revert to normal equine behavior whenever a person enters the barn.
The “normal behavior” includes the horses pretending that they love the oats in their feed bags. But as soon as man leaves the stable, we see a horse spit out the oats and ask for a sparkling water to wash the bad taste from his mouth.
Filip Engstrom directed “Horse’s Mouth” in a coproduction between bicoastal Smuggler and London’s Stink for Leo Burnett, London. RIOT Santa Monica’s animation team handled visual effects and CG, with U.K.’s Creature Effects building and operating animatronic horses, which were used on the set to create the animals’ positioning and general movement. The movement of the horses’ lips, eyes an dears were produced via CG.
RIOT scanned the animatronic horses and used the data to model and texture 3D versions whose features could be more subtly and precisely controlled. CG artists also created the lower half of a horse for a scene in which the animal is standing on its hind legs while calling a warning to his mates.
“The animatronic horse was built from the chest up and placed over the head of a human operator,” explained RIOT visual effects producer Robert Owen. “The operator had to stand on a platform to create the proper space between the horse’s chest and the ground. In post, we removed the platform and the operator’s legs and composited in a CG element.”
The Leo Burnett, London, team included creative director Billy Mawhinney, art director Monty Verdi, and producer Graeme Light.
The DP was Crille Forsberg. Editor was Nick Lofting of Union Editorial, Santa Monica.
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