We open in an office building where a casually dressed spokesperson informs us that Kawasaki is about to release its Brute Force ATV (all-terrain vehicle). “But before we do,” he says, “we’d like to run it past the guys here at corporate.”
At that moment, drivers literally do just that, motoring the ATVs through the office, causing havoc, with employees fleeing to get out of the vehicles’ way. One ATV climbs the stairs. Another hauls a copier machine, which is reduced to shambles as it hits other office furniture.
Finally, as the ATVs are finished going through their paces, we’re left with a shell of an office, debris lying about everywhere. Shell-shocked employees start what will be a long cleanup process.
Our spokesman then returns on camera to observe, “I think that’s a thumbs-up from corporate?”
Supered across the screen is the Kawasaki logo and slogan, “Let the good times roll,” as we hear a driver in the distance hoot and holler.
“Office” was directed by Nick Piper of Backyard, Venice, Calif., for O’Leary & Partners, Newport Beach, Calif. Blair Stribley and Eriks Krumins executive produced for Backyard with Peter Steinzig serving as head of production and Danielle Lovett as producer. The DP was Jeff Cutter. Providing production services for the Canada shoot was Circle, Vancouver, B.C., with a core team of executive producer Tom Murray, production manager Mike Gill and production coordinator Kristian Jorgensen.
The creative ensemble at O’Leary & Partners consisted of executive creative director Deidre McQuaide, creative director Rob Pettis, art directors Dave Huerta and Kevin Lukens, and senior production coordinator Julia Fornaca.
Editor was Rick Lobo of Cake Editorial, Santa Monica. Tatiana Derovanessian and JP Patterson of Cake were executive producer and producer, respectively. Jarred Buck was assistant editor.
Colorist was Thor Roos of Technicolor, Vancouver, B.C. Greg Kuehn of Peligro Music, Los Angeles, served as sound designer and audio post mixer.
Principal actors were Peter Benson, Jenn Bird, Gordon Tripple, David Milchard, Eric Hempsall and Beerly Breuer.
Supreme Court Seems Likely To Uphold A Law That Could Force TikTok To Shut Down On Jan. 19
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified his main concern: TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to "go dark" on Jan. 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
At the very least, Francisco urged, the justices should enter a temporary pause that would allow TikTok to keep operating. "We might be in a different world again" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, also has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a "political resolution." Francisco served as Trump's solicitor general in his first presidential term.
But it was not clear whether any justices would choose such a course. And only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch labeled arguments advanced by the Biden administration' in defense of the law a... Read More