Psyop partnered with The Butler Bros to develop a public service campaign for Legacy and Leave No Trace, which aims to raise awareness, spark discussions, and encourage the general public to think about tobacco trash in a new way.
In this spot, the camera pans from left to right, zeroing in on what seems to be toxic waste gushing from a run down factory. Nearing the end of the building, the camera elevates and reveals not an industrial plant but a discarded cigarette butt, swimming in the gutter along with many others. The camera looks down from a bird’s eye view as the collection of butts leak chemicals into the water supply.
“Despite the fact that so many Americans are hyper-concerned about the environment and are eager to recycle household items and pick up litter, there remains a total disconnect when it comes to flicking cigarette butts onto our streets and into our waterways,” explained Dr. Cheryl Healton, DrPH, President and CEO of Legacy. The campaign urges viewers to “Rethink Butts” and take a new perspective on this environmental issue.
“We set out to reposition cigarette butts from merely an unsightly form of litter to what they actually are — toxic waste,” said Butler Brothers’ director of creativity, Marty Butler.
Psyop drew inspiration from a variety of ecological disasters, including the recent toxic sludge tsunami in Hungary, as well as abandoned oil rigs and factories.
“From the initial pitch style frames, we increased the scale of the factory by five times,” commented Psyop creative director David Chontos. “This increased the level of detail across the entire design, which led to a tremendous amount of additional texture painting and modeling.”
Modeling and animation for the PSA was completed in Maya, while all the liquid effects were simulated using RealFlow. The spot was rendered using Arnold in Maya, and compositing was carried out in Nuke and Flame.
“Beatles ’64” Documentary Captures Intimate Moments From Landmark U.S. Visit
Likely most people have seen iconic footage of the Beatles performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." But how many have seen Paul McCartney during that same U.S. trip feeding seagulls off his hotel balcony?
That moment — as well as George Harrison and John Lennon goofing around by exchanging their jackets — are part of the Disney+ documentary "Beatles '64," an intimate look at the English band's first trip to America that uses rare and newly restored footage. It streams Friday.
"It's so fun to be the fly on the wall in those really intimate moments," says Margaret Bodde, who produced alongside Martin Scorsese. "It's just this incredible gift of time and technology to be able to see it now with the decades of time stripped away so that you really feel like you're there."
"Beatles '64" leans into footage of the 14-day trip filmed by documentarians Albert and David Maysles, who left behind 11 hours of the Fab Four goofing around in New York's Plaza hotel or traveling. It was restored by Park Road Post in New Zealand.
"It's beautiful, although it's black and white and it's not widescreen," says director David Tedeschi. "It's like it was shot yesterday and it captures the youth of the four Beatles and the fans."
The footage is augmented by interviews with the two surviving members of the band and people whose lives were impacted, including some of the women who as teens stood outside their hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of the Beatles.
"It was like a crazy love," fan Vickie Brenna-Costa recalls in the documentary. "I can't really understand it now. But then, it was natural."
The film shows the four heartthrobs flirting and dancing at the Peppermint Lounge disco, Harrison noodling with a Woody Guthrie riff on his guitar... Read More