A youngster is hosing down the driveway in front of his house. He says to a friend who’s passing by, “Hey Tyler, where have you been all day?”
Tyler, another lad, is driving about in a motorized cart. “My cardiologist,” he responds.
“Again,” says the kid holding the garden hose.
“Yeah, it’s my pacemaker,” says Tyler. “It’s been reacting with my game console…The other day I was rescuing my thirteenth damsel from the dragon’s lair. My fricking heart stopped.”
A supered message against a stark backdrop reads, “Inactive kids may get old before their time.”
We return to the slice of life with Tyler now asking his buddy, “So you going to the Halloween dance on Friday?”
“I can’t. I’m prepping for a colonoscopy.”
An end tag reads, “It’s time for action,” accompanied by the ParticipACTION logo and a website address, Participaction.com.
ParticipACTION is a private, not-for-profit charitable organization which receives support from the Canadian government via Sport Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada. Its goal is to combat the inactivity crisis by getting people to be proactive and engage in life, leaving the couch, the gaming console and the like.
“Driveway” is one of three spots in a campaign directed by John Mastromonaco of Untitled Films, Toronto, for JWT Enterprises, Toronto.
Martin Shewchuk and Don Saynor were creative directors for JWT, heading a team that also included art director Jeff Wilbee and producer Clair Galea.
Peter Davis exec produced for Untitled. John Houtman was the DP.
Editor was Richard Unruh of Rooster, Toronto.
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