Dir. Fogwill, FX House KromA Bend Over Backwards For "Amazing Contortionist"
By Robert Goldrich
A family of circus performers carries over their amazing contortionist act to everyday life in this Spanish language commercial, “Amazing Contortionist,” in the California Milk Processor Board’s “got milk?” campaign.
Mom ties her daughter’s shoes by literally bending over backyards 180 degrees. Dad reads the newspaper by holding it with his feet, while his little girl is perched upside down on a library desk workstation, typing on the computer keyboard with one foot and one hand. The son makes a soccer goal with an incredible exhibition of leg flexibility. And the daughter turns herself in a human hula hoop, revolving around the waist of another girl.
The family’s incredible anatomical flexibility is also exhibited in a crowded elevator, and at the dining room table. At the latter, each family member is seated in what seem like physically impossible positions. And in the elevator, all matter of appendages are visible at eye level.
The parents and kids attribute their talents to milk, which enhances muscle flexibility and coordination. The other two spots in the campaign also showcase extraordinary physical feats. In “Amazon Hair Goddess,” we see a village of woman who use their long hair to amazing ends, including lassoing a wild horse. And in “Teeth,” milk has strengthened people’s choppers to the point where they can chomp down on and carry heavy objects all over the city.
The spots were directed by Andy Fogwill via Landia, Buenos Aires, and Colibri Films, Hermosa, Beach, Calif., for agency Grupo Gallegos, Long Beach, Calif. John Ehrenfeld executive produced for Colibri. Juan Carlos Ferro was the DP.
Grupo Gallegos’ contingent consisted of creative directors Favio Ucedo and Juan Oubina, copywriter Francisco Puppio, art directors Andrews Munera and Guillermo Lucero, and producer Carlos Barciela.
Editor was Jaime Valdueza of Module Zero Media, Venice, Calif. Colorist was Siggy Ferstl of Riot, Santa Monica. Audio post mixers were Jorge Morales and Sebastian Consigli of Swing Musica, Buenos Aires.
Visual effects house was Kroma, with contributors there including creative director/compositor Bert Yukich, on-set visaual effects supervisor Bob Yukich, and executive producer Amy Yukich.
While the actors cast in “Amazing Contortionist” had contortionist skills, their abilities did not extend to the over-the-top exploits shown in the commercial. This is where Kroma’s prowess came into play.
“For the shot of the girl using a computer with her hands and feet, we first shot her seated in a chair with her legs covered in blue and then shot her again with her legs draped over the chair back with her body in a blue suit,” explained Bob Yukich. “In postproduction, we married the two halves of the girl together.”
Turning the girl into a human hula hoop entailed going to even greater lengths of trickery. “That was also created from two elements: a girl mimicking the action of hula hoping, and a second girl holding her own angles to form a ring,” related Bert Yukich. “In order to make the girl look more like a hoop, we morphed her body, and then animated her to make her spin around the other girl.”
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More