Andrew Laurich of production house ContagiousLA, who earned inclusion into this year’s SHOOT New Directors Showcase, is at it again with a spec spot which was entered into the recently concluded MoFilm Cannes Contest. The piece opens on what appears to be a Sovereign Bank credit card bill with various entries such as some seven dollars and change for birdseed, a $47 expenditure at a gas station, $600-plus for airline fare and so on.
We then see those expenditures come to life, starting with a seemingly lonely guy seated on a park bench, pulling birdseed out of a large bag and throwing it on the ground for the pigeons. However, there are no pigeons to be found–only a large chicken (actually a person in a chicken costume) who sits down next to the man. They become fast friends as we see the man driving a convertible with the chicken as a front seat passenger–a super notes that this entailed the $47 expenditure at a gas station. Similarly supered expenditures such as that for a bike rental accompany the sight of the twosome peddling in the park; another bill for a restaurant shows the man and his feathered friend enjoying a meal together.
But we all have our calling and the chicken realizes his when he sees a bird soaring overhead. The chicken tries to fly, flapping his wings but to no avail.
The man knows what he must do as that airfare expenditure comes to life. He drives the chicken to the airport and they bid each other a fond farewell. Later the man looks up in the sky as a plane flies overhead. The comical, parting-is-such-sweet-sorrow moment is tagged by the Sovereign logo.
Laurich directed, shot and edited the spec spot out of ContagiousLA. Natalie Sakai of Contagious served as executive producer as well as producer.
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