Director Jeff Low, who’s handled in Canada by production house OPC, has gained U.S. representation by joining the roster of Biscuit Filmworks. The move marks his breaking out as a solo director. Up to this point, Low’s most notable directorial credits–including the recent Skittles “Touch The Rainbow” campaign for BBDO Toronto–have been done in tandem with Chris Woods of the duo Woods+Low. While the two will continue to work together on select projects via OPC, Woods too has branched out and is repped as an individual helmer stateside by The Sweet Shop.
The Skittles campaign enables computer users to play a participatory role in video fare as it unfolds on the Internet–just through the simple placement of a finger on a strategically positioned dot on the computer screen. In one online video, for example, a cat licks your finger. The feline is then succeeded by an offbeat guy in a cat costume who too licks your extended finger. The video opens with an invite for us to “Touch the Rainbow” and ends with a declaration that we have licked the rainbow.
In another video, a well placed finger stops an oncoming getaway car, allowing a winged cop to cage a would-be Skittles bandit. Turns out the cop–who is little more than a head with wings attached, as well as a police cap–knew the culprit years ago when they were fellow summer campers. The video’s parting slogan is an earnest “Reunite the Rainbow.”
Woods & Low’s other credits include campaigns for WWF, BMW Mini, Baskin-Robbins, Brita and Habitat for Humanity. Various pieces of the work have been recognized and honored in the Communication Arts Design and Advertising Annual, The One Show, London International Awards and The Bessies.
Shawn Lacy, managing director of Biscuit, described Low’s work as spanning “both comedic and visual storytelling, and we are happy to be the first to bring his talents to the U.S. market.”
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