Backyard Is Producing Three Films; Karoff Directs Recently Released Rusty Dogs
By Millie Takaki
Sea-Doo, the noted watercrafts company, has done more than just get its feet wet in branded content. Rather the company has immersed itself in a debut series of three short films from agency Cramer-Krasselt, Milwaukee, done in tandem with Venice, Calif.-based Backyard Productions and its sister shops, new media content house Seed and design studio Transistor Studios.
The initial short, Rusty Dogs, has premiered on a Sea-Doo Web site (www.seadoofilms.com)–with traffic being driven to that site by a commercial/trailer. Backyard’s Jeffrey Karoff, who first established himself in corporate films before making a successful transition into commercials, directed Rusty Dogs, with a cast that includes Eric Roberts, Chad Allen, Philip Anthony-Rodriguez and Jaimz Wolvett.
The action/adventure storyline of the nearly seven-and-a-half minute film centers on an international crime in the making on a boat. The villains’ plot, which entails kidnapping and smuggling, is thwarted by a band of reluctant-to-fight, former Navy Seals who operate Rusty’s, a watercraft service shop in the harbor. The battle-experienced ex-Seals are spurred into action by a shop employee, a nonmilitary, wet-behind-the-ears guy who’s gung ho for action. At first they’re reluctant to believe their eager, chomping-at-the-bit colleague that something sinister is taking place on the boat. However, when a Seal spies through binoculars some damsels in distress on board, the “rusty dogs” make their move.
What ensues is a rescue operation replete with good guys on jet-ski Sea-Doos, a high-speed chase, some tongue-in-cheek humor, a savvy diversion, and an ingenious dummy grenade ploy to get the villains to evacuate their boat. The heroes use no military weapons to achieve their mission; instead opting to use tools of the watercraft service shop trade like pliers, wire, and an audio loudspeaker system.
The short is based on a concept by Cramer-Krasselt, expounded upon by Karoff and DP Anghel Decca, who teamed to write the script via Seed. Transistor designed the Sea-Doo films’ Web site.
Karoff described Rusty Dogs as being “a pulpy 1980s style action adventure–Kelly’s Heroes meets MacGyver.” The director noted, “The film is part of the avant-garde of advertising, the ‘branded entertainment’ Web film. It comes into existence because a client has a product to sell–in this case, Sea-Doo watercraft. So it turns out that it’s the counterpart to product placement; it’s ‘story placement,” kind of Italian Job turned on its head. The client, who is sophisticated, knows how jaded the audience is and knows how much they prefer story to being sold to, so neither they, nor the agency, ever pushed for more products or product shots.”
The mindset in approaching the project, continued Karoff, was key. “Our producer, Danielle Schilling-Lovett,” he explained, “did the cult classic House of 1,000 Corpses. We tapped into her indie resources, including Pemrick/Fronk who did Corpses’ casting. Even though this gets produced in an advertising context, we were thinking of this all along in the indie, low budget vein, not the commercial mold.”
Even the Web site poster promoting the short smacks of the indie biz–the catch-line is “Their foxhole is the Pacific Ocean.”
The military wannabe in Rusty Dogs is played by Allen. Roberts portrays Rusty, the ring leader; his compatriots being played by Anthony-Rodriguez and Wolvett. “Eric Roberts is an archetype himself,” observes Karoff. “He just exudes cool, with a smoldering undercurrent. He had such a great career as a young actor, and I think he’s been underused for years. He’s due for a comeback. I hope his career does a John Travolta, without the Scientology.”
As for Allen, Karoff relates that the actor has “never had his more comedic sensibilities mined in film. Not that this is a comedy role, but he plays a bit of a fool, and he handles it with a full range of colors. I think he’s got a lot more range than he’s had an opportunity to express.”
Executive producer Blair Stribley noted that the project came together successfully in part because of the longstanding spotmaking relationship between Backyard and Cramer-Krasselt. The trust factor built up between the two shops over the years enabled them to dovetail successfully even when navigating through uncharted branded entertainment territory for the client. Beyond Rusty Dogs, Backyard is producing Sea-Doo’s second and third films, being directed by Michael Chaves and Tim Abshire, respectively. The Chaves-helmed short is titled Hijacked, and tells the story of a confrontation pitting a regular everyday guy against real-life pirates. The third short is titled Harbour Towne, depicting a day in the life of two families.
The creative contingent from Cramer-Krasselt consisted of executive creative director Mike Bednar, art director Matt Hermann, copywriter Brian Ganther, producer Michael Joyce, account supervisor Joe Fisher and account exec Darci Bandi. Karoff’s support team at Backyard included exec producer Stribley, producer Schilling-Lovett, head of production Peter Steinzeig, supervising producer Joanna Topetzes, and unit production manager Kevin Sharpton.
Editor was Bob Mori of Cake, Los Angeles. Visual effects compositor/CG artist was Cake’s Josh Kirschenbaum. Colorist was Jais Lamaire of Bobine Video, Santa Monica. Audio post mixer was Dave Wagg of Lime Studios, Santa Monica. Original, hard-driving music was composed by The Humble Brothers.
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