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.
Supreme Court Seems Likely To Uphold A Law That Could Force TikTok To Shut Down On Jan. 19
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified his main concern: TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to "go dark" on Jan. 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
At the very least, Francisco urged, the justices should enter a temporary pause that would allow TikTok to keep operating. "We might be in a different world again" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, also has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a "political resolution." Francisco served as Trump's solicitor general in his first presidential term.
But it was not clear whether any justices would choose such a course. And only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch labeled arguments advanced by the Biden administration' in defense of the law a... Read More