By Robert Goldrich
We open on a close-up of a female mannequin–but we’re not looking through a department store window. Instead we’re in a busy diner. The camera then reveals that the restaurant staff and customers are all mannequins. Burgers are cooking on the grill and are clearly on their way to being burnt in that there’s no one to tend to them but lifeless mannequins.
The camera then reveals a banner headline on the front page of a discarded newspaper: “Mannequinism Linked To Political Activity.” The spot next takes us outside to city streets, with mannequins in various slice-of-life poses. But humanity intervenes, as young people enter the scene, circulating flyers that urge us to prevent mannequinism. A yellow flyer is placed on the windshield of a car, with a mannequin seated in the driver’s seat. Flyers are tucked under the arms or in the pockets of mannequins standing on sidewalks.
As the young humans canvas the streets with the flyers, waving a flag against mannequinism, a voiceover relates, “Protect yourself from mannequinism. Vote, volunteer, stay informed. It’s easy to get involved.” The Web site address www.fightmannequinism.org then appears on screen.
This Ad Council PSA is part of its youth civic engagement campaign in conjunction with the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Created by WestWayne, Atlanta, the campaign encourages 18-to-24-year olds to get or to stay involved in their communities.
“The City” was directed by The Guard Brothers (Tom and Charles) of bicoastal Villains. Richard Goldstein executive produced for Villains. Producer was Matt Caltabiano. The spot was shot in location in Los Angeles by DP Tami Reiker.
The WestWayne team consisted of chief creative officer Scott Sheinberg, executive creative director Steve Baer, art director Joel Davis, copywriter Kevin Botfeld and director of broadcast/producer Connie Newberry.
Editor was Nick Lofting of Union Editorial, Los Angeles. Union’s Todd Iorio was online editor/Flame artist and Josh Eichenbaum was audio post mixer. Colorist was Mike Pethel of Company 3, Santa Monica.
Music composer/arranger was David Wittman of bicoastal Elias Arts, with the shop’s Dean Hovey serving as sound designer. Marit Tinguely executive produced for Elias.Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More