Design studio Elastic, based in Santa Monica, and U.K. animation studio Feed Me Light have entered into a reciprocal partnership, allowing both companies to broaden their reach across advertising and entertainment projects. Elastic and Feed Me Light’s first official collaboration is the just-released teaser for Valorant, one of the first games Riot Games’ made outside of League of Legends. “The script came in and we felt like it was the perfect opportunity for Feed Me Light to stretch their wings,” said Andy Hall, creative director at Elastic. “We knew that they had the latitude to explore it. The creative brief was very open and they really ran with it and owned it.”
As the industry continues to reshape itself with a truly global conversation, opportunities and expansion are contingent upon establishing relationships in foreign markets, and Elastic’s partnership with Feed Me Light allows each company to do just that. It is a mutually beneficial creative union, as each studio is now advantaged with an award-winning network of animators, graphic artists, and industry relationships on both sides of the Atlantic. “It’s like jigsaw pieces fitting together,” said Hall. “We each stand on our own merit but complement one another.” Denis Bodart, founder/executive creative director of London-based Feed Me Light, reiterated that the creative partnership has “always felt like a very fair and easy relationship.”
As is the case with many relationships these days, it started over DMs. Hall first reached out on Instagram to Bodart. Hall had been a long-time fan of the U.K. studio’s work, but he also saw a potential in the studios’ creative and operational like-mindedness.
“They speak the same narrative language as Elastic,” Hall explained. “We are each rooted in animation. Stylistically, we each have a broad brush and a variety of aesthetics. Their voice is very similar to ours in terms of how they present their work, how they speak about their work, and how they talk to clients.” Both studios originated as family businesses, seeking to provide opportunities for artists to grow beyond their predetermined roles.
Bodart shared the same sentiments about Elastic. He had long admired the visual range and high quality of their work, and after connecting with Hall, Bodart felt a kinship between their companies, recognizing the same artistic passion, family feel, and emphasis on producing exceptional creative. “It was an amazing opportunity for us to get to pitch on Valorant, and then to win it with Elastic,” he added. “Working together was a really easy process with great communication.”
The studios are already in production on a soon-to-be-released second collaboration, and Hall anticipates both Elastic and Feed Me Light evolving their skill sets and growing their portfolios across all creative mediums–whether its commercials, TV, game teasers, title sequences, or long-form material–and tapping into the vast pool of talented animators around the world. As Hall said, “as long as you can make the relationship and the conversations with the clients work, I believe it behooves you to look far and wide.”
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