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    Fun With Digitized Weaponry

    By SHOOT StaffUpdated:No Comments1411 Views

    By Brian Diedrick

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    Following a quirky derivation of Moore’s Law, video games seem to double in quality and computing power every four years or so. And to the delight of teenagers and fraternity brothers everywhere, these technological leaps and bounds inevitably bring vast improvements in the way the video game player can kill, maim and otherwise disintegrate his cyber-enemies: Decapitation is a consistently improving crowd pleaser. And as for spontaneous combustion: It’s getting better each year!

    TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco seemingly recognized this important trend when it created the :30 "Inflato Glove" for Sony PlayStation. Promoting Sony’s new game "Ratchet and Clank," "Inflato Glove" is one of three spots directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles. Along with the :30s "Morphoray" and "Devestator," "Inflato Glove" delivers a violently humorous, real-life demonstration of video game gadgetry’s killing power in action. The sort of commercial that risks slipping into appalling "jackassery," "Inflato Glove" commendably manages to produce a level of subtlety one feels the Jackass juggernaut would be incapable of.

    Danny McCarthy was the principal actor in this spot. The SAG/AFTRA Commercials Contract Standing Committee has granted a waiver to allow commercials to be available for viewing on SHOOTonline.com. The spots cannot be copied, downloaded or emailed.

    Shoot Online subscribers may read this week’s Top Spot of the Week in full by accessing the Current Issue in the Members Area.

    CLIENT

    Sony Playstation 2/"Ratchet and Clank."

    PRODUCTION CO.

    Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles.

    Noam Murro, director; Nick Infield, DP; Shawn Lacy Tessaro, executive producer, Scott Craig, producer. Shot on location in Los Angeles.

    AGENCY

    TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco.

    Jerry Gentile, creative director; Scott Duchon, copywriter; Lew Willig, art director; Elizabeth Giersbrook, producer; Julie Rousseau, assistant producer.

    EDITORIAL

    Lost Planet, bicoastal.

    Paul Martinez, editor; Stephen Berger, assistant editor Betsy Beale, executive producer.

    POST/VISUAL EFFECTS

    Bobine Video, Santa Monica.

    Jais Thierry Lamaire, colorist.

    Ring of Fire Advanced Media, West Hollywood.

    Paul Geiger, Henry artist/online editor; Steve Edwards and Gary Mortensen, rotoscope artists; John Myers, executive producer/visual effects supervisor.

    AUDIO POST

    RavensWork, Venice, Calif.

    Eric Ryan, mixer.

    Category:Top Spot of the Week



    Stage and Film Actor Tony Roberts Dies At 85

    Friday, February 7, 2025

    Tony Roberts, a versatile, Tony Award-nominated theater performer at home in both plays and musicals and who appeared in several Woody Allen movies — often as Allen's best friend — has died. He was 85.

    Roberts' death was announced to The New York Times by his daughter, Nicole Burley.

    Roberts had a genial stage personality perfect for musical comedy and he originated roles in such diverse Broadway musicals as "How Now, Dow Jones" (1967); "Sugar" (1972), an adaptation of the movie "Some Like It Hot," and "Victor/Victoria" (1995), in which he co-starred with Julie Andrews when she returned to Broadway in the stage version of her popular film. He also was in the campy, roller-disco "Xanadu" in 2007 and "The Royal Family" in 2009.

    "I've never been particularly lucky at card games. I've never hit a jackpot. But I have been extremely lucky in life," he write in his memoir, "Do You Know Me?" "Unlike many of my pals, who didn't know what they wanted to become when they grew up, I knew I wanted to be an actor before I got to high school."

    Roberts also appeared on Broadway in the 1966 Woody Allen comedy "Don't Drink the Water," repeating his role in the film version, and in Allen's "Play It Again, Sam" (1969), for which he also made the movie.

    Other Allen films in which Roberts appeared were "Annie Hall" (1977), "Stardust Memories" (1980), "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982), "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986) and "Radio Days" (1987).

    "Roberts' confident onscreen presence — not to mention his tall frame, broad shoulders and brown curly mane — was the perfect foil for Allen's various neurotic characters, making them more funny and enjoyable to watch," The Jewish Daily Forward wrote in 2016.

    In Eric Lax's book "Woody... Read More

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