Barely There, maker of Invisible Look and Comfort Curves bras, is highly conscious of the shape of breasts that fit beneath them. Its latest ad, which debuted last week, is “Beware of Funny Shapes,” an animated musical video that addresses the “funny shapes under your clothes,” from quadra boobs to torpedoes, that won’t appear wearing a properly fitting bra.
“The funny names came from real women, so we think this is a video that real women will relate to,” said Amy Elkin, art director at The Martin Agency/Richmond, which created the video that was produced by animation studio Loose Moose/London.
The video features a colorful collage of women exposing their unique breast shapes, adorned with images of the items the breasts are shaped like, from pine cones to blueberry scones. A lilting sound track from Hum Music & Sound Design/Santa Monica, Calif., features a song with Burl Ives-like vocals, “for a Disney kind of feel,” Elkin said.
The song was written by Anne Marie Hite, a Martin copywriter, and sent to Loose Moose with the idea for the video.
Vanessa Morris, a London based illustrator, drew the animation and Ange Palethorpe directed it for Loose Moose. Palethorpe said the illustrations were designed in Adobe Photoshop. Then the images were put into Maya, where two-dimensional puppets were made and later composited in After Effects.
While the original animated images were 2-D, the video includes a series of 3-D sequences, “to achieve a different look and get away from being flat and give it perspective,” Palethorpe said. One scene in which a woman’s torpedo breasts fire away and ignite a tree in a park used 3-D images to show the couple on the ground and the torpedo flying through the air before bursting into flames.
The video is “the first animated film we created for them,” Elkin said. It’s part of a campaign that also includes print and online ads. The video plays at www.barelythere.com, YouTube and a MySpace page Martin created.
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