Karate Kop, the viral video Lucky Brand Jeans is using to promote a holiday in-store sale, is a throwback to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, with the main character a take-off on legendary icons like Shaft.
โItโs a comedic satire of the โ70โs B movie trailer,โ said Scott Cohn, creative director at Night Agency/New York, which created and produced the one minute and twenty-seven second video. โWe donโt consider it to be a direct selling spot. Itโs an entertaining buzz piece to spread the word about the special offer.โ
Itโs actually the second film in a series, the first being a take-off on horror movies from the โ70s like Friday the 13th. โโ70s movies are a fun aesthetic, they come with their own set of cultural references, which are pretty well established and easy to work in and execute,โ Cohn said.
The cultural references exploited in Karate Kop are the slick black cop and laid back white guys whom the cop confronts as they try to take advantage of special deals on hip clothes, which of course arenโt as good as the one they can get on Lucky Brand Jeans. The cop assaults a group of deadbeats before walking away with the cool chick who thinks heโs sexy.
Baron Vaughn, a comedian from New York, plays the karate kop.
Night shot the film in November in New York, โdowntown near our office,โ Cohn said. It was shot with a Panasonic HVX200 camera in DVCproHD, edited in Final Cut Pro with post work in Adobe After Effects. โWe shot it at 60 frames per second at 720p to do some basic speed and scaling effects, and to help us achieve a film look,โ Cohn said. โThe rest of the film degradation was done in After Effects.โ
Shooting a film for the web is different from a TV shoot. โWe focus on the foreground and donโt use too many complicated frames,โ he said.
He also said shooting satires of โ70s films works well on the web. โItโs one of the reasons we chose the B movie theme. We can do it without complicated equipment and production values, so itโs probably the same as when they were shooting the movies in the โ70s,โ he said.
The film plays at www.karatecop.com, a Lucky Brand Jeans site. It will also play at a range of fashion sites Cohn named in a media buy, including fashionista.com, racked.com, thebudgetfashionista.com and catwalkqueen.tv.
Director Ben Steiger Levine Joins Lord Danger For U.S. Spot Representation
Lord Danger, the creative production company thatโs part of the Monstera Group, has added director Ben Steiger Levine to its talent roster for U.S. commercial representation. He joins a Lord Danger directorial lineup which includes Mike Diva, Cache Bunny, MP Curtet, and Parker Seaman.
Steiger Levine shared that he was drawn in part to Lord Danger in that itโs a small, close-knit group of creative pros producing standout work. โTheyโre not a huge fish but rather a stealthy, nimble piranha made of beautiful rainbow colors that can adapt on a dime and devour,โ Steiger Levine said. โAll the directors on the roster have a voice. Lord Danger makes original images. Images with impact. Maintaining voice all while effectively selling products is the killer combination that makes work iconic, and this is Lord Dangerโs priority.โ
Known for his flair for design and visual effects, complemented by his strengths as a storyteller, Steiger Levine burst onto the scene after earning a slot in the 2009 Saatchi and Saatchi New Directorsโ Showcase unveiled at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. He was also named a Young Gun by the Art Directors Club. Prior to joining Lord Danger, Steiger Levine was most recently with production house Greencard.
His reel includes a visually arresting campaign for Jack Links, a campaign for Core Water featuring actress Hailee Steinfeld, work for Nintendo, and the oddly-moving โIntoleranceโ project for Natrel, the Canadian lactose-free dairy product line, which uses a faux documentary to tell the story of a giant of a man who owes his status to drinking Natrel milk. The effect of a towering man in his too-small house was achieved without any CGI, just using in-camera tricks and compositing. Steiger... Read More