Dear iSPOT Subscribers,
Getting to know you during the last year and a half has been a great pleasure for us. As you know, iSPOT is published by the editors of SHOOT and sent to you each Wednesday from SHOOTonline.com. While SHOOT already reports on Commercial, Interactive and Branded Content Production, we launched iSPOT as a way to further immerse ourselves in the digital world and learn as much as we could about Broadband Video Advertising.
Now that we have accomplished that goal, after today’s issue we are going to incorporate more broadband video news and great broadband video work into SHOOT and our weekly SHOOT >e.dition and no longer publish iSPOT as a standalone email newsletter.
As traditional ad agencies continue to get more digital and as digital agencies crossover into other elements for campaigns, and as production companies which previously only produced TV spots are producing virals, online advertising, webisodes, and mobile advertising, it will all be covered in SHOOT, which has a readership crossing all segments of the advertising, production & post communities.
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Roberta Griefer, Publisher & Editorial Director
Steve McQueen Shows Wartime London Through A Child’s Eyes In “Blitz”
It was a single photograph that started Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen on the journey to make "Blitz." As a Londoner, the German bombing raids on the city during World War II are never all that far from his mind. Reminders of it are everywhere. But the spark of inspiration came from an image of a small boy on a train platform with a large suitcase. Stories inspired by the evacuation are not rare, but this child was Black. Who was he, McQueen wondered, and what was his story? The film, in theaters Friday and streaming on Apple TV+ on Nov. 22, tells the tale of George, a 9-year-old biracial child in East London whose life with his mother, Rita ( Saoirse Ronan ), and grandfather is upended by the war. Like many children at the time, he's put on a train to the countryside for his safety. But he hops off and starts a long, dangerous journey back to his mom, encountering all sorts of people and situations that paint a revelatory and emotional picture of that moment. SEARCHING FOR GEORGE AND FINDING A STAR When McQueen finished the screenplay, he thought to himself: "Not bad." Then he started to worry: Does George exist? Is there a person out there who can play this role? Through an open casting call they found Elliott Heffernan, a 9-year-old living just outside of London whose only experience was a school play. He was the genie in "Aladdin." "There was a stillness about him, a real silent movie star quality," McQueen said. "You wanted to know what he was thinking, and you leant in. That's a movie star quality: A presence in his absence." Elliott is now 11. When he was cast, he'd not yet heard about the evacuation and imagined that a film set would be made up of "about 100 people." But he soon found his footing, cycling in and out of... Read More