Bicoastal/international production house Moxie Pictures has signed the collective Superfad for live action representation. Superfad has directed live action and animated projects for Visa, NASCAR, HTC, Nike, Google, PSP, Sprint and Durex condoms.
For the latter, Superfad turned out one of the year’s most popular virals–“Get It On,” which earned distinction at Cannes, the D&AD competition and the AICP Show. Cannes also honored Superfad’s work for the ongoing integrated Sprint campaign out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
Justin Leibow, partner/creative director at Superfad–which maintains its own shops in London, N.Y., L.A. and Seattle–has directed live action heavy projects for the GAP voter campaign and KMART/Protégé, He noted that Moxie–with its extensive production track record in breakthrough projects–would help place Superfad in contention for a wider range of ambitious live action work. “For us,” he related, “it’s about finding the right approach for the project. We love typography as much as live action directing–it is the idea that drives the execution. Moxie gets this.”
Craig Henighan Sounds Off On “Deadpool & Wolverine”
Hollywood lore has it that character actor Edmund Gwenn--while on his deathbed--quipped, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”
The second part of that darkly witty utterance remains all too true today as Craig Henighan--a Best Achievement in Sound Mixing Oscar nominee in 2019 for Roma--can attest in that he had to grapple with the sonic of being comic for this year’s box office hit, Deadpool & Wolverine (20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios).
The degree of inherent difficulty was ramped up even further because Deadpool & Wolverine had to seamlessly bring together high action-adventure exploits with moments and dialogue that tickled the funny bone. There’s a mesh of humorous banter--a staple of the franchise--along with major spectacle replete with explosions, fights, an impactful score and off-the-wall musical numbers.
Henighan explained that among the prime challenges for him from a sound perspective was having to make sure every joke landed within the construct of a superhero film. The tendency for a tentpole movie of this variety, he noted, is to gravitate towards big, loud audio spanning music, dialogue and sound effects. But the unique comedic element of Deadpool & Wolverine necessitated that re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor Henighan strike a delicate balance. “You need to get out of the way for the comedy,” he related. The jokes in a superhero film become “a real dance” as Henighan had to establish a rhythm that did justice to both the comedy and the action as the narrative moves back and forth between them--and sometimes the funny and the high energy, high decibel superhero dynamic unfold simultaneously in a scene or sequence. The “sonic fabric” has to... Read More