Directing duo makes Passion debut with B of A spot for Hill Holliday
Passion, which maintains animation studios in London, Paris and NY, has added Stockholm-based directors againstallodds–a.k.a. Niklas Rissler and Derek Picken–to its roster for U.K. and U.S. content representation. The directorial duo’s debut at Passion is “Gladly Tuesday,” a 1930s-’40s animation style spot for Bank of America out of Hill Holliday, Boston.
The :30 voiced by Will Arnett was made in the style of a vintage Popeye cartoon and stars several of its classic characters including Bluto, Olive Oyl, Popeye himself and J. Wellington Wimpy, who demonstrates the functionality of Bank of America’s mobile banking app by “gladly” paying his hamburger debts via his mobile phone and hence “finally making good on his word”
Rissler and Picken said the biggest challenge was to integrate the phones into the spot as they are so anachronistic in the context. The directors deployed traditional animation techniques and painstaking attention to detail to create the distinctive Popeye style of yesteryear. The job entailed hand drawing each frame and mimicking movement patterns and frame rates from the original cartoons. Helping to achieve the desired effect was taking the work through an ageing process–scratches, desaturation, line bleed.
Simon Quinn, producer at Passion, observed that “againstallodds did some tests for the pitch and you almost couldn’t believe they weren’t from the 1930s. It’s amazing that modern directors were able to recreate that classic style because for most it’s a lost art.”
Picken and Rissler continue to maintain their Stockholm studio, also named againstallodds, which specializes in CG, 2D and stop-motion animation, contemporary illustration and live-action filmmaking for commercials, music videos and digital advertising. Againstallodds’ campaign for Tylenol through MacLaren McCann Toronto in 2005 brought the company worldwide attention. Since then the studio has produced award-winning campaigns for clients including Coke Zero (W+K Amsterdam), which earned three Cannes Silver Lions in 2008, Jet Blue (JWT New York) and AIDES (the PSA “Smutley” honored in the Public Service category of the AICP Show, from agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners San Francisco). Recently againstallodds won the Public Choice Favorite Commercial prize at the British Animation Awards for its WWF spot “We Don’t Farm Like This.”
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More